Thanks to everyone who reviewed!

And nope, I haven't forgotten anyone. ^^ All the characters are not introduced yet, but they will be eventually. XD

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IV. In which Mai has skipped .VI

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Heavy footsteps thudded on the staircase, and a disoriented and soporific yet vigilant Bou-san, in a white nightcap and long-sleeved sleeping gown, came into view.

"What, what?! Are we under attack, Shibuya?!" he exclaimed inquisitively to the young man sitting on the floor (as though he was thrown back there) near Mai's turf.

"KYAAA! Bou-san!"

The monk whipped his head to a seemingly nude maiden under a blanket and on supposedly Mai's bed...

"Stop looking, you perverts!" the lass shrieked again, and Naru immediately flicked his hand to shut the curtains as she lashed on them. Subsequently, John stirred with a yawn.

"What happened...?" the demon queried sluggishly.

The two men stared at him before Bou-san started to Naru, "Young man, where's Mai?! And who's that girl, and what were you doing with her?! I can't believe you're taking advantage of someone in your ca━!"

"He was not!" Mai defended, beet red, behind her shade.

"I didn't bring her here." Naru frowned at him. "I was checking on the girl myself, but it wasn't her I found. I should be the one asking you."

There was a snort from behind the draperies, and undaunted, the monk arched an eyebrow. "You shouldn't make excus━"

"Do you mean to say Mai's gone?" John interrupted. The head-ish fire hovered the grate with worry laced in its babyish features.

"I'm still here!" Mai hollered.

"No, John, there's a la━" Bou-san's eyes widened, and the wizard was not slow in realizing along with him.

"Did you give the girl anything from the jars or drawers?" the enchanter quizzed, straightening up.

"I didn't, but I made her watch the store yesterday..." the monk mused. "You think it's a growth charm?"

The enchanter shrugged but soon nodded to allay the grown-up. "Perhaps."

"Well, I know for sure that your girls never call me by my nickname, nor do they even know it...Mai!"

There was a gasp and then, "Bo-Bou-san...?"

Bou-san motioned towards the young woman, but Naru stalled him with a shake of his head.

"Mai! What happened?" the monk went on in concern.

"I-I don't know!"

"What happened to Mai-san, Shibuya-san?" John, still out of it, questioned, and the enchanter soughed.

"She grew."

"Ehhh?"

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Mai was given one of the enchanter's silk shirts, old breeches, and small unworn boots, and Naru and Bou-san uneasily waited in the drawing room as she dressed.

"You didn't even give her any underwear," Bou-san pointed out to the lad, and the latter glowered at him.

"I'm an enchanter, not a fairy godfather," he replied crossly.

"Father, you mean," Bou-san corrected━which earned him a withering look from the lad. "You know━"

"I have undergarments!" Mai yipped in abashment behind the veils with a blush.

The duo went mute, but they wondered what dress she could have sacrificed to make a traditional loincloth...

"I'm done," Mai announced after a few more minutes, and the curtains slid open. She then came out warily.

Although she'd anticipated to return to her original form, she only brought a few of her real-time unmentionables. Still, it was comforting that she didn't have to stress about that...

The enchanter and monk scanned her for a moment before Naru averted his eyes with a nod of approval (which he attributed to his own taste of clothing rather than Mai's sense of style in wearing his apparel━she tucked the shirt in just so it puffs on her waistline), and Bou-san hurtled to her.

"Are you alright? Do you feel like vomiting? Do you remember eating something from the jars or drawers?"

"Um...no..." She shrugged and briefly glanced at the narcissist.

Does he recognize me? He doesn't, right? My hair's short unlike before...

"Don't worry. We'll discover how to undo the spell━" Bou-san assured.

"We can't," Shibuya declared, and the monk yelled, "What?!"

"It can't be undone, but it will wear off by the end of the day," the enchanter informed.

Mai blinked at him but didn't say a word. After all, they didn't know she wasn't in any growth charm.

He should have recognized me...But did he forget my face? It's just a few days ago since I met him...

She had just reverted to her old self, but...

"John, stop the castle ashore of Akuryō lake," the enchanter ordered and disappeared soundlessly.

Bou-san suspired at the deserted spot where the lad had been. "Sheesh that guy..."

"Did he leave already?" Mai catechized. Although he could just teleport wherever, she only saw Shibuya use the front door on his way in and out.

"Not yet," John replied. "He's reading."

"That guy reads even when he's bathing or sitting on the toilet bowl," Bou-san said, and Mai laughed heartily.

"You spied on him that much, Bou-san?" She chuckled.

Somehow still perplexed with her transformation, the monk managed a shy smile. Eventually he scratched his head, and then with an edgy glom to grown Mai, he excused himself and said he'd be changing.

Finally left alone with John, Mai interrogated the blaze in susurration, "Did you do this? Did you break mi-mine?"

John shook his alight head.

"The-then, why?"

"I don't know..." John's eyes brightened. "It must be the Maou!"

"What do you mean?" Mai was skeptical that the Maou would take her curse back so easily.

"She might be getting weak! Or she's just sick right now!"

Mai nictated. "She is?"

"Yes...Shibuya-san had told me her powers were fluctuating..."

"The-then━?"

"Your spell isn't broken yet..." John said sadly.

"Then how━?"

"It's just temporary. Besides, I believe that's not your real age?"

Mai blinked and pondered. Indeed, the last time she saw her naked real-time self, she wasn't so busty...

She gasped. Could it be...I'm older?!

"Jo-John! How━?"

"You can check your age."

A drawer opened, and a quill with quetzal tail feather zoomed to Mai, and she absentmindedly took it.

"What's this?"

"Try to write with it."

Mai reluctantly went to the workbench and got one of the rice papers Bou-san had piled on one side for his spells. And as instructed, she tried to scrawl on the paper.

Her hands moved without her volition, and she became aware that it was the quill which compelled her to trace a fat 2 and 0 on the material.

"This..." Mai gazed at the paper in startlement.

"What did you write?" John asked.

"Twenty."

"You're twenty years old, then━three years ahead of Shibuya-san. How many years older from your real age?"

"Fo━" Mai bit her lip, but John got it.

"You'll most likely return to a child before sunset," he speculated.

"Are you sure about that?" Not to my real-time body?

"Yes."

Mai sighed. "Why can't things just get right?"

"You'll break out of it soon," John assured. "The curse, I mean."

"I haven't even broken yours, John, and it's barely a week. Your stories barely gave me a hint too..."

"About that...A clue is about to come the following days," John leaked.

Mai neared him and asked, "Is that a demon's intuition?"

"Probably. It's something I just know beforehand but couldn't explain how." He furrowed his flaming brows.

Can he see the future?

Mai stared at the ceiling and at the holes that gave an eyeshot of the young morning amber and sapphire sky. The enchanter and monk didn't come down yet, so starving Mai began cooking breakfast. Like a predator smelling prey, an expectant monk-clothed Bou-san descended at last. John magically handed him a plate filled with broiled salmon and sliced pieces of rolled omelet, bowls of rice and miso soup, and a cup of white tea.

Many pans were laid out on the fireplace, and Mai turned to each as though she's having the time of her life.

Quite astonished, the monk queried, "You can cook?"

Mai smiled and nodded. "I'd told you I could."

The monk shrugged and inclined his head and simpered. "You did. Thanks..."

"You're welcome," Mai responded as the monk sat before the cleared up workbench. Next, he kindly waited for her to finish cooking her meal.

"You should cook for Shibuya-san too," John said furtively to Mai's alarm.

"Did he tell you he'll eat here?"

John beamed warmly under the pan. "No, but I know he will."

Shrugging, Mai did what he requested, and without fail, the wizard did come down the stairs to dine with them. Mai felt quite addled by the turn of events, yet Bou-san didn't seem to think of it as peculiar━as though he knew that the lad would partake a repast with them. Trying not to be rude though, Mai bit her lip to discourage prattling by herself; the enchanter was still the one who owned the castle she'd been sojourning, so she ought to be prudent and cautious in voicing out (or she might get hexed again).

"You should visit Hara-san, you know," Bou-san cut through the chewing quiet. "I can't always tell her that you're busy when I frequently exorcise houses in her village."

Hara-san? Mai twinkled at the shrugging enchanter as she sipped her tea. Exchanges with the lad seemed very hard to come by.

"You didn't tell her where we are, did you?" the younger man inquired suspiciously.

"Of course I didn't," Bou-san replied, "but why won't you give her one of the shop's addresses? You seem to like her."

Mai felt quite upset knowing that, but she tried not to let it show. Why should I...become...upset anyway?

"I respect her," the wizard said simply, and Mai felt envy for the unfamiliar lady. By how he uttered his view of this 'Hara-san,' he seemed to acknowledge her...very well.

Mai gazed down at her food. Why am I being like this? He's a playboy! My future will be dim if I get too attached! I'll only be staying for a while here! I shouldn't be too close to all of them!

Mai nodded and consumed her grub. The younger man soon inquired about the shop, but it was out of inspection rather than concern. Mai finished ahead of him and the monk, yet the wizard followed. They placed their plates on the sink━where the dishes immediately became squeaky clean━but shunted their heads from each other. Mai was about to go to her den and the enchanter to the exit when Bou-san rang out, "Wait, you two."

The enchanter raised an eyebrow as he stopped in his tracks, and Mai peered at the monk in wonder herself.

"We just ate all the fish in the pantry," Bou-san proclaimed.

"So?" the enchanter cross-examined.

"We don't have anything fresh in the pantry anymore, so how about you take Mai to the market?" Bou-san supplied. "I still have that reversal spell to try on when I go out to do an exorcism, so..."

That June day, he was going to do some flower magick but with a different plant, having grouped bluish and purplish blossoms, which he'd pointed to them with his head.

The monk regarded them anticipatorily, and Shibuya jounced his head with a side-glance.

"Fine. I can go by myself."

Bou-san frowned as Mai soughed. "There's a summer festival in towns today, and besides, fathers and daughters should have heart-to-heart talks, you know?"

Mai couldn't believe what Bou-san was saying. How could a daughter who's become older than her "father" have a heart-to-heart talk?! What the hell?

Not that she looked older though, and she wasn't taller either. Still Mai expected the unsociable (to them) lad to glare, but he just shrugged and inclined his head to her before going out. Ushered by Bou-san, Mai hadn't defied and followed the young man out.

She was supposed to be against it. She shouldn't get close to him in her almost real-time form. She couldn't make the enchanter know her situation and relation to the Maou. Who knew what curse he'd give to her? Additionally their first encounter wasn't pleasing either, and she hardly knew him to trust him.

The enchanter turned the colored knob (the hand on the lintel's dial pointed from black to green) and swung open the door.

Mai instinctively emitted a gasp. The castle didn't squeeze in a rocky ravine anymore. Instead, it stood on a grassy shore of an ultimately pulchritudinous clear turquoise lake. At the bottom of the lake were apparent criss-crossing fallen ancient tree trunks with underwater foliage covering most of them. Fishes appeared vulnerable with the water's extreme clarity. Broad-leaf forests and woodlands surrounded the shore, and the melody of thousands of birds reflected back and forth the hills and mountains.

Mai's reveling was cut short when pale hands thrust a thistle skipping rope in her right hand━the one she recollected Bou-san had given her.

"Wha-what's━?"

"You'll be skipping," he answered crisply, and Mai nictated.

Is this guy joking with me? He wants me to play a skipping rope while he fools around?

Mai naturally shot katanas at him. "Why should I━?"

"We'll be skipping to Straightening Valley," he explicated.

Bemused, Mai nictated afresh at him.

"How are we going to do that?" she asked blankly and reddened.

She was becoming coy around him. It was the first time they spoke so...casually to each other ever since about three days , she couldn't look at his eyes properly without remembering her sweeter version of him in her reiterative dreams. Mai had honestly liked a lot of boys in her lifetime, but never...never did she become so abashed with a boy like that "Naru" before her.

"With the skipping rope in your hand, of course," he riposted, but Mai's attention was somewhere else.

She bit her lip as her thoughts wreaked havoc in her head's recesses. You're his child, remember? Act like it!

There was a sigh from the enchanter when she didn't seem to hear his reply. "You're hopeless."

That one she heard, and she reflexively shot him a wry look. "You jer━!"

Naru held her right wrist and took the skipping rope from her hand. Subsequently he gently instructed her to grab each handle of the tool and stood behind her before grasping her wrists from behind.

Even when she's become older than him, he was still taller. His proximity produced a rapid pounding of her heart. His sable black pants were tickling the back of her shins, which her breeches naturally couldn't hide. His breath was heating up her nape, where her recently shoulder-length auburn hair had parted, and making her shudder. He was doing it again; he was seizing her senses like he did when they both hovered on a cyclone in an alley a few days ago.

"Wha-Why are you━?"

"Jump with me," he said, and her body tingled.

She couldn't seem to oppose his command, so she was convinced that he was manipulating her like a puppet in his show. It irked her, but at the same time, she...was elated at his touch on her wrists.

How can I pretend he's my father when I'm harboring such...uneasiness? How can I in this feminine form?

As instructed, Mai swayed the skipping rope backwards over the two of them and then forward...

They jumped.

XDXDXDXDXDXDXD~nya~

At first she was upright on the shore of a breathtaking lake, and next she was slipping and yelping on a wet rock at the brink of some waterfalls.

"Don't panic," Naru told her from behind while gripping her hand that was clutching the handles of the skipping rope and simultaneously crossing his arms over her waist so that she wouldn't fall. "Let's skip again."

"But we'll fall!" Mai protested. If she wasn't so concerned about her life, she would have become embarrassed at the intimacy of which he was embracing her.

"We won't."

And with a sleight and swiftness of hands, he briskly uncrossed his arms, lifted her up by her wrists (which made her hover in airspace), and twirled the skipping rope under their feet. There was a ZAP, and everything else was a blur on all sides of them.

Before long they were on a meadow by a brook. ZAP! They're on an ice cap. ZAP! They're on top of a canopy tree. ZAP! They stood under the torii of a well-kept shrine. Mai almost fell down the very long staircase below them if Naru didn't hug her waist and balance her.

"We're here," he informed as he steadied her.

At that instance Mai became cognizant at last of his embrace and coyly muttered, "Yo-You can let go now. Thanks━"

Naru released her briskly and just said, "Let's go."

Without even looking back at her, he descended the staircase, and Mai gaped and shook her head at him. Chucking the skipping rope in a pocket of her breeches—making it bulk—and growling inwardly, she traipsed down the staircase behind him while thinking, Why should I even bother being grateful? He's a jeeeeeeeeeerrrrkk.

On the bottom of the staircase, they found themselves on the end of a road of a rowdy town. As the youngsters sauntered straight ahead, they noted the irregularities of the streets that branched out from the main road they were walking on. Some streets had cobblestone steps; others had asphalt grounds, and most were bare or had slightly grassy earth. The buildings were diverse too. There were thatched huts, traditional Wō structures, and Westernized shops or homes. There were even tepees and shoe-shaped houses!

Almost everybody was making a sound━either knocking, talking, shouting, whistling, tapping, creaking, crying, and so on. So much liveliness was quite infectious, and Mai was soon running around the place. She'd never thought of it before, but if not for her responsibility in her tea shop, she might have enjoyed her sixteen years of life like others. She'd always been bubbly but at appropriate times. On that June day, however, she felt quite sprightful. She had nothing else in mind except amusing herself like a liberated wild animal.

Men in white and blue kimonos thumped on big drums. Others carried around mikoshi and other palanquins. She spotted town mages, with their crimson capes and phoenix-crested headbands, here and there. Children in colorful kimonos chased one another. In their hands were either pinwheels, apple candies, umbrellas, or masks. Some little boys gathered around to watch their spinning wooden tops. Other children flew their distinct kites, which seemingly fluttered with the vertical banners of some stores.

In a square, adults cheered as sumo wrestlers pounded the floor with their large feet. To Mai's embarrassment, she almost collided with jogging men wearing nothing but loincloths. Fried food and soy sauce and honey and other food odors wafted to her nostrils. Though she was full after breakfast, the sights of various dishes were whetting her appetite again.

Maybe it's the festive mood, but after a little roving, Mai found herself holding free snacks. The vendors were generous—giving her samples of their food when she simply passed by. When she passed by people hammering mochi in a stone basin, she was invited to try the sticky food and even help the makers pound and form the cakes.

Mai blew out bubbles, tinkled wind chimes, turned pinwheels, and wore animal masks. She somehow forgot they were there to buy fish in the first place.

There were no fireworks yet, but colorful smokes shot to the air, and jet planes wrote colorful words with their smoking trails. Everywhere she looked brought her beaming like a child who first accomplished something.

The enchanter followed behind Mai like a sullen shadow. Many times he would accost a young woman in some shop, and Mai would hurl him somewhere else with a, "Papa, I want to eat this!" or "Papa, buy me this hairpin!" and "Papa, let's have ourselves painted!" She was playing 'his offspring' role to the best of her ability and for the satisfaction of seeing him failing to woo another lady in front of her.

Jealousy or father complex, she didn't ruminate profoundly about her objectives, but she just somehow wanted to spend that one day with him. After all, what if it would be her last? What if she would be stuck in her twenty-year-old self and would have to part then? As long as she would be a young woman again, she would leave his castle without any other ado. Besides she didn't expect much from her fleeting infatuation with him; she preferred a sweet, kind, and mirthful lad than Naru, and she was convinced that if not for the hope instigated by her gentle images of him in her sleep, she wouldn't feel anything for him at all. He was, truthfully, as bland as a dead slug. At least she wouldn't want a man who loves himself more than his lover; the conflict would just be frustrating.

Anyway just as Mai was interrupting his "lass-roping," as Bou-san termed it, so was Naru shooing the guys she would come to mingle with (to her obliviousness). It was probably retribution to her interceptions that the enchanter would glare and freeze up the young men she comes in contact with. Such was a long battle against the two, and it carried on even after lunch. No matter how meddlesome she was in his business though, the enchanter never left her alone, and she felt secured with his...stalking—if that even made sense.

"Hey, Papa." Mai tugged his sleeve playfully after taking a box of mixed seafood tempura, which she made him pay. (Oddly, the enchanter never complained about her address of him.) "Why did you become an enchanter?"

He gazed at her and seemed to have no intention of replying. Then he diverted his gaze to a clothing store while saying, "Because it's not bothersome."

Mid-chewing, Mai blinked and swallowed. Offering him some tempura—which he declined—and shrugging, she rephrased, "You mean it's interesting?"

"Perhaps." He began approaching the store he was eying previously, and Mai followed him.

"Pick what you want," he said. He was clearly shooing her so that he could hit on a rather good-looking saleslady by the counter (Mai discovered that it was the lady he was staring at and not the goods themselves). Although she wanted to discourage his conquest, she descried a honeydew dress and somehow wanted to try it.

He's paying anyway. She smirked and handed her tempura to the wizard before snatching the raiment and heading to the fitting stall. It only took a few minutes to undress and don. She felt the ensemble lacking though, so she also grabbed some cerulean huaraches. Loving how she appeared glowing on the mirror, she strode out the stall and decided to ask the enchanter if she could have the two body articles.

Yet the lad was veeery busy flirting; he didn't look like it, but Mai surmised he was using a cold-but-mysterious-expression wooing technique. His mouth was quirked in a smile, but his eyes weren't smiling; the saleslady was tricked by this and was even coquettishly eating the tempura Mai had made Naru buy. Then again, Mai could tell what was flirting even if the person was someone aloof.

So, feeling mischievous, she hopped to him while calling, "Papa, Papa! I want this!"

She pointed to the dress she was wearing, and it was to her secret satisfaction to see the saleslady's orbs bulge as though they were going to pop out any minute.

"Papa?" she repeated in shock with a glom at Naru, who was glaring at Mai. "She's—?"

"I'm his daughter!" Mai declared before the enchanter could say anything.

"Daughter?" the saleslady's tone increased with her bewilderment. "How could a young man have a young woman for a daughter?"

Mai smiled and covered Naru's mouth before he could defend himself.

"Well, Papa's actually very old~ He's just using magic to hide his real wrinkled self!"

From now on, you'll look like an extremely wrinkled old man to all girls you're hitting on! Mai thought wickedly as she sneered at the wizard.

The saleslady blinked at Mai, stared at the narcissist again, and gasped. She looked as though she saw something horrible and foolishly believed Mai because she glowered at the enchanter. "Yo-you disgusting old man!"

She threw a shirt his way, snubbed him, and walked away.

The enchanter was apparently miffed by this, but he just looked at Mai icily.

The girl just shrugged. Inwardly, she was thinking, Serves you right, womanizer.

With a sigh, the enchanter paid for her attire. (It was supposed to have a 20% discount, but the saleslady-turned-cashier didn't include it).

XDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXD~nya~

Straightening Valley was divided by a clear teal river. As Mai followed Naru on the bridge over the sparkling body of water, her conscience took over, and she realized that she shouldn't have minded his own business...

I overdid it...I think.

After all, the one she's supposedly seeking revenge towards the most was the Maou.

"I'm sorry if I did that," Mai appeased as she ran after him while carrying the box filled with the clothes and boots she'd borrowed from him. (She didn't redress.)

"I just didn't want you to hurt another girl..." she murmured...but she somehow felt that she was lying...

Naru didn't look back at her and just walked on. Sighing at his silent treatment, Mai just let him lead her wherever he wanted.

The other end of the main road consisted mostly of towering and lucent houses (seemingly home to the affluent) on the bottom of a mountain. On that part of town, they halted before a selcouth abode. It was shaped like a big red and white polka-dotted mushroom, and its thick stalk looked like it really sprouted from the ground. Hanging by the side of the door was a bell with a string stretching towards and in a tiny loop on the mailbox by the bamboo gate.

Curiously, Mai inquired, "Whose house is it?"

Finally Naru spun and replied to her in a mind-your-own-business tone, "The woman I'm smitten of. A woman named Madoka Mori."

Mai felt as if her tongue was cut off.

XDXDXDXDXD~nya~

Madoka Mori.

Madoka.

Mori.

Mai blinked her chocolate brown eyes.

Did...I hear him right?

"Who-who did you say again?" Mai stammered.

"Madoka Mori," Naru repeated, and she gasped and goggled at him.

My sister! He's in love with my sister? No! He's probably going to eat her heart!

There went her thoughts.

Naru raised an eyebrow at her and then pulled the string of the bell. Instead of tinkling, the bell produced a loud gong-like sound, which throbbed Mai's head...

"Who's there?" the real Madoka's voice rang out from inside the house, and the front door opened slowly...

The next instance...Mai couldn't explain why it occurred. Just that one of her hands was free while the other hooked the borrowed clothes and shoes on her left side.

So within milliseconds she swiveled Naru's head to her with her free hand...

And kissed him on tiptoe.

XDXDXDXDXD~nya~

Like a bee full will nectar...

That was how Mai felt.

Her mind was prancing and galloping over hurdles. Her heart was pounding like a fast drumbeat. It was maddening, but she didn't hate the sensation.

It was like electricity shot up through her veins and made her heart do some tap dance. It didn't sting, but it was like the world was animated for the first time...

But she wasn't looking at anything at all. She was closing her eyes...

Lips locking, parting, and moving, Mai was so intoxicated with the taste of the enchanter's━

WHAT?!

Her eyes flew open, and she was eye-to-eye with...

She glanced down, and what she saw terrified her.

OH MY GO━!

Mai pulled away with a sound that was like a mix of gasping and choking, and her hand covered her mouth. Buzzing sounds were in her head, and she couldn't hear anything else.

What did I do, what did I do, what did I just do?! She was screaming in her mind, but she was utterly thunderstruck. What's with this development I've incurred?!

Paralyzed, the narcissist stared at her with an incomprehensible face, and Mai, turning deep scarlet, exclaimed, "So-sorry!"

And she sprinted away as fast as she could until towards the shrine where they landed.

XDXDXDXDXDXDXD~nya~

The stair-trip to the shrine was very taxing that Mai forgot what she was running from for a moment and ascended with heavy pants as though her life depended on it. Sometimes, random challenges like that could be really distracting, and thankfully that was Mai needed.

Mai almost collapsed under the torii, but she managed to stop herself and blow her sticking bangs off her sweating face. Wiping her sweat with the borrowed clothes, she decided to look for a place she can retire for a while.

Finally! She huffed.

The shrine was decrepit. The offering box was full of dust. The tiles on its roofs had fallen off, and there were holes in it just like its walls. The floorboards on the porch were sticking out on ends due to loosened nails, and some had decayed enough. The shoji doors had its paper torn and frames broken. The lion-like stone statues had its body parts chipped off. The small pool for washing hands was murky, and dead leaves were everywhere on the ground.

It was no wonder why festivals aren't held there anymore; the people in town had started to stop believing in any god. The new shrine they'd built did not house fox statues but real people, the town mages. Knowing this, Mai felt sad for the abandoned god, so she willed to join it in its sorrow by proceeding to the back.

Slumping (as carefully as she could—or else she'll make another hole) on the back porch and recalling her last deed, Mai sighed. "Kami-sama, I did something bad..."

Blushing, she raked her hands through her hair. Although her mind was convinced that it was a wrongdoing, a part of her was arguing against the accusation. It was unavoidable, for she was a young maiden at heart and had been dreaming of the wizard... A novice in romance, to have a sudden development with a young man was...heart-stopping...!

She shook her head.

No!

She knew. It was wrong. She was wrong. And the thought of her, supposedly a child-become-woman to the enchanter, doing advances to—

Mai scrunched her eyes shut and covered her ears as though she can stop herself from listening to her conscience.

"What should I do, Kami-sama? How can I go back to the castle and face him?!"

Nobody answered except a swift cool breeze. The shrine was surrounded by tall old oak trees and some persimmon and peach trees. Their leaves swayed and rustled, and Mai closed her eyes.

In that quiet and unknown place, she felt unafraid.

Still, she couldn't conjure an answer to her own query.

She clenched her fists on her lap and pounded on it. Then, realization struck, and she mused, I don't have to go back. I can just stay here...anywhere.

Besides, it's only a few days that I'm staying there...Leaving isn't really hard, right?

Mai pumped her fist. "That's right!"

She remembered the skipping rope and rummaged the breeches for it...but she couldn't find it.

Did he take it? When━

Gone was her quick escaping tool.

She knew it was just her trying to escape confrontation. She knew it was just her way of avoiding embarrassment, but it didn't matter.

So what?

It's not like getting out of this curse can only be by that enchanter's side! There are mages everywhere! Besides, there's that Emperor's coven, right? Those people in it are probably as strong (or stronger) than the Maou!

"Maybe, if I'm lucky, I'd get an appointment with one of them or something, right, Kami-sama?"

As expected, nobody answered in that decrepit building. Only the rustle of blades of grass and the croaking of crickets could be heard.

Mai was used to silence. Her sisters had left her alone just after she'd graduated middle school, and for a year, Mai was left with no one to talk to at home but herself. It was her solitary life that made soliloquy her habit. Although she knew it was insane of her to speak to inanimate objects, she persisted, for even if she was accustomed to silence, she didn't want to be silent. She needed to open her mouth in order to breathe her hate, joy, relief, and etcetera. She needed to make noise to comfort herself.

Mai hunched and buried her forehead on her lap.

I'm alone again...Isn't that nice? I could talk to myself and not worry about what others will say...I won't have to worry that my tongue will slip and that I may burst in flames in result. I won't have to worry about what I should do when I see that narcissist...

For reasons unknown to her, a wet bead dripped down on her skirt, and her eyes blurred. Despite all the advantages of the solitary life, deep inside her was a contrary monster awaiting to be unleashed.

"I'm such an idiot, Kami-sama..." she sniffed. "I...Even though I thought it was fine...I'm not...The truth is...I don't really want to be alone."

When she bid her sisters goodbye a year ago, she wanted to stop them from leaving. She wanted them to spoil her with their love and presence. She wanted them to take care of her.

But she couldn't. She didn't want to be cast away as a selfish child. She didn't want to be hated by her sisters because she's obstructing them in pursuing their dreams.

She didn't want to be called a burden...

There came a loud whinny, and Mai winced out from her misery. She swished her head around to trace the origin of the noise. There was movement in the corner of her right eye, and she turned around.

Her mouth hung open as, in the distance, she saw a black horse. It stared at her and neighed. Its black mane was covering its left eye, and when Mai moved towards it, she noticed that it has strong black wings...

Mai gaped at what she discovered.

"You can fly...?" Somehow, nothing should have surprised her anymore.

The world had opened up to her, and Mai now knew its endless possibilities.

As though it could understand her, the horse bobbed its head, and Mai was grinning.

She was not alone.

She wouldn't be forever alone.

She would build a place for herself...a place where she wouldn't be alone.

This is it! I could escape and fly wherever! I'll go back to the tea shop and then I'll meet the Emperor! I'll ask for him to lend me a strong witch or wizard!

Bowing and clapping her hands in a plead, she asked, "Can I ride you? I'm lost, and I want to go home."

The horse shrugged under her touch on its head, but as though in agreement, it sunk down and sat on the earth and pointed its mouth to its back (like a gesture for her to ride on him).

"Thanks!" Mai hopped on its back, and then it stood before she could situate herself properly. Yelping, she held its mane immediately as it flapped open its majestic sable wings.

It started galloping towards the shrine, and before she knew it, they were flying over the dilapidated structure, over the torii, and over the town. The horse circled and whipped around towards Market Nippon.

XDXDXDXDXDXDXDXD~nya~

"Wait, what are you doing?! NO!" Mai shouted as the flying horse neared what she now recognized as Naru's white moving castle, which still sat on the shore of a beautiful turquoise lake. "That isn't my home! WAI━!"

The horse disobeyed her commands, and it swooped to one of the flues. With a swift turnaround, Mai was swept in the air and then was falling and sliding down a flue while screaming incoherent sounds.

And she plopped on the familiar ivory sofa and bounced off to the floor.

"Ow..."

Mai squinted her eyes in slight pain.

That freaking horse! Why did it take me back here?! Some magickal conspiracy!

Mai quietly cursed everything, the world, that seemed to conspire against her.

What am I supposed to do?

She sat up and rubbed her aching limbs. She was back in the white living-dining-kitchen room.

She was back...and still clueless.

How can I face him?!

Mai stood and schlepped to the door. The pointer was on the black hue, so Mai turned the colored knob to change the portal.

I must escape!

But then the knob wouldn't budge.

Mai blinked and twisted the knob again, yet nothing happened at all. She kept on trying to change the color where the pointer is on the lintel's dial, but nothing worked.

Why? Why is everything stopping me from escaping?

Glancing at John, who was sleeping (to her astonishment), Mai thought of another plan.

XDXDXDXDXDXD~nya~

"You have to do it, John. It's the only way."

John shook his head. "But it said you'll die if I'll expel it from you! I can't possibly let you━"

The blurry figure of a woman shook her head and held his hands. "Please. We both know there's no other choice."

"There's always a choice! I'll save you! I just need more ti━"

"John! John!" Mai's voice intercepted, and the demon was awoken from his afternoon nap by a pale Mai poking the grate with fire chopsticks.

Her eyes lighting up with relief, she began, "Jo-John! What should I do?!"

Still sleepy and disoriented, the fiend winced and scintillated. "Mai-san...? Wha-what do you━?"

Very appalled, Mai raked her hands through her hair. "I kissed him! The wizard! I mean, the enchanter or aaaaaahhh! Whatever he's called!"

John blinked and blushed as though he was the one who osculated the enchanter instead."Tha-that━why━?"

He felt helpless at that instance as he was all alone, and matters of the heart were never his expertise. The monk had already departed to his mission...

"I learned that he's been enticing my sister, and I just━just wanted my sister to dump him when she sees me and him! I couldn't let him eat my sister's heart!"

"Ahh...Shibuya-san doesn't eat hearts, Mai. It's just a rumor Takigawa-san spread in Market Nippon so that no one would dare approach this castle..."

Mai's eyelids flitted, but she was disturbed. Was she wrong after all? Was he really smitten with her sister? And her sister with him?

She was then aghast.

"Oh Kami forbid, what if I'd hurt her?! No! More than that, what should I do? Wha-what if that narcissist turns me into a frog when he comes back?! John, is there a spell you can cast on him to help me? Please, I beg of you!" she uttered in panic.

She soon prostrated in front of the fire, and John humbly said, "Rise, Mai-san! I'm sorry, but I can't help you. I don't know any spells that can get past Shibuya-san. He's the strongest and subtlest sorcerer there is."

"Then what should I do? Isn't there anything I can try at all?" she asked hopefully and desperately.

"It's true that there's something you can try, but..." John hesitated.

"What is it? Do tell me, John," Mai pleaded, and John sighed.

"Okay. But there's no guarantee it'll work, Mai-san."

Mai sighed and nodded and slightly smiled. "Well...there's no harm in trying, right?"

John shrugged and good-heartedly divulged to Mai his concocted plan, and the conflicted girl was bobbing her head in deep focus.

He was her last magickal hope.

XDXDXDXDXDXD~nya~

The narcissist, Kazuya Shibuya, froze and stared into space as a film rolled in his mind. In his sight, his look-alike smiled at him, and he was his 15-year-old self again.

"Gene, do you really have to go?" a girl's voice sounded, and it took him a second to realize it was him speaking...

The enchanter right away presumed the voice was from the perspective he was seeing. Meanwhile, Gene, his twin, stopped smiling and nodded while looking away. "I must. I have to defeat the Maou, Mai. It's the only way I can protect you."

"But━!" Again, his (or her) mouth moved.

Gene put a finger to the girl's lips. "It'll be alright."

He cracked a radiant smile, and Shibuya, or Naru, felt his certainty too.

The memory vanished swiftly, and the narcissist blinked.

Gene...and that little girl? he mulled.

It was then that he became cognizant that he'd been wrong all along. After inveigling many young women, he finally discovered the person Gene had told him to protect before the former evanesced from the world.

She was right under his nose all along...and he hadn't even paid enough attention from the first time she saw her the day before yesterday...

It wasn't Madoka, after all? he pondered. The revelation was very puzzling...but it made sense. For even after a few weeks since he'd visited Madoka, he didn't find any other memory of hers that included his brother...

But why...was his brother smitten with an enchanted six or seven-year-old girl?

Naru fished out his golden-framed mirror and glowered at it.

You lady killer, he thought, frowning at the mirror before him. Of all the girls, why a hexed child?

His mind could not seem to understand his twin's quirks at all.

But could there be something to the little girl that more than meets the eye?

Something...magickal before the magick that entraps her recently?

Was such a thing like love attributed to magick in his brother's situation?

He shrugged.

She did seem more...mature than her age...and when she became older that day...she...seemed natural...but acted like someone younger than her current age...

Younger...? Enchanted...?

"Um...?" a voice registered through his ears, and Naru whirled to a redheaded woman behind the bamboo gate.

"Madoka," he greeted with an inclination of his head, and the woman gazed at him in surprise.

"I'm sorry, but...how did you know my name, ojii-san?" she asked earnestly.

His consciousness elsewhere and seemingly deadpan, the enchanter peered at her for a long while.

Younger...than Madoka?

At that moment, an image of a girl brandishing a broomstick invaded his mind. Then he blinked in realization, and it was as though he just pulled a rabbit out of a hat.

XDXDXDXDXD~nya~

"He's coming!" John announced.

There was a plonk behind the draperies.

"Gah!"

"What's wrong?" John hollered in panic.

"I've reverted again!"

Mai gazed somewhat sadly at the dress and sandals she'd picked and forced Naru to buy. It would be a long time that she'd get to wear them again...

Succussing her head, Mai hurriedly donned her child clothes in the curtain-enclosed space under the stairs. Then she hurried to pour a tea in a cup before the door opened and in came the narcissist. John then entertained him with a prattle of the day's business and earnings and news of Maou's whereabouts, but the lad wasn't totally paying attention to the flames. The enchanter narrowed his eyes at Mai as she served him, and the girl could feel heat creep up her cheeks as she recalled what she did to him.

He had a pail filled with dead fishes nestled near his feet, and Mai wondered if he magically got them. She was about to ask, but...

Wah! Don't look at me like that! she screamed inwardly. Even inside a child's body, her maiden's heart was quite beguiled. His eyes didn't leave her face even when he took the cup and lifted it to his mouth...

Mai gulped as she waited. Please, please, please work!

At one sip of the tea, however, the young man averted his eyes and looked quite perplexed.

"What kind of tea is this?"

"Ah um...it's some herbal tea..." Mai lied.

He shrugged and just continued to sip━without looking at her anymore.

She and John glanced at each other before Mai held herself and began, "Um...Papa...about a while ago..."

As though clueless, he raised an eyebrow. "A while ago?"

He was clearly testing her. Teasing perhaps?

Mai couldn't help but blush and cross her fingers behind her. "Well, you know...when we went in a town..."

The enchanter narrowed his eyes. "I haven't gone anywhere yet today."

Mai gasped, and the enchanter raised his brow higher.

"What is it?"

"Nothing!" she squeaked before turning her back to him and facing John.

Unfortunately for the enchanter, if Mai didn't obscure John's figure, he would have seen the thumbs-up exchange of the aforementioned two and might have suspected something.

But, just as said, he was unfortunate not to see.

By and by, Mai approached John and wrote something on a snatched rice paper from nearby and showed it to him.

She had written: He'll forget forever what happened today, right?

John nodded and, unseen to the wizard, formed sparks into words in the air as a reply: Yes, that's what I saw Takigawa's spell can do.

Mai wrote again: Thanks to you two! If not for those forget-me-not flowers, I would be shamed all my life!

John scribbled in the air again. Forget-me flowers, you mean, he corrected with a smile.

Mai returned the gesture as she threw the paper to him, and it incinerated on his forehead.

"I'll be washing, Papa," she said to Naru, who jounced his head nonchalantly.

So allayed, Mai hopped away to her place under the stairs to get her essentials for a relaxing bath.

XDXDXDXDXD~nya~

Unbeknownst to the lady-turned-child-turned-lady-turned-child-again, a corner of the enchanter's sly mouth had lifted as, on the table, he put down his ornate tea cup...

Which he'd actually, magically emptied before it even touched his lips.

XDXDXD~nya~

A/N: Who doth want to forget [a] Mai[den]'s kiss, eh, Naru? ^^

Naru's daddy training continues next chapter!

Terms;

akuryō=evil spirit

torii=a gate, usually an entrance to shrines

shoji=usually a door made with paper

mikoshi=a palanquin for gods

kami=god

ojii-san=grandfather

P.S. I haven't edited this yet, but I will later! ^^