It was me. No darkness. No outside influence, just me. A smile forming on my lips.

  The mirror’s power made sense. It wasn’t going to trap her, but would let me see who I truly was. No outside influence. Turning my unhindered attention to the queen, I said, “It’s time you leave this world.”

  “I’m here to stay,” she growled. “You can’t do a damn thing about it.”

  “Wrong.”

  Now that her influence was gone, I was able to reach out to Suiko and Basty, and the others. I told them it was time—if they had the STP items to cut off her connection, they had to do it now.

  Using my enhanced spiritual connection, it was like I was there with them, seeing through Suiko’s eyes as I’d done before in the monster world. Ahlaksiz had destroyed the platform, and now she was there, kneeling outside the mansion, and at a signal from Suiko, placed a small compass-looking object on the ground. She moved back, letting Milrae step forward and summon the sword to bring it down on the item.

  CRAACK!

  It was gone, and I was back in that room, watching the queen vanish.

  “You haven’t seen the last of me,” she said. “Somehow, we’ll find a way. No matter how many years may pass… Earth shall be ours.”

  Then she disappeared, and I knew it was over.

  Lizzy sat up with a gasp, staring at me. Then she collapsed back onto the bed as shadows moved around her, mending her body again. While the queen was gone, another presence was there with us—Akame.

  She looked like a sister of Shadow, perhaps. With white hands and a body of darkness, her hair was similar but pink, and instead of the right solo eye, she had one on the left that glowed bright yellow.

  Silence.

  Greg’s voice said, cutting through the quiet, “Hey! We’re in the security room. One of the new STP devices we took from their ship when they tried to invade. It kept the powers from reaching us.”

  “You’re safe now,” I called out, using Shadow enhancement for my voice, so it carried through the mansion and without. “She’s gone. Forever… I think. At least for now.”

  A portal appeared, Jericho entering. Something shook the building and a second later, the balcony door opened, Ebrill the gargoyle looking in.

  “We missed all the fun action?” Ebrill asked.

  I chuckled, letting out the stress. “Sorry to say so, but yes.”

  “So it’s over?” Jericho asked, eyeing the two figures—Lizzy and Akame.

  Randi slithered in, and behind her came Greg and Yuki, carrying their baby.

  “It seems so,” Yuki said, the baby asleep in her arms.

  “We’re going to need much stronger wards,” Jericho said, and winked my way before going about working his magic.

  Ebrill stepped up to Akame. “You’re the one causing all this trouble?”

  Akame turned to me, then went to both knees and bowed. “I’m sorry. My body was split, so I wasn’t myself.” As she lifted her head, Shadow appeared next to her, and the two women merged, so now there was one pink and one yellow eye staring up at me. “We won’t have that problem anymore, thanks to you.”

  I nodded, unsure I understood but accepting it, nonetheless. Holding out a hand to help her up, I said, “Welcome back.”

  She accepted, standing and grinning. “Having both memories is… interesting.”

  “The world isn’t all black and white. Nor is it pink and yellow.”

  She frowned, but when I held up the mirror piece to show, she laughed. “Ah, my eyes. Corny joke.”

  I shrugged, turning to the others and feeling my connection to Suiko to ensure everyone had heard the message that we weren’t in danger. When done, I sat next to Lizzy, caressing her cheek.

  Her eyes opened, and she said, “We won?”

  “We did,” I replied, smiling at the sound of the others entering below, running up the stairs and calling out for us.

  “I’ll let them know that you need rest,” Yuki said.

  “No,” I replied, standing. “If anything, the opposite. It’s over and we’re all safe. We need to celebrate.”

  24

  After dressing and getting everything set up, we all gathered into the reception area of the third mansion on the left. It was one we didn’t go into much, but considering that ours needed work again, and the fact that Lizzy was a bit put off by the idea of spending more time in there at the moment, this one made sense. Plus, as far as grandiose reception areas went, this one took the cake.

  Ahlaksiz had me dressed up in a nice suit. Suits weren’t normally my thing, but she must have guessed that, and went a little overboard on thinking outside the box, because she had me set up a nice Zoot suit style. Corny, but fun. And if there was anything I wanted people to think of the new me, it was fun. Badass and fun.

  We had music playing, drinks galore, bags of chips with salsa and guacamole, and I was loving it. Fighting for now, at least, was over, and we had new monsters to welcome.

  “I have to say, all this feels like the good old days,” Randi said as she slithered past me. While this was a monster party, so nudity was expected, we had Jericho and his team to think about. So the compromise was that the monsters would wear at least jewelry or enough clothing to cover the main parts. In her case, she wore a golden necklace with bits that hung down to cover her nipples. Plenty of underboob was still visible, and it was a good look on her.

  “Thanks for your help back there,” I said with a nod of appreciation. “How did you know that mirror piece would do it?”

  “Honestly having the whole mirror would’ve been more efficient,” she replied. “But the enhancement effects in place must’ve done the trick. That mirror and other magical items are extremely valuable when dealing with monsters and the like. I hope we can get back many of the others that were taken from me when so many monsters left, before when Lizzy had been taken over by darkness.”

  Glancing around, I asked, “And these monsters here? Are any of them among the group that left and took your stuff?”

  “It doesn’t appear to be so, though I’ve been checking. Some of those back at the fight were, but later disappeared or were killed. I’m sure there are still some out there who would know what happened to my stuff.”

  I nodded, and said, “If there’s anything I can do, you know I will help.”

  “Actually, that’s what I came over to talk about. Not you helping me, but me helping you. All this visual novel stuff, Hollywood… I’m going to make sure it works out. You have my full devotion.”

  “Now you’re talking my language.”

  She nodded at Fiare and Akame, who were approaching, then slithered away. Fiare wore the loosely hanging cloth she’d had on before, while Akame was fine with her shadow covering her like a heavy veil of darkness.

  “Now that our shadowy friend here has regained her form, I’m finding I quite like her,” Fiare said with a hint of flirtation in her voice. “Maybe we’ll get her to join the next time we have a little fun.”

  My eyes darted over to Akame, and she must have guessed what I was wondering, because she said, “Yes, all times are fresh in my mind. Both as the mask, and as the other thing. Still, I look forward to doing it as me. The real me.”

  I gulped, glad for the extra material in the suit that helped hide the bulge forming below. With a quick nod, I said, “Me, too,” and grinned with relief as Arturo joined us. I was happy for the distraction. As much as I looked forward to the time these two ladies were referring to, talking about it openly always made me uncomfortable.

  “This party is off the hook,” Arturo said. He gestured to the six-armed lady, who had four of her arms around four other monster women. “You don’t mind if I excuse myself for a little bit?”

  “Arturo, buddy… I think we both know it’s not going to be a little bit, and that is perfectly fine.”

  He laughed a boisterous laugh, gave me a fist bump, and walked off to join his ladies.

  The other two had wandered off, and I saw them talking to Randi, but Kinara was nearby so I moved over to her. She was leaning against the food table, occasionally taking little nibbles of raw meat. Basty was next to her, doing the same.

  “You two doing okay?” I asked. “Not bored now that we have nobody to fight?”

  “Oh, we always have someone to fight,” Kinara replied.

  “Doing good,” Basty said.

  “Hey, now, adding new vocabulary to your repertoire?”

  Basty rose on his hind legs, transformed so he looked like a little shadow demon, and grinned to show pointy teeth. “I’ve learned a lot with you all. Including much about the human and monster mating rituals. Language isn’t it so hard. I’d say it’s more that I’m too sleepy most of the time to really bother.”

  Kinara and I shared a look of surprise, then she reached over and scratched under his chin. At that, he transformed into a shape that was more like Totoro again, and even purred.

  To my surprise, I noticed the door opening and a familiar face entering. The Protector! His crew followed close behind. They seemed humored, but not put off, by the attire of the monsters.

  “I hear we missed a lot of fun action?” the Protector said, entering the living room and eyeing the drink table.

  “Fun?” I scoffed, standing and grabbing a beer for him. “Here. I wouldn’t say you missed much, but… yeah. It was epic.”

  He laughed. “Tell you what, I’ll try to be there for the next one.”

  “Deal.” We clinked bottles, then each took a swig.

  “Holy shit,” Red said at his side, and we followed her line of sight to see that one of the male monsters had a female monster pinned up against the wall, starting to slide his cock into her.

  “Sorry about that,” I said. “Sort of their way, but I’ll have a talk with them.”

  I took a step to go over and deal with it, when Red put a hand on my arm and said, “Let’s enjoy the show.”

  A glance from the Protector showed me he was okay with it, so I shrugged and let monsters be monsters. Suiko hovered over next to me, along with Devasla in what appeared to be normal clothes.

  “The one time I try to wear clothes, and barely anybody else is.” Devasla did a little spin for me, showing off her jeans and T-shirt that were holey from the smoke and fire. “What do you think?”

  “Very cute. I of course prefer your natural state, but yeah, I like it.”

  “I’m trying out different materials to see if any don’t burn,” she said, then turned to Suiko. “Maybe Suiko here can just give me some ghostly fake clothes that make me not have to worry about it?”

  “That’s not exactly how it works,” Suiko said. She gave a nod to Jericho, who had walked up to talk to the Protector. Then, noticing the Protector had brought with him the queen of fairies, she floated off to have a conversation with the woman.

  Koharu bounded over, and the three of us watched the monsters in action for a moment before turning and heading for the drink table.

  “What’s next for us?” Koharu asked.

  “Randi needs some help obtaining some magical items, so maybe that.” I considered, then shrugged. “And whatever else we want to do? Catch you all up on some movies, maybe?”

  She laughed. “I like the sound of that. Relax, drink some sake. Great.”

  “Have you seen Amabie?” Devasla asked.

  In fact, I hadn’t recently, so I excused myself and strolled outside to check on her, seeing Greg instead by a tree.

  “I’ve been meaning to talk to you,” Greg said, motioning me over to the tree.

  I stood there, eyeing the burial spots beneath, feeling the spiritual energy that came from nature, from my druid connection to it all. When I realized he was waiting for some sort of response, I asked, “Yeah?”

  “It’s my nephew.” He glanced around, nervous. “Thing is, he needs to come stay with us for a bit, if that’s okay.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “I know, it’s fucked. But yeah. Bad situation, I don’t want to get into it, I just need to know if this is going to work, because I kind of need it to.”

  Considering him, I simply nodded. “I trust you. You know what this means, so if you’re saying it’s how it is, then yes, it’s how it is.”

  “Thanks, man. It means a lot.” He went in for a hug, so I gave it to him, then watched him walk off. The thought of some random kid coming to live among a bunch of monsters was something I couldn’t quite process.

  There was no way to keep him from knowing what was going on here, and that was how it would have to be.

  When he was gone, I moved to the water and knelt next to it, dipping in my fingers to see how it felt. I focused them, moving my attention to Amabie as if calling out to her. She surfaced a moment later, pushing herself up through the water and not bothering to cover herself with her scales. What a beauty she was, pale skin glistening in the moonlight.

  “Sounds like quite the festivities in there,” she said.

  “I wanted to check on you, after all the chaos.”

  “Check on me? Is that all?” She beckoned me into the water; I looked out my new suit and bit my lip.

  “Just to check on you. I mean, there’s lots of time for that… right?” I nodded toward the house. “Want to come in?”

  She considered, then shook her head and walked out the rest of the way to meet me. Her fins had turned into legs, and she took one of my hands, placing it on her breast. I wasn’t going to argue with that, so I moved in to kiss her, and she ran her wet hand along my bulge.

  “Actually, I can’t stay.” She kissed me again, then turned back to the water, receding into it until only her head was visible. “A new plague is breaking out in Laos. I’m going to do what I can. It won’t take long but I needed that kiss before I go.”

  “Oh…” I licked my lips in thought, then added, “I can give you more, if you want?”

  She laughed but shook her head. “Gives me something to look forward to when I come back.”

  She vanished into the water, and I turned back to the house and the party, taking a deep breath before making my way back in.

  “There he is,” Fiare said when I entered, and I turned to see her down the hall, wearing one of the Japanese yukata’s we had brought from Japan. It hung open, revealing her breasts and golden pubic hair. Slightly curly, thin enough to allow a nice view of her slit.

  I licked my lips, unable to take my eyes from her. “Is this… I mean, the others?”

  Hands took me by the waist, and I startled, half-turning to see her sister grinning, staring up at me in a little negligee.

  “Don’t worry about them,” Jalee said, “they’re’ going to be part of this, too.”

  “But the party,” I protested. Those words left my thoughts completely when I was pulled into the family room and saw what was waiting for me.

  “We’re going to have our own little mini-party,” Bloodsong said from the bed. She wore something similar to a cop uniform, clearly purchased at some sex shop, and complete with a strap-on. Shit, it was pink and a good eight inches long.

  “Um, I’m not sure I’m ready for that sort of party,” I said, eyeing it.

  She laughed, then shook her head. “Not for you. For fun while you’re occupied.” Standing, she went over to Koharu and ran a hand up her thigh, then between her legs. “You’ll see.”

  I gulped, slightly aroused but also worried for Koharu. The monkey lady was smiling, though, tail moving over to slide along Bloodsong’s ass. If it worked for them, why not?

  Akame was on a white couch, one of those white hands moving along her thigh, the other working up toward her breasts as she watched Ahlaksiz and Jalee move over to undress me. Jalee paused at my crotch, staring at the wet mark there.

  I grinned and shook my head. “Nothing to worry about. Saw Amabie outside and she had to say goodbye.”

  “Left a little treat for us?” Kinara said, coming over and kneeling in front of me.

  “No, no. Just… her hand was wet.”

  “Was, good.” Kinara’s hands moved up my thighs, caressing my package over the pants, while Jalee started to undo my buckle. My eyes found Koharu bending over, watching me as Bloodsong knelt behind her, licking her pussy. Then, as Jalee and Kinara pulled out my cock, Bloodsong held that massive pink strap-on, sliding into Koharu. A yelp was followed with moans of pleasure, and the music outside the room grew louder.

  A burst of blue electricity shot out from Jalee’s tongue as it flicked across my tip, but Kinara pulled it away and shook her head.

  “None of that now,” Kinara said. “We gotta make him last.”

  Considering how good even that little burst had felt, I had to agree. This wasn’t only about pleasure—it was about the whole experience. Kinara tenderly ran her tongue along my inner thigh as she pulled my pants off, then up to my balls and shaft. Jalee joined, taking it fully in her mouth, while Bloodsong was making Koharu yelp even louder.

  I let out a big breath and pulled up the two ladies kneeling there, guiding them over to the bed so I could slap Koharu’s ass before bending Jalee and Kinara over next to her. Ahlaksiz laughed as she saw what I was doing, then led Milrae over, situating her in front of Jalee and herself in front of Kinara, so both could go down on the ladies before them.

  Meanwhile, I slid my hard cock into Jalee, my fingers into Kinara, and used my other hand to high-five Bloodsong. It just seemed like the right thing to do.

  She reached over to slap my ass when I started thrusting harder into Jalee. A burst of electricity sent me tingling, and I had to pull out. Luckily for her, Koharu had just climaxed, so Bloodsong moved to Jalee next. Those sparks didn’t do much to the strap-on but seemed to be sending vibrations through it, because soon both were moaning in orgasm.

  I turned Kinara over, so she was at the side of the bed while I spread her legs and slid in. She kissed me while one of my hands caressed her breast, then pinched her nipple. Someone came up behind me and started licking my balls from below while I fucked Kinara, and when I had a chance, I looked to see it was Devasla. She grinned, and I smiled back.