RE: 2016-10-31: Hallowe'en in Another Reality
03-23-2025, 04:01 PM (This post was last modified: 05-14-2025, 07:40 AM by Bob Schroeck.)
03-23-2025, 04:01 PM (This post was last modified: 05-14-2025, 07:40 AM by Bob Schroeck.)
Chapter 3: Trick-or-Treating
After the night was over, the encounter felt like fate. But in fact, it all began with a simple question, when Brent asked Chibiusa, "Are you going to join the trick-or-treating?"
The pink-haired small lady was perplexed. "What's tricker treaty? Bob and Peggy both mentioned it."
"It's when you walk around to all of the houses in the neighborhood to get a bunch of some candy."
Chiyo clarified, "It's an American custom where kids go from house to house in costume on Halloween night. They say 'Trick or treat' to ask for candy, like an oni demanding tribute. I've always wanted to try it; it sounds like a lot of fun."
Kagura started thinking about oni holidays. "Not if they throw beans at you!"
"That's Setsubun[1] — not Halloween," Yomi corrected.
Brent reassured, "It's just candy here. Really."
Osaka looked worried. "Won't that hurt if they throw konpeito[2] at me?"
"No, no. That's why it's soft candy, like marshmallows." Osaka relaxed after hearing Brent's "explanation."
Tomo said, "Going to houses demanding candy? Let's do this!"
"It's kinda for kids, Tomo."
Yomi said, "Don't worry, she's often confused for a child." Tomo's half-lidded eyes darted over to Yomi. "You know what, let's go. Someone needs to watch the kids, and make sure they get in the correct amount of trouble. You want to come with us, Chibiusa?"
"Yeah! It sounds like lots of fun!"
Brent noted, "Well, make sure you ask your... um... ask Tsukino-san and Chiba-san first."
"Okay!" She ran across the tent to talk to the younger versions of her parents. "Mamo-chan, Usagi-chan, can I go tricker treating with Chiyo-chan and get some candy?"
"Well," Mamoru began, and shared a meaningful glance with the older Usagi.
Minako Aino interjected, "Trick-or-treating sounds lovely! I haven't done it in years, since I was in England. May I come along?"
"Sure!" Chibiusa said.
"Okay, have fun," Mamoru assented.
Minako winked, "Same for you."
Meanwhile, Tomo and Yomi went around asking the other partygoers if they wanted to join a group for trick-or-treating.
Yomi had to explain the concept of trick-or-treating to the younger undines, who weren't really familiar with it. The holiday had never really made its way to Aqua along with the Italians and Japanese who built Neo Venezia. After she finished, she offered, "So, want to come along?"
"That sounds like something for little kids," Alice Carroll balked. "Pass."
On the other hand, Akari Mizunashi was immediately and predictably enthralled. "Really? It sounds amazing to me! Goblins and ghosts and all sorts of costumes, like a children's Carnevale!"
Aika said, "We won't get a chance to experience this as children again. I'll come with you, Akari."
Akari stared at Alice with expectation. Aika stared at Alice with amusement. "I guess I can keep you two company," Alice conceded.
"That sounds like fun! Can I come along?" a high-pitched, childlike voice said from somewhere near the vicinity of Yomi's left hip. She turned and looked down to see a small bright-blue pegasus with a rainbow-striped tail and mane looking up at her with huge, slightly crossed, yellow eyes. Not a pegasus costume — an actual pegasus.
"Um," she managed to get out while her brain rebooted.
"Sure!" Tomo declared enthusiastically. "The more the merrier, right? And I love your Rainbow Dash costume!"
"Who?" Yomi asked.
"You do? Thanks!" said the pegasus. She gestured at her face (which Yomi thought looked more like a primate's[3] than an equine's) with a foreleg that was far more flexible than Yomi thought it had any right to be. "I was worried because I couldn't find contact lenses in the right color that were big enough for my eyes." The pegasus seemed to have a minor speech impediment, Yomi thought irrelevantly, a little difficulty pronouncing her "r" sounds.
Tomo shook her head with a dismissive smile. "Nah, that's fine. Your coat — that blue carries it all. It's perfect. Forget about the contacts. Planet full of humans, nothing for ponies, what can you do? Am I right?"
"What?" Yomi asked.
"C'mon, Yomi, catch up!" Tomo demanded. "Our little pony here is done up as Rainbow Dash of the Wonderbolts." She leaned down and stuck her hand out at the pegasus. "I'm Tomo. This is Yomi."
"Oh, hi!" The pegasus stretched out her foreleg again and somehow hand and hoof managed a shake. "I'm Derpy! I'm staying at Live Oak Manor. Where do you guys live?"
"Venice Beach, in California." Yomi had managed get her brain back online enough to answer that question. Tiny blue pegasus. Right. Party now, freak later.
"In the lovely Aria House!" Tomo declared. "Live Oak Manor, that's in Mississippi, right?"
"Like you know where that is," Yomi muttered.
"That's right!" the pegasus — Derpy — chirped. "It's really pretty — we have lots of trees and a river nearby and a big yard where we keep the STABLE, the TARDIS, the phone booth and the Delorean."
"The what?" Yomi asked, although some of that sounded familiar.
"That's so cool," Tomo enthused.
"So... like, how much candy are we talking about? Do I need something to carry it in?" Derpy asked.
Tomo and Yomi exchanged looks.
By the time they had invited everyone interested (and Derpy had gone off in search of something to tote her candy in), the sky had already darkened to the point that you could make out Minako's demesne in the western sky if there weren't clouds in the way. They retreated to the door of the apartment they'd been assigned for the night, where Tomoyo was already waiting for them, bearing a folded travel bag for dress clothing. "Ah good, you're here!"
Yomi unlocked the door, and once inside they found the closest bedroom. Tomoyo unzipped the luggage atop the apartment's bed. She held two hangers up above her head, saying, "It's not much, but I hope you like them."
"Wow, these are the costumes?" Tomo's eyes were set on 'extra-wide'. "Super-cool!"
Yomi said, "Does mine have to be so frilly?"
"Of course," Tomoyo said.
"Come on, try it on! You'll look like a proper Rose Bride in no time." Tomo continued on to her own gear, "Oh wow. This is even better than the bokken I brought." From the bag she drew a European-style long sword made of a pale wood, with an elaborately carved hilt and quillions. Almost reverently, she ran her free hand down the smooth surface of the "blade". "Y'know," she said absently, "I've always wanted a real sword."
"Why? So you could use it to defend us from rampaging gazebos?" Yomi asked, apparently rhetorically. Tomo, of course, started flailing it through the air. "Put that down before you hurt someone, and get dressed already."
A few minutes later, Tomo emerged in her garment, a strange combination of a black school jacket edged in red, with large ruby epaulettes, a golden cord, and a layer of white flounce on the bottom. Below this were bright red bicycle shorts, red socks, and shiny black and white spectator shoes.
Yomi showed off her garment, a long crimson dress spread across the floor. She wore a matching waistcoat piped in white with celadon frills and its own set of golden ball epaulettes. It was sleeveless, but managed to include detached cuffs. Beneath her dress, she wore red flats – there was no need to make her prince for the night look even shorter.
In short, they looked like a pretty good image of the anime characters Utena Tenjou and Anthy Himemiya.
"Ah good, no need for adjustments." Tomoyo had every inch of Sakura's measurements memorized, but she wasn't quite so confident making clothes for others.
"Of course not, not from Daidouji-sensei!"
"I guess the diet is working, then." Yomi mumbled.
"I think you two look very cute together! Well, I had better hurry and don my own costume now. Luckily it's fairly simple. Please excuse me."
"I'll come help with the makeup when we're done," replied Yomi.
Tomo drew a bindi on Yomi's forehead using a red eyeliner pencil, and crowned her with a five-peaked gold-foil tiara, made from half of a Christmas cracker's paper hat.
"I still can't believe you convinced her to make these costumes for us. They're exquisite," Yomi declared, looking at her own reflection in the mirror. She turned around, and let the dress flow through the air. It made Koyomi feel pretty – an unusual, almost uncomfortable feeling for her. The feeling like she was only waiting for the other shoe to drop.
"I don't know what I did. Usually when I ask people for free stuff, they don't just agree right away. She's weird."
Yomi concurred, "Yeah, weird."
By the time they got back outside, most everyone was ready, milling around the Douglass Gardens parking lot in their costumes.
Tomo bluntly assessed, "From what I could see through the trees when we arrived, the area around here seems kinda run-down. Anywhere rich out there we can get good candy?" She wasn't as sure of that as she sounded, but it couldn't hurt to see if they could get richer pickings.
Bob, all dressed up to play baccarat at the Royale-les-Eaux casino,[4] couldn't object to that blunt assessment. "Well, it's an older neighborhood. And we're right on the edge of an area with a lot of places that rent to Rutgers students, whose landlords don't feel the need to keep everything a hundred percent. But if you want something better, we could go to where Peggy and I used to live. It's not all that far away..."
"Let's go!"
"Let's see, how many do we have?" Bob counted heads: youngsters Ascot, Ryunosuke Natsume, Chiyo Mihama, Sakura Kinomoto, Mira Reed-Kinomoto, Tomoyo Daidouji, Shaoran Li, Sasami Masaki, Nanoha Takamachi, Fate Testarossa, and Yuuno Scrya; companions (who could switch to animal forms and sit on laps) Kerberos and Alph; and adults... well, grown-ups in some cases... Tomo Takino, Koyomi Mizuhara, Fujitaka Kinomoto, Minako Aino, Ami Mizuno, Akari Mizunashi, Aika Grantchester, Alice Carroll, Brent and himself. And a bright blue fun-sized pegasus with a My Little Pony backpack hanging from her neck by one strap. "We're going to need to use both of our vans."
Brent volunteered, "Why don't you drive one van and I just follow behind in the Aria van? I'm used to driving it."
"Well, if you really want to."
"We should save space to fit all the candy we're going to get," Yomi reasoned.
"Wait for us!" Chibiusa came running out of the party space, one hand holding her headband in place and Diana clinging for dear life in the other. "I'm sorry we're late!"
"Don't worry, you're not late, Chiba-chan." Brent replied. "You look charming in red," he added. "Is that Hikaru's outfit?"
Chibiusa nodded once. "Uh-huh! From Angelic Layer, not Rayearth. Sorry for not dressing like you, Hikaru-neesan." The only ones not puzzled by her aside were Brent, Tomo, Bob, and (because she had asked about the costume the day before) Hikaru Shidou. "I know I need some help when I fight, so I thought I'd dress up like somebody who always gets help when she fights."
"So, how'd you know about Angelic Layer? You've only been in this reality for, what, a day and a half?"
Chibiusa looked up at Tomo, and in a tone that other people used to explain blatantly obvious things to youngsters, told her, "I saw it in my History of Television class in Crystal Tokyo, of course. I had to write a hundred-word essay on Studio CLAMP's influence on 21st-century anime. Mama and Sailor Mars insisted."
"Okay everyone, let's be careful out there," Yomi instructed the assembly of trick-or-treaters,[5] heading off any displeased reaction or joke Tomo might have to being lectured by a nine-year-old, and more importantly so that they stopped wasting time that they could be spending collecting candy before the local trick-or-treat curfew. "We'll be meeting a lot of different people out there, so don't talk about yourself too much. The last thing we want is to be recognized from some TV show and have to answer a lot of questions."
Tomo countered, "Come on, no one would ever think that we look like anime characters here."
Yomi lifted her dress on each side, showing the white frills underneath. "Then why did you make me dress in this getup?"
Tomo felt a tug on her jacket and looked down to see a concerned pony. "What about me?"
"You're not an anime character, Derpy-chan," Tomo replied breezily. "So no worries!" She turned her attention back to Yomi. "Have I ever steered you wrong on Halloween?"
"You took us to the Yamaguchi-gumi[6] when we were ten!"
"Exactly!"
"They're yakuza, Tomo. Ya-ku-za!"
"And they have the best candy, too. I remember you wouldn't stop talking about the Belgian chocolate."
"Just promise me that you're not going to get us into trouble."
"Pinky swear!" Tomo held out her smallest finger, offering it in the ancient Japanese custom of yubikiri.[7]
And then the Rose Bride karate chopped her prince on the head.
"Elegance, Lady Anthy," Brent reminded Yomi as Bob snorted, "elegance!"
"They sure are close friends, aren't they Sakura-chan?" Tomoyo opined.
"Un," she affirmed.
"Come on everybody! Let's get these shoes on the road!"
Yomi sighed at the malapropism. "Minako-san... you know what? Never mind."
As the crowd was marching out to the vans, Sakaki asked, "Where's everyone going?"
"Oh, we're just going trick-or-treating." Yomi clarified, "You know, kids knocking on doors, asking strangers for candy, showing off costumes."
"Ah," she said, stoically.
"We're just going along to keep track of the kids. So don't worry, you don't have to come along."
"Well..."
"Yomi! C'mon!!" Tomo hurried, leaning out the van's window.
"Coming!" Yomi rushed over to keep up with the rest of her party, which now numbered twenty-six costumed revelers. The engines roared to life, and a pair of vans rolled out of the lot towards the interstate.
Left behind, Sakaki muttered, "But I..."
She sighed.
Sakaki moved aimlessly around the party space a bit, looking for Kagura, if only to have a Lovely Angel Kei to accompany Sakaki's Lovely Angel Yuri, and make her feel less lonely in the crowd. As she did, though, she came across a tall blonde woman in a full-body bunny costume carrying a 20kg sack of carrots. One misstep later and the tall blonde woman had crashed into Sakaki, falling to the ground carrots and all.
"Owies!" She picked herself off of Sakaki, in such a way that all of the carrots tumbled out of the bag and onto Sakaki's chest. "Oops, sorry!" She stood up, and pushed her mop of wavy blonde hair from her face. She was a skinny young woman whose costume did nothing to hide the length of her legs; its white faux fur[8] was a brilliant contrast to her mocha skin. Despite the goofiness of her costume, Sakaki thought she must be some kind of fashion model.
Sakaki pushed a few carrots back into the bag as she stood up, at just the right level for her own purple eyes to stare at the blue eyes, while she remained silent.
On the other hand, the woman's high-pitched words just tumbled out, "Oh sorry, that sack is so heavy. Would you help me carry it? I need to feed Ryo-Ohki."
"Feed? Okay, sure." Sakaki gracefully hoisted the sack onto her back, and followed her into a corner of the green space that was unoccupied by other partygoers for the moment, where she joined the blonde in sitting on the front steps of one of the apartments.
"Thanks so much. I was sure lucky to run into you, I mean, it wasn't, but I was. Oh hey Ryo-Ohki, dinner time!"
A small furry animal ran forth and chomped on the first long orange vegetable she could find.
Ryo-Ohki looked something like a small house cat in size and build, furry and gray, with white paws. But on second glance, she looked something like a rabbit, with a short, bushy tail and oversized, if pointy ears. And then there was the red gem set in her brow. "What kind of animal are you?"
"Nya~"
"She's a cabbit. You know, part cat and rabbit."
Ryo-Ohki downed a carrot, and started begging for another one.
"I guess she's not a carnivore, then."[9] Sakaki reached down to pet the cabbit.
"Well, no, but she's still dangerous."
And Sakaki's hand came to a stop. But it was no matter, as the cabbit jumped into her hand and nuzzled against her arms. "So cute!" she whispered while her cheeks blushed.
Sakaki fed yet another carrot to the critter. She realized she hadn't introduced herself all this time, "Ah! I'm Kozue Sakaki. Pleased to meet you." She bowed to the animal and again to the woman.
"Meow!"
"Nice to meet you, Sakaki-san. I'm Mihoshi Kuramitsu, at your service."
"Thank you for introducing me to this splendid creature, Kuramitsu-san."
"Call me Mihoshi. I have a really big family, and it all gets really confusing after a while," she understated.
"You know, when we met, didn't I look angry?"
"Did you? You didn't remind me that much of Aeka-san. Or Ryoko-san. Were you angry?"
"No. Just surprised." Sakaki opened her mouth to say something, then closed it again. No need to ruin it. She did have one question though, "How does she keep eating the carrots?"[10]
"Oh, well, she's a spaceship, you know. Bigger on the inside."
In comparison to everything else that had happened in the past few weeks, it didn't seem too weird. Sakaki started thinking about cute furry animals traveling the stars, a reverie that was only stopped by some insistent begging. She offered up another carrot. "Here you are, Ryo-Ohki."
She purred, then chomped down the carrot as if it was a stick of Pocky.
"I'm studying to be a veterinarian. Can you tell me more about her anatomy?"
"Huh, where to start. Well, she's actually holding a whole spaceship wrapped in an 8th-dimensional quantum loop.[11] It works pretty good to hide her, that's why she was the galaxy's most feared pirate ship. And she has big floppy ears with a transdimensional gate to her sensor array. And cute little white feet, they're my favorite part."
"Mine too."
"Oh, yes, I definitely had to mention the feet in my Galaxy Police report. Her favorite food is carrots, which might explain why her phaser beams are orange. Or are they red?" Mihoshi continued on this way, omitting no details over the next half hour. But with Sakaki sated on knowledge and cuteness, and Ryo-Ohki sated on carrots, it was quite a happy way to pass the time.
Somerset, NJ, USA
6:30 PM
Chiyo-chan declared, "These are some nice houses," as she ran up the street alongside her friends, golden pompoms glittering in her hands.
This was quite a pleasant section of Somerset, with broad sidewalks bordering wide streets, and all sorts of mature trees sheltering the open front lawns of the houses. There were only three or four basic styles of house here, evenly split between one- and two-story homes. Making it more interesting, the streets weren't laid out in a regular grid, but instead turned and twisted and intersected in T junctions at odd intervals, with the occasional cul-de-sac. They hadn't seen a simple crossroad since entering the neighborhood. Oddly, streetlights were few and far between, but lamp posts and front door lights from the houses — plus the occasional motion-triggered floodlight over a garage — lit the street well enough.
"Does it make you homesick a little, seeing nice places like this?" Yomi asked.
Chiyo squinted, "Um, not really. It looks more like Kyoto to me, with all the meandering roads."
"What about Tomoyo? We haven't been keeping you in a manner to which you're accustomed?"
"Oh, me? Wherever my family is, that's home for me."
Tomo remarked, "You're not going to get anywhere with these goody-two-shoeses."
"Where's a bratty rich girl when you need one?" Yomi complained, unaware that she should be careful what she wished for.[12]
"Do you have a problem with your accommodations, Miss Mizuhara?" Brent observed, weaving out of the way of a short sheet-wearing ghost and a Freddy Krueger passing the other direction.
"Oh, nothing. It's just not exactly the beach resort we were promised."
"I think wearing a princess dress has gone to your head."
Tomo interjected, "I think she's just cranky because her blood sugar is low. So let's go get some candy!" She paused to consider, "But wait! Which house has the best candy? We need to make a strategic plan to amass the greatest hoard!"
"Any old house with a light on will do. Let's go," Yomi said, and the scarlet princess clasped her prince in black by the hand and dragged her towards the door.
"So, you said this used to be your neighborhood?" Brent asked Bob as the first wave of their little mob besieged a front door.
Bob nodded, just barely visible "Oh, yeah — right up until Funtom hired us."
"Really?" Brent took a slow turn to look at the yards around them. "Whereabouts is your old place?"
Bob chuckled and waved at the house they'd parked in front of — a sage-green ranch with brick-red shutters and garage doors. A pair of maple trees still bearing the last of their autumn foliage flanked its driveway at the sidewalk and a wall of bushes hid the windows overlooking the front yard and street. "Right here. Funtom's renting it out for us, and we'll be getting a nice check every month after they take out the mortgage, upkeep, taxes and their ten percent."
Brent laughed. "When you said where you and Peggy used to live, I guess you meant it a bit more literally than I expected."
Meanwhile, the siege was going well. The trick-or-treaters were met by an older man with graying hair under a three-sided black hat and an eyepatch. Staying back on the street with Fujitaka, Brent remarked to Bob, "Hey, a pirate."
Bob reminded him of the Pastafarian teaching, "We all have to do our part to fight global warming."
The man at the door had no problem giving out some candy to the girls, even if they were a little bit too old – with the one dressed in a ballgown and the other for some reason paired a sword with bicycle shorts. They had obviously dressed as something, but he couldn't really keep up with what kids were doing these days. Though in this case, even his teenaged son sitting on the couch inside couldn't figure it out either.
The next wave of displacees made it up the driveway to the door, crying, "Trick or Treat!"
"What are you all?"
"We're gods and goddesses," replied Sakura.
Shaoran brandished his cardboard hammer and said, "I'm Thor, and these are the Norns."
"With costumes like that, I can just about believe it."
"I'm not a god or goddess," Derpy said as she wormed her way to the front of the crowd. "I'm Rainbow Dash!"
The homeowner blinked his one visible eye a couple of times as he peered curiously at Derpy. "That's one he-heckuva costume, young lady."
"Oh, thank you!" she replied. "It's mostly just a simple dye job, but I had the hardest time getting the colors right in my mane and tail."
"Your mane and...?" He frowned in confusion for a moment, then shook his head and dropped a couple of tiny chocolate bars into the backpack hanging around the pegasus's neck. After a moment he added a whole handful. "You deserve a few extra for that outfit."
"Gee, thanks!" Derpy replied, and was echoed by the others.
The three undines came up next, and the owner of the house, despite still being bemused by Derpy, could easily guess which classic characters they represented.
Their buckets filled, they made way for the stragglers of the group to beg their turn for candy. There was a skinny girl in a form-fitting white suit with two large clips in her chestnut brown hair, a short Japanese girl in a pink cheerleader getup, and a girl's head poking out of a papier-mâché tree. Right behind them was a pair of girls, one auburn-haired and the other blonde, in some variety of uniform with white middy blouses and blue skirts; they weren't identical, though, having different collars and ties. He shook his head with a smile; more costumes he didn't recognize.
When the tree returned to her friends, she commented, "They didn't throw the candy at us. That's surprising!"
"Why is that surprising?" Aika asked. She would have been much more surprised if someone had thrown candy at her.
Osaka tried to clarify, "You know, like the beans."
"What?" Nearby, Derpy flicked an ear toward them, a confused look on her face.
"Maybe they'd throw it real hard if we were dressed in tiger skins."
Aika gave up, "Why do I even talk to her? Every time, she says something insane."
Alice noted, "The definition of insanity is repeatedly doing the same thing and expecting different results."
After Yomi got back from her fifth house visit, one all decorated with glowing carved pumpkins on the doorstep, Brent asked her, "Aren't you a little old for this? What happened to watching the kids?"
"The way I think of it, it would simply be wasteful to not show off Tomoyo's costumes," Yomi explained, before unwrapping a piece of candy and popping it in her mouth.
"And the candy?" Tomo asked.
"Because we're walking, we're burning more calories, so it's all good," Yomi justified. "The candy is very valuable form of cultural exchange."
Tomo countered, "I'll culturally exchange you these Smarties for your Snickers bar."
"No deal."
Minako looked at what was in Tomo's hand and frowned. "When we get back, remind me to give you some Canadian Smarties."[13] Then she grabbed her phone and texted Rob back in Ottawa, not caring about international roaming charges,[14] asking him to save a box of Smarties for Tomo.
"I got a lot of candy at that house. See!" Osaka found another person to show off her treats to, causing everybody to look at their own goodies.
"I got a box of choco-mints!"
"I got a pack of Twinkies!"
"I got some licorice whips!"
"I got a roll of Smarties!"
Bob moved to look in his bag, remembered he wasn't carrying one, and looked inside his briefcase instead. Completely deadpan, he said, "I got a rock."[15]
Brent rolled his eyes and turned back to Osaka. "I bet you're glad you decided to come."
"Oh, well, I didn't really decide to come. I just saw a bunch of y'all walkin' off, and then I followed, and then the next thing I knew we were all here!"
Brent shrugged. "Yes, of course you did."
While the grownups were distracted, the dressed-up Sailor Venus whispered to the dressed-up Sailor Mercury, "I just realized that we need to keep an eye on those two."
Ami looked in the same direction as Minako. "Sakura and Mira? Why?"
"Isn't it obvious? There's food energy in these candies!"
"From the sugar, yes."
"And Mira's gathering that energy for her mistress."
Ami realized where her comrade-in-arms was going. "The Sakura Cards are not Cardians, Mina-chan."
The crew traveled through street after street, amassing supplies of phat loot, enough sugar to last the winter.[16] Or at least for the next week. The neighborhood was indeed good for candy. A few generous souls had provided full-size candy bars, but for the most part they received the so-called "fun" size treats. Quite a few houses were hosting their own Halloween parties, even on a Monday.
Over time, the party of displacees stretched out into little groups – this made their visits a little more fun to each house than a giant group all at once. And after all, the community seemed pretty safe, even if it was a little dark.
The lead party of the group rounded a corner onto yet another street, where they came upon a scuffle that was just about to break out.
A ten year old boy wearing a icy blue dress with a sheer snowflake-patterned cape was being pushed into a corner, surrounded by older boys. "Look at this little faggot, thinks he's a little princess." The tallest boy pushed the princess to the ground. He fell on his butt into a patch of mud left from the previous evening's rain, caking the bottom of his dress in dirt.
"He doesn't look so pretty now, does he?"
Shaoran reacted first, his muscles tensing up for a fight. He looked at the scene for a moment, gathering situational awareness. There were three high school boys surrounding a boy in the dirt dressed in a princess costume. The houses behind them were completely dark, which made keeping track of the combatants a bit harder.
Minako reached her hand into her purse, and felt the cool metal of her transformation pen against her skin, as she contemplated dispensing punishment.
Sakura's mouth was agape in horror, and her arm drifted towards the magical key on her necklace.
Derpy launched herself upward into the darkness.
But none of them could match the speed of Tomo charging into the middle of the fray at full tilt,[17] her wooden sword lunging forward.
"Maybe he really is a girl, he's crying?"
"Oh wow, what a freak."
Tomo stumbled into the conflict, "Stop this right now!"
"Who the hell are you?"
"I'm Prince Tomo. And as a prince, if I see anyone hurting Elsa, I'm not gonna let it go." Her epaulettes gleamed in the light of one of the infrequent street lamps.
"Another queer, huh? Step out of the way."
"No."
He raised his fist to strike at her. Shaoran started to move to intervene, but Tomoyo put a hand on his shoulder, simply saying, "Watch."
Tomo raised her sword to counter the strike, and her assailant's hand barely missed being sliced by wild slash of the wooden blade. He tried to wrest it from her grasp, but Tomo spun away to the right.
The third high-schooler, who wasn't participating in the fight, warned, "C'mon, she's Chinese, she probably knows kung fu."
"I'm Japanese, and it's sword fu!" Tomo said defiantly, assuming a kendo starting pose she had learned from anime.
"Fine, let's just leave these freaks alone." The apparent leader started walking away, in an imitation of nonchalance.
"Yeah, walk away now, but your backs will be the first against the wall when the revolution comes!" Tomo taunted. A branch suddenly dropped out of the night sky, crashing onto the sidewalk behind them; the boys yelped and took off at a run. Tomo chortled as they fled.
Yomi rushed out to meet up with Tomo, but Shaoran made it to the scene first. He asked the boy sitting in the mud, "Is everything okay?" Derpy dropped down out of the darkness into the only space nearby big enough to land in, just out of the young boy's peripheral vision; she glared at the fleeing bullies, her head down and her wings mantled.
The boy looked back at Shaoran, and started to frown. He said, "No," and began crying.
Tomo sighed, and said to Shaoran, "I'll handle this. Tell Sakura get The Bubble ready." She took a couple steps, then knelt down beside the boy in a princess costume. She held out her hand and grinned, "Everything will be all right now, I promise."
The boy slowly laid his blue gloved hand in hers, and she yanked him up into her arms. Tomo declared, "If girls like me can be princes, then boys can be princesses, too. Right?"
He stopped crying and looked up to Tomo. He[18] said weakly, "Right."
"What's your name?"
"M-Mason."
"I'm pleased to make your acquaintance, Princess Mason. I am Prince Tomo of Venice." She kissed him on the forehead. "Would you do me the honor of accompanying me on this night of trick-or-treating?"
He was so shocked by this turn of events, he didn't even notice the magical bubbles working at the back of his dress, quickly dissolving the ruddy dirt. In a few seconds, the dress was back to its original sky blue color.
"Yeah, but my friends..." Two other kids came out from the bushes they were hiding behind. Aiden was wearing a Ninja Turtle costume, which was surprisingly still a thing in 2016, and Isabel was a witch, or maybe a bruja. Both of them were the same age as Mason, and wouldn't have made much of a match for the teenagers either.
And both were staring wide-eyed at Derpy, who folded her wings and smiled at them.
"That's okay, they can come too," Sakura piped up. "We'd be happy to have you along!"
"If that's okay with you, Princess Koyomi? I wouldn't want to leave you feeling left out."
Her answer was a simple plea, "Please, come with us, Mason."
"I'd love to have another princess as a friend!" Derpy declared from where she still stood just behind Mason. He turned at the sound of her voice, then froze at the sight of her.
"You..." he breathed. "You're..."
"I'm Rainbow Dash!" Derpy replied, nodding and smiling encouragingly.
Mason took a step toward her with one hand stretched out, and ran his fingers along the line of her shoulder, between her neck and her wing. "...you're real."
Derpy tilted her head curiously at him. "Of course I'm real! If I wasn't real I wouldn't be here!"
His face lit up, as did those of his friends, and Bob could see it in their eyes — somehow, against all expectations, a night that could have been terrible had become, instead, a magical one.
"So," Tomo held out her hand to Mason, "will you come with us?"
He glanced around at all the members of their group, then traded looks with Aiden and Isabel, who nodded shyly. "Sure!"
And as they walked down the streets of the neighborhood, Tomo took it upon herself to entertain and lead a pack of ten-year-olds she had never met before. Indeed, she took it as her privilege to serve as their escort and entertainment in the most gracious way possible. House after house, she stayed with them. Even when Aiden showed off his less-than-impressive "ninja moves", she cheered it on joyfully. It was, to the casual observer, the height of chivalry.
To an observer who actually knew Tomo, it was downright bizarre. Brent asked Yomi, "Did Tomo get a brain transplant while I wasn't looking?"
"It's like she's too selfless," she concurred. "It's kinda freaking me out."
Tomo must have heard this, as she turned around and offered Yomi a chocolate from her bucket. "Here, you can have this. I don't really like sweet things." Yomi held out her hand, grabbed the candy, letting Tomo turn her attention back to Mason.
"See what I mean?" Yomi stuffed the candy into her mouth.
"Are you a real prince?" Isabel asked. "Like Rainbow Dash is a real pony?"
"I'm just as much a prince as Mason is a princess," Tomo answered. "Which is a lot, principally. And I'm a very principled prince. Tell your school principal."
"Hehe, you're funny."
Brent stage-whispered to Yomi, "Nah, she's still in there, fighting to get out."
The group of magical kids was now following behind, where Shaoran could keep watch. That one time he wore a dress in public had been terribly embarrassing for him, but he just couldn't stand to see another person bullied for it.
But watching from behind, Sakura just got more confused. It was going well enough, but there were still people who had a funny reaction to Mason appearing at their door — at least until they noticed Derpy, who often had to hover to be seen over the taller children. Sure, they were polite enough, but something still felt off for some of them. When the confusion got too much, Sakura asked, "Papa, I don't understand. Why were they attacking Mason?"
"That's a hard question," Fujitaka began patiently. "I've studied all kinds of cultures from around the world.[19] One thing that a lot of them have in common are gender morés, rules of how men and women should behave. Quite a few cultures think boys and girls always should dress differently. It can be very important to them. And if you break the rules, people may start to bully you. It's just how they choose to live."
"Oh, okay. I guess not everywhere is like Japan. But it's still wrong!"
"Of course. Mason can't be himself, even on a costume holiday. It's hurtful. But Sakura, do you think the bullies know they're wrong?"
She was about to blurt out "How can they not know?" but was stopped by a stray thought. A stray thought which eventually grew into a whole theory. "Maybe not... Not if everyone their whole life told them the bad rules. They just think they're stopping the rule breaker."
"Smart girl! You answered your own question."
"Ah! I did!" The answer didn't exactly make her happy, but at least the night made a little more sense. And her world made a little less sense. Silently, she wondered what it would take to get people like that to understand each other.
As the time approached the 8 PM curfew, Prince Tomo insisted on walking her new friends home. It was just as well, as half of the crowd would have followed anyway. Through it all, Derpy walked alongside the trio, occasionally draping a wing around Mason's waist as she chatted with him, and with Aiden and Isabel. They walked a bit off to the south in the maze of twisty little roads, all alike, where the houses were a little less nice, escorting the kids back to their home street.
"Will I ever see you again?" Mason asked after they had dropped off Isabel and Aiden at their respective homes.
Tomo smiled warmly. "If you can make it to Venice Beach, my kingdom by the sea will welcome you with open arms. I'll make sure of it."
"I bet you will!" he laughed.
Derpy rose up on her rear legs and wrapped her forelegs around him in a hug made slightly clumsy by the backpack hanging from her neck. "My real name is Derpy! If you're ever in Ponyville, I'll introduce you to the other princesses I know, okay?"
Mason beamed as he hugged her back. "Okay!"
"If you never lose your courage and nobility, you will make a fine princess one day," Tomo declared confidently. "Farewell!"
After more hugs from the other children in the group, he ran up to the front steps of his home, where his parents were peering out through the storm door at the assortment of strangers their child had fallen in with. "Thanks for everything," Mason called back, before stepping into his house.
Tomo sighed as the door closed behind him and the porch light blinked out, and let her shoulders slump, "...And scene."
"Hoe?" asked Sakura.
"Oh man, I think I did that great, huh, Yomi? I totally nailed it, right?"
Yomi just started laughing, hard. "Sometimes you are just too much!" Yomi said, then continued laughing.
And Brent stopped holding in his chuckles too. "Unbelievable!"
"Was that pretty good, Brent? Huh? Huh?"
Brent pitched his voice high, "Kyaaan~ Utena-sama!"
"Great job, Tomo," Bob added around his own laughter.
"Sweet!" Tomo had the biggest grin ever plastered on her face for at least the next two hours.
The others started laughing, too – Fujitaka, Minako, and Tomoyo out of understanding, and everyone else because Tomo was acting weird and laughter is just infectious.
Shaoran went up to Brent and asked, "What was that all about?"
"That's called a long walk. And an anticlimax, too."
"So..."
Tomoyo chipped in, "Doing your best to give joy to the people you like is the greatest happiness in the world. That's what Tomo did."
"And letting Mason know he has friends who like him for who he is," Derpy added, wiping a tear from one enormous yellow eye with a hoof. "And don't want him to change just to be like everyone else."
Most of the group was all smiles. But when Minako heard Tomoyo's comment, her mien turned pensive.
"Okay folks, let's get to this party!" Tomo cheered.
"Fashionably late!" Brent enthused. "Actually, if we're going to be fashionably late, we might as well make an entrance. Sakura?"
"Hai?"
"I have an idea."
After the night was over, the encounter felt like fate. But in fact, it all began with a simple question, when Brent asked Chibiusa, "Are you going to join the trick-or-treating?"
The pink-haired small lady was perplexed. "What's tricker treaty? Bob and Peggy both mentioned it."
"It's when you walk around to all of the houses in the neighborhood to get a bunch of some candy."
Chiyo clarified, "It's an American custom where kids go from house to house in costume on Halloween night. They say 'Trick or treat' to ask for candy, like an oni demanding tribute. I've always wanted to try it; it sounds like a lot of fun."
Kagura started thinking about oni holidays. "Not if they throw beans at you!"
"That's Setsubun[1] — not Halloween," Yomi corrected.
Brent reassured, "It's just candy here. Really."
Osaka looked worried. "Won't that hurt if they throw konpeito[2] at me?"
"No, no. That's why it's soft candy, like marshmallows." Osaka relaxed after hearing Brent's "explanation."
Tomo said, "Going to houses demanding candy? Let's do this!"
"It's kinda for kids, Tomo."
Yomi said, "Don't worry, she's often confused for a child." Tomo's half-lidded eyes darted over to Yomi. "You know what, let's go. Someone needs to watch the kids, and make sure they get in the correct amount of trouble. You want to come with us, Chibiusa?"
"Yeah! It sounds like lots of fun!"
Brent noted, "Well, make sure you ask your... um... ask Tsukino-san and Chiba-san first."
"Okay!" She ran across the tent to talk to the younger versions of her parents. "Mamo-chan, Usagi-chan, can I go tricker treating with Chiyo-chan and get some candy?"
"Well," Mamoru began, and shared a meaningful glance with the older Usagi.
Minako Aino interjected, "Trick-or-treating sounds lovely! I haven't done it in years, since I was in England. May I come along?"
"Sure!" Chibiusa said.
"Okay, have fun," Mamoru assented.
Minako winked, "Same for you."
Meanwhile, Tomo and Yomi went around asking the other partygoers if they wanted to join a group for trick-or-treating.
Yomi had to explain the concept of trick-or-treating to the younger undines, who weren't really familiar with it. The holiday had never really made its way to Aqua along with the Italians and Japanese who built Neo Venezia. After she finished, she offered, "So, want to come along?"
"That sounds like something for little kids," Alice Carroll balked. "Pass."
On the other hand, Akari Mizunashi was immediately and predictably enthralled. "Really? It sounds amazing to me! Goblins and ghosts and all sorts of costumes, like a children's Carnevale!"
Aika said, "We won't get a chance to experience this as children again. I'll come with you, Akari."
Akari stared at Alice with expectation. Aika stared at Alice with amusement. "I guess I can keep you two company," Alice conceded.
"That sounds like fun! Can I come along?" a high-pitched, childlike voice said from somewhere near the vicinity of Yomi's left hip. She turned and looked down to see a small bright-blue pegasus with a rainbow-striped tail and mane looking up at her with huge, slightly crossed, yellow eyes. Not a pegasus costume — an actual pegasus.
"Um," she managed to get out while her brain rebooted.
"Sure!" Tomo declared enthusiastically. "The more the merrier, right? And I love your Rainbow Dash costume!"
"Who?" Yomi asked.
"You do? Thanks!" said the pegasus. She gestured at her face (which Yomi thought looked more like a primate's[3] than an equine's) with a foreleg that was far more flexible than Yomi thought it had any right to be. "I was worried because I couldn't find contact lenses in the right color that were big enough for my eyes." The pegasus seemed to have a minor speech impediment, Yomi thought irrelevantly, a little difficulty pronouncing her "r" sounds.
Tomo shook her head with a dismissive smile. "Nah, that's fine. Your coat — that blue carries it all. It's perfect. Forget about the contacts. Planet full of humans, nothing for ponies, what can you do? Am I right?"
"What?" Yomi asked.
"C'mon, Yomi, catch up!" Tomo demanded. "Our little pony here is done up as Rainbow Dash of the Wonderbolts." She leaned down and stuck her hand out at the pegasus. "I'm Tomo. This is Yomi."
"Oh, hi!" The pegasus stretched out her foreleg again and somehow hand and hoof managed a shake. "I'm Derpy! I'm staying at Live Oak Manor. Where do you guys live?"
"Venice Beach, in California." Yomi had managed get her brain back online enough to answer that question. Tiny blue pegasus. Right. Party now, freak later.
"In the lovely Aria House!" Tomo declared. "Live Oak Manor, that's in Mississippi, right?"
"Like you know where that is," Yomi muttered.
"That's right!" the pegasus — Derpy — chirped. "It's really pretty — we have lots of trees and a river nearby and a big yard where we keep the STABLE, the TARDIS, the phone booth and the Delorean."
"The what?" Yomi asked, although some of that sounded familiar.
"That's so cool," Tomo enthused.
"So... like, how much candy are we talking about? Do I need something to carry it in?" Derpy asked.
Tomo and Yomi exchanged looks.
By the time they had invited everyone interested (and Derpy had gone off in search of something to tote her candy in), the sky had already darkened to the point that you could make out Minako's demesne in the western sky if there weren't clouds in the way. They retreated to the door of the apartment they'd been assigned for the night, where Tomoyo was already waiting for them, bearing a folded travel bag for dress clothing. "Ah good, you're here!"
Yomi unlocked the door, and once inside they found the closest bedroom. Tomoyo unzipped the luggage atop the apartment's bed. She held two hangers up above her head, saying, "It's not much, but I hope you like them."
"Wow, these are the costumes?" Tomo's eyes were set on 'extra-wide'. "Super-cool!"
Yomi said, "Does mine have to be so frilly?"
"Of course," Tomoyo said.
"Come on, try it on! You'll look like a proper Rose Bride in no time." Tomo continued on to her own gear, "Oh wow. This is even better than the bokken I brought." From the bag she drew a European-style long sword made of a pale wood, with an elaborately carved hilt and quillions. Almost reverently, she ran her free hand down the smooth surface of the "blade". "Y'know," she said absently, "I've always wanted a real sword."
"Why? So you could use it to defend us from rampaging gazebos?" Yomi asked, apparently rhetorically. Tomo, of course, started flailing it through the air. "Put that down before you hurt someone, and get dressed already."
A few minutes later, Tomo emerged in her garment, a strange combination of a black school jacket edged in red, with large ruby epaulettes, a golden cord, and a layer of white flounce on the bottom. Below this were bright red bicycle shorts, red socks, and shiny black and white spectator shoes.
Yomi showed off her garment, a long crimson dress spread across the floor. She wore a matching waistcoat piped in white with celadon frills and its own set of golden ball epaulettes. It was sleeveless, but managed to include detached cuffs. Beneath her dress, she wore red flats – there was no need to make her prince for the night look even shorter.
In short, they looked like a pretty good image of the anime characters Utena Tenjou and Anthy Himemiya.
"Ah good, no need for adjustments." Tomoyo had every inch of Sakura's measurements memorized, but she wasn't quite so confident making clothes for others.
"Of course not, not from Daidouji-sensei!"
"I guess the diet is working, then." Yomi mumbled.
"I think you two look very cute together! Well, I had better hurry and don my own costume now. Luckily it's fairly simple. Please excuse me."
"I'll come help with the makeup when we're done," replied Yomi.
Tomo drew a bindi on Yomi's forehead using a red eyeliner pencil, and crowned her with a five-peaked gold-foil tiara, made from half of a Christmas cracker's paper hat.
"I still can't believe you convinced her to make these costumes for us. They're exquisite," Yomi declared, looking at her own reflection in the mirror. She turned around, and let the dress flow through the air. It made Koyomi feel pretty – an unusual, almost uncomfortable feeling for her. The feeling like she was only waiting for the other shoe to drop.
"I don't know what I did. Usually when I ask people for free stuff, they don't just agree right away. She's weird."
Yomi concurred, "Yeah, weird."
By the time they got back outside, most everyone was ready, milling around the Douglass Gardens parking lot in their costumes.
Tomo bluntly assessed, "From what I could see through the trees when we arrived, the area around here seems kinda run-down. Anywhere rich out there we can get good candy?" She wasn't as sure of that as she sounded, but it couldn't hurt to see if they could get richer pickings.
Bob, all dressed up to play baccarat at the Royale-les-Eaux casino,[4] couldn't object to that blunt assessment. "Well, it's an older neighborhood. And we're right on the edge of an area with a lot of places that rent to Rutgers students, whose landlords don't feel the need to keep everything a hundred percent. But if you want something better, we could go to where Peggy and I used to live. It's not all that far away..."
"Let's go!"
"Let's see, how many do we have?" Bob counted heads: youngsters Ascot, Ryunosuke Natsume, Chiyo Mihama, Sakura Kinomoto, Mira Reed-Kinomoto, Tomoyo Daidouji, Shaoran Li, Sasami Masaki, Nanoha Takamachi, Fate Testarossa, and Yuuno Scrya; companions (who could switch to animal forms and sit on laps) Kerberos and Alph; and adults... well, grown-ups in some cases... Tomo Takino, Koyomi Mizuhara, Fujitaka Kinomoto, Minako Aino, Ami Mizuno, Akari Mizunashi, Aika Grantchester, Alice Carroll, Brent and himself. And a bright blue fun-sized pegasus with a My Little Pony backpack hanging from her neck by one strap. "We're going to need to use both of our vans."
Brent volunteered, "Why don't you drive one van and I just follow behind in the Aria van? I'm used to driving it."
"Well, if you really want to."
"We should save space to fit all the candy we're going to get," Yomi reasoned.
"Wait for us!" Chibiusa came running out of the party space, one hand holding her headband in place and Diana clinging for dear life in the other. "I'm sorry we're late!"
"Don't worry, you're not late, Chiba-chan." Brent replied. "You look charming in red," he added. "Is that Hikaru's outfit?"
Chibiusa nodded once. "Uh-huh! From Angelic Layer, not Rayearth. Sorry for not dressing like you, Hikaru-neesan." The only ones not puzzled by her aside were Brent, Tomo, Bob, and (because she had asked about the costume the day before) Hikaru Shidou. "I know I need some help when I fight, so I thought I'd dress up like somebody who always gets help when she fights."
"So, how'd you know about Angelic Layer? You've only been in this reality for, what, a day and a half?"
Chibiusa looked up at Tomo, and in a tone that other people used to explain blatantly obvious things to youngsters, told her, "I saw it in my History of Television class in Crystal Tokyo, of course. I had to write a hundred-word essay on Studio CLAMP's influence on 21st-century anime. Mama and Sailor Mars insisted."
"Okay everyone, let's be careful out there," Yomi instructed the assembly of trick-or-treaters,[5] heading off any displeased reaction or joke Tomo might have to being lectured by a nine-year-old, and more importantly so that they stopped wasting time that they could be spending collecting candy before the local trick-or-treat curfew. "We'll be meeting a lot of different people out there, so don't talk about yourself too much. The last thing we want is to be recognized from some TV show and have to answer a lot of questions."
Tomo countered, "Come on, no one would ever think that we look like anime characters here."
Yomi lifted her dress on each side, showing the white frills underneath. "Then why did you make me dress in this getup?"
Tomo felt a tug on her jacket and looked down to see a concerned pony. "What about me?"
"You're not an anime character, Derpy-chan," Tomo replied breezily. "So no worries!" She turned her attention back to Yomi. "Have I ever steered you wrong on Halloween?"
"You took us to the Yamaguchi-gumi[6] when we were ten!"
"Exactly!"
"They're yakuza, Tomo. Ya-ku-za!"
"And they have the best candy, too. I remember you wouldn't stop talking about the Belgian chocolate."
"Just promise me that you're not going to get us into trouble."
"Pinky swear!" Tomo held out her smallest finger, offering it in the ancient Japanese custom of yubikiri.[7]
And then the Rose Bride karate chopped her prince on the head.
"Elegance, Lady Anthy," Brent reminded Yomi as Bob snorted, "elegance!"
"They sure are close friends, aren't they Sakura-chan?" Tomoyo opined.
"Un," she affirmed.
"Come on everybody! Let's get these shoes on the road!"
Yomi sighed at the malapropism. "Minako-san... you know what? Never mind."
As the crowd was marching out to the vans, Sakaki asked, "Where's everyone going?"
"Oh, we're just going trick-or-treating." Yomi clarified, "You know, kids knocking on doors, asking strangers for candy, showing off costumes."
"Ah," she said, stoically.
"We're just going along to keep track of the kids. So don't worry, you don't have to come along."
"Well..."
"Yomi! C'mon!!" Tomo hurried, leaning out the van's window.
"Coming!" Yomi rushed over to keep up with the rest of her party, which now numbered twenty-six costumed revelers. The engines roared to life, and a pair of vans rolled out of the lot towards the interstate.
Left behind, Sakaki muttered, "But I..."
She sighed.
Sakaki moved aimlessly around the party space a bit, looking for Kagura, if only to have a Lovely Angel Kei to accompany Sakaki's Lovely Angel Yuri, and make her feel less lonely in the crowd. As she did, though, she came across a tall blonde woman in a full-body bunny costume carrying a 20kg sack of carrots. One misstep later and the tall blonde woman had crashed into Sakaki, falling to the ground carrots and all.
"Owies!" She picked herself off of Sakaki, in such a way that all of the carrots tumbled out of the bag and onto Sakaki's chest. "Oops, sorry!" She stood up, and pushed her mop of wavy blonde hair from her face. She was a skinny young woman whose costume did nothing to hide the length of her legs; its white faux fur[8] was a brilliant contrast to her mocha skin. Despite the goofiness of her costume, Sakaki thought she must be some kind of fashion model.
Sakaki pushed a few carrots back into the bag as she stood up, at just the right level for her own purple eyes to stare at the blue eyes, while she remained silent.
On the other hand, the woman's high-pitched words just tumbled out, "Oh sorry, that sack is so heavy. Would you help me carry it? I need to feed Ryo-Ohki."
"Feed? Okay, sure." Sakaki gracefully hoisted the sack onto her back, and followed her into a corner of the green space that was unoccupied by other partygoers for the moment, where she joined the blonde in sitting on the front steps of one of the apartments.
"Thanks so much. I was sure lucky to run into you, I mean, it wasn't, but I was. Oh hey Ryo-Ohki, dinner time!"
A small furry animal ran forth and chomped on the first long orange vegetable she could find.
Ryo-Ohki looked something like a small house cat in size and build, furry and gray, with white paws. But on second glance, she looked something like a rabbit, with a short, bushy tail and oversized, if pointy ears. And then there was the red gem set in her brow. "What kind of animal are you?"
"Nya~"
"She's a cabbit. You know, part cat and rabbit."
Ryo-Ohki downed a carrot, and started begging for another one.
"I guess she's not a carnivore, then."[9] Sakaki reached down to pet the cabbit.
"Well, no, but she's still dangerous."
And Sakaki's hand came to a stop. But it was no matter, as the cabbit jumped into her hand and nuzzled against her arms. "So cute!" she whispered while her cheeks blushed.
Sakaki fed yet another carrot to the critter. She realized she hadn't introduced herself all this time, "Ah! I'm Kozue Sakaki. Pleased to meet you." She bowed to the animal and again to the woman.
"Meow!"
"Nice to meet you, Sakaki-san. I'm Mihoshi Kuramitsu, at your service."
"Thank you for introducing me to this splendid creature, Kuramitsu-san."
"Call me Mihoshi. I have a really big family, and it all gets really confusing after a while," she understated.
"You know, when we met, didn't I look angry?"
"Did you? You didn't remind me that much of Aeka-san. Or Ryoko-san. Were you angry?"
"No. Just surprised." Sakaki opened her mouth to say something, then closed it again. No need to ruin it. She did have one question though, "How does she keep eating the carrots?"[10]
"Oh, well, she's a spaceship, you know. Bigger on the inside."
In comparison to everything else that had happened in the past few weeks, it didn't seem too weird. Sakaki started thinking about cute furry animals traveling the stars, a reverie that was only stopped by some insistent begging. She offered up another carrot. "Here you are, Ryo-Ohki."
She purred, then chomped down the carrot as if it was a stick of Pocky.
"I'm studying to be a veterinarian. Can you tell me more about her anatomy?"
"Huh, where to start. Well, she's actually holding a whole spaceship wrapped in an 8th-dimensional quantum loop.[11] It works pretty good to hide her, that's why she was the galaxy's most feared pirate ship. And she has big floppy ears with a transdimensional gate to her sensor array. And cute little white feet, they're my favorite part."
"Mine too."
"Oh, yes, I definitely had to mention the feet in my Galaxy Police report. Her favorite food is carrots, which might explain why her phaser beams are orange. Or are they red?" Mihoshi continued on this way, omitting no details over the next half hour. But with Sakaki sated on knowledge and cuteness, and Ryo-Ohki sated on carrots, it was quite a happy way to pass the time.
Somerset, NJ, USA
6:30 PM
Chiyo-chan declared, "These are some nice houses," as she ran up the street alongside her friends, golden pompoms glittering in her hands.
This was quite a pleasant section of Somerset, with broad sidewalks bordering wide streets, and all sorts of mature trees sheltering the open front lawns of the houses. There were only three or four basic styles of house here, evenly split between one- and two-story homes. Making it more interesting, the streets weren't laid out in a regular grid, but instead turned and twisted and intersected in T junctions at odd intervals, with the occasional cul-de-sac. They hadn't seen a simple crossroad since entering the neighborhood. Oddly, streetlights were few and far between, but lamp posts and front door lights from the houses — plus the occasional motion-triggered floodlight over a garage — lit the street well enough.
"Does it make you homesick a little, seeing nice places like this?" Yomi asked.
Chiyo squinted, "Um, not really. It looks more like Kyoto to me, with all the meandering roads."
"What about Tomoyo? We haven't been keeping you in a manner to which you're accustomed?"
"Oh, me? Wherever my family is, that's home for me."
Tomo remarked, "You're not going to get anywhere with these goody-two-shoeses."
"Where's a bratty rich girl when you need one?" Yomi complained, unaware that she should be careful what she wished for.[12]
"Do you have a problem with your accommodations, Miss Mizuhara?" Brent observed, weaving out of the way of a short sheet-wearing ghost and a Freddy Krueger passing the other direction.
"Oh, nothing. It's just not exactly the beach resort we were promised."
"I think wearing a princess dress has gone to your head."
Tomo interjected, "I think she's just cranky because her blood sugar is low. So let's go get some candy!" She paused to consider, "But wait! Which house has the best candy? We need to make a strategic plan to amass the greatest hoard!"
"Any old house with a light on will do. Let's go," Yomi said, and the scarlet princess clasped her prince in black by the hand and dragged her towards the door.
"So, you said this used to be your neighborhood?" Brent asked Bob as the first wave of their little mob besieged a front door.
Bob nodded, just barely visible "Oh, yeah — right up until Funtom hired us."
"Really?" Brent took a slow turn to look at the yards around them. "Whereabouts is your old place?"
Bob chuckled and waved at the house they'd parked in front of — a sage-green ranch with brick-red shutters and garage doors. A pair of maple trees still bearing the last of their autumn foliage flanked its driveway at the sidewalk and a wall of bushes hid the windows overlooking the front yard and street. "Right here. Funtom's renting it out for us, and we'll be getting a nice check every month after they take out the mortgage, upkeep, taxes and their ten percent."
Brent laughed. "When you said where you and Peggy used to live, I guess you meant it a bit more literally than I expected."
Meanwhile, the siege was going well. The trick-or-treaters were met by an older man with graying hair under a three-sided black hat and an eyepatch. Staying back on the street with Fujitaka, Brent remarked to Bob, "Hey, a pirate."
Bob reminded him of the Pastafarian teaching, "We all have to do our part to fight global warming."
The man at the door had no problem giving out some candy to the girls, even if they were a little bit too old – with the one dressed in a ballgown and the other for some reason paired a sword with bicycle shorts. They had obviously dressed as something, but he couldn't really keep up with what kids were doing these days. Though in this case, even his teenaged son sitting on the couch inside couldn't figure it out either.
The next wave of displacees made it up the driveway to the door, crying, "Trick or Treat!"
"What are you all?"
"We're gods and goddesses," replied Sakura.
Shaoran brandished his cardboard hammer and said, "I'm Thor, and these are the Norns."
"With costumes like that, I can just about believe it."
"I'm not a god or goddess," Derpy said as she wormed her way to the front of the crowd. "I'm Rainbow Dash!"
The homeowner blinked his one visible eye a couple of times as he peered curiously at Derpy. "That's one he-heckuva costume, young lady."
"Oh, thank you!" she replied. "It's mostly just a simple dye job, but I had the hardest time getting the colors right in my mane and tail."
"Your mane and...?" He frowned in confusion for a moment, then shook his head and dropped a couple of tiny chocolate bars into the backpack hanging around the pegasus's neck. After a moment he added a whole handful. "You deserve a few extra for that outfit."
"Gee, thanks!" Derpy replied, and was echoed by the others.
The three undines came up next, and the owner of the house, despite still being bemused by Derpy, could easily guess which classic characters they represented.
Their buckets filled, they made way for the stragglers of the group to beg their turn for candy. There was a skinny girl in a form-fitting white suit with two large clips in her chestnut brown hair, a short Japanese girl in a pink cheerleader getup, and a girl's head poking out of a papier-mâché tree. Right behind them was a pair of girls, one auburn-haired and the other blonde, in some variety of uniform with white middy blouses and blue skirts; they weren't identical, though, having different collars and ties. He shook his head with a smile; more costumes he didn't recognize.
When the tree returned to her friends, she commented, "They didn't throw the candy at us. That's surprising!"
"Why is that surprising?" Aika asked. She would have been much more surprised if someone had thrown candy at her.
Osaka tried to clarify, "You know, like the beans."
"What?" Nearby, Derpy flicked an ear toward them, a confused look on her face.
"Maybe they'd throw it real hard if we were dressed in tiger skins."
Aika gave up, "Why do I even talk to her? Every time, she says something insane."
Alice noted, "The definition of insanity is repeatedly doing the same thing and expecting different results."
After Yomi got back from her fifth house visit, one all decorated with glowing carved pumpkins on the doorstep, Brent asked her, "Aren't you a little old for this? What happened to watching the kids?"
"The way I think of it, it would simply be wasteful to not show off Tomoyo's costumes," Yomi explained, before unwrapping a piece of candy and popping it in her mouth.
"And the candy?" Tomo asked.
"Because we're walking, we're burning more calories, so it's all good," Yomi justified. "The candy is very valuable form of cultural exchange."
Tomo countered, "I'll culturally exchange you these Smarties for your Snickers bar."
"No deal."
Minako looked at what was in Tomo's hand and frowned. "When we get back, remind me to give you some Canadian Smarties."[13] Then she grabbed her phone and texted Rob back in Ottawa, not caring about international roaming charges,[14] asking him to save a box of Smarties for Tomo.
"I got a lot of candy at that house. See!" Osaka found another person to show off her treats to, causing everybody to look at their own goodies.
"I got a box of choco-mints!"
"I got a pack of Twinkies!"
"I got some licorice whips!"
"I got a roll of Smarties!"
Bob moved to look in his bag, remembered he wasn't carrying one, and looked inside his briefcase instead. Completely deadpan, he said, "I got a rock."[15]
Brent rolled his eyes and turned back to Osaka. "I bet you're glad you decided to come."
"Oh, well, I didn't really decide to come. I just saw a bunch of y'all walkin' off, and then I followed, and then the next thing I knew we were all here!"
Brent shrugged. "Yes, of course you did."
While the grownups were distracted, the dressed-up Sailor Venus whispered to the dressed-up Sailor Mercury, "I just realized that we need to keep an eye on those two."
Ami looked in the same direction as Minako. "Sakura and Mira? Why?"
"Isn't it obvious? There's food energy in these candies!"
"From the sugar, yes."
"And Mira's gathering that energy for her mistress."
Ami realized where her comrade-in-arms was going. "The Sakura Cards are not Cardians, Mina-chan."
The crew traveled through street after street, amassing supplies of phat loot, enough sugar to last the winter.[16] Or at least for the next week. The neighborhood was indeed good for candy. A few generous souls had provided full-size candy bars, but for the most part they received the so-called "fun" size treats. Quite a few houses were hosting their own Halloween parties, even on a Monday.
Over time, the party of displacees stretched out into little groups – this made their visits a little more fun to each house than a giant group all at once. And after all, the community seemed pretty safe, even if it was a little dark.
The lead party of the group rounded a corner onto yet another street, where they came upon a scuffle that was just about to break out.
A ten year old boy wearing a icy blue dress with a sheer snowflake-patterned cape was being pushed into a corner, surrounded by older boys. "Look at this little faggot, thinks he's a little princess." The tallest boy pushed the princess to the ground. He fell on his butt into a patch of mud left from the previous evening's rain, caking the bottom of his dress in dirt.
"He doesn't look so pretty now, does he?"
Shaoran reacted first, his muscles tensing up for a fight. He looked at the scene for a moment, gathering situational awareness. There were three high school boys surrounding a boy in the dirt dressed in a princess costume. The houses behind them were completely dark, which made keeping track of the combatants a bit harder.
Minako reached her hand into her purse, and felt the cool metal of her transformation pen against her skin, as she contemplated dispensing punishment.
Sakura's mouth was agape in horror, and her arm drifted towards the magical key on her necklace.
Derpy launched herself upward into the darkness.
But none of them could match the speed of Tomo charging into the middle of the fray at full tilt,[17] her wooden sword lunging forward.
"Maybe he really is a girl, he's crying?"
"Oh wow, what a freak."
Tomo stumbled into the conflict, "Stop this right now!"
"Who the hell are you?"
"I'm Prince Tomo. And as a prince, if I see anyone hurting Elsa, I'm not gonna let it go." Her epaulettes gleamed in the light of one of the infrequent street lamps.
"Another queer, huh? Step out of the way."
"No."
He raised his fist to strike at her. Shaoran started to move to intervene, but Tomoyo put a hand on his shoulder, simply saying, "Watch."
Tomo raised her sword to counter the strike, and her assailant's hand barely missed being sliced by wild slash of the wooden blade. He tried to wrest it from her grasp, but Tomo spun away to the right.
The third high-schooler, who wasn't participating in the fight, warned, "C'mon, she's Chinese, she probably knows kung fu."
"I'm Japanese, and it's sword fu!" Tomo said defiantly, assuming a kendo starting pose she had learned from anime.
"Fine, let's just leave these freaks alone." The apparent leader started walking away, in an imitation of nonchalance.
"Yeah, walk away now, but your backs will be the first against the wall when the revolution comes!" Tomo taunted. A branch suddenly dropped out of the night sky, crashing onto the sidewalk behind them; the boys yelped and took off at a run. Tomo chortled as they fled.
Yomi rushed out to meet up with Tomo, but Shaoran made it to the scene first. He asked the boy sitting in the mud, "Is everything okay?" Derpy dropped down out of the darkness into the only space nearby big enough to land in, just out of the young boy's peripheral vision; she glared at the fleeing bullies, her head down and her wings mantled.
The boy looked back at Shaoran, and started to frown. He said, "No," and began crying.
Tomo sighed, and said to Shaoran, "I'll handle this. Tell Sakura get The Bubble ready." She took a couple steps, then knelt down beside the boy in a princess costume. She held out her hand and grinned, "Everything will be all right now, I promise."
The boy slowly laid his blue gloved hand in hers, and she yanked him up into her arms. Tomo declared, "If girls like me can be princes, then boys can be princesses, too. Right?"
He stopped crying and looked up to Tomo. He[18] said weakly, "Right."
"What's your name?"
"M-Mason."
"I'm pleased to make your acquaintance, Princess Mason. I am Prince Tomo of Venice." She kissed him on the forehead. "Would you do me the honor of accompanying me on this night of trick-or-treating?"
He was so shocked by this turn of events, he didn't even notice the magical bubbles working at the back of his dress, quickly dissolving the ruddy dirt. In a few seconds, the dress was back to its original sky blue color.
"Yeah, but my friends..." Two other kids came out from the bushes they were hiding behind. Aiden was wearing a Ninja Turtle costume, which was surprisingly still a thing in 2016, and Isabel was a witch, or maybe a bruja. Both of them were the same age as Mason, and wouldn't have made much of a match for the teenagers either.
And both were staring wide-eyed at Derpy, who folded her wings and smiled at them.
"That's okay, they can come too," Sakura piped up. "We'd be happy to have you along!"
"If that's okay with you, Princess Koyomi? I wouldn't want to leave you feeling left out."
Her answer was a simple plea, "Please, come with us, Mason."
"I'd love to have another princess as a friend!" Derpy declared from where she still stood just behind Mason. He turned at the sound of her voice, then froze at the sight of her.
"You..." he breathed. "You're..."
"I'm Rainbow Dash!" Derpy replied, nodding and smiling encouragingly.
Mason took a step toward her with one hand stretched out, and ran his fingers along the line of her shoulder, between her neck and her wing. "...you're real."
Derpy tilted her head curiously at him. "Of course I'm real! If I wasn't real I wouldn't be here!"
His face lit up, as did those of his friends, and Bob could see it in their eyes — somehow, against all expectations, a night that could have been terrible had become, instead, a magical one.
"So," Tomo held out her hand to Mason, "will you come with us?"
He glanced around at all the members of their group, then traded looks with Aiden and Isabel, who nodded shyly. "Sure!"
And as they walked down the streets of the neighborhood, Tomo took it upon herself to entertain and lead a pack of ten-year-olds she had never met before. Indeed, she took it as her privilege to serve as their escort and entertainment in the most gracious way possible. House after house, she stayed with them. Even when Aiden showed off his less-than-impressive "ninja moves", she cheered it on joyfully. It was, to the casual observer, the height of chivalry.
To an observer who actually knew Tomo, it was downright bizarre. Brent asked Yomi, "Did Tomo get a brain transplant while I wasn't looking?"
"It's like she's too selfless," she concurred. "It's kinda freaking me out."
Tomo must have heard this, as she turned around and offered Yomi a chocolate from her bucket. "Here, you can have this. I don't really like sweet things." Yomi held out her hand, grabbed the candy, letting Tomo turn her attention back to Mason.
"See what I mean?" Yomi stuffed the candy into her mouth.
"Are you a real prince?" Isabel asked. "Like Rainbow Dash is a real pony?"
"I'm just as much a prince as Mason is a princess," Tomo answered. "Which is a lot, principally. And I'm a very principled prince. Tell your school principal."
"Hehe, you're funny."
Brent stage-whispered to Yomi, "Nah, she's still in there, fighting to get out."
The group of magical kids was now following behind, where Shaoran could keep watch. That one time he wore a dress in public had been terribly embarrassing for him, but he just couldn't stand to see another person bullied for it.
But watching from behind, Sakura just got more confused. It was going well enough, but there were still people who had a funny reaction to Mason appearing at their door — at least until they noticed Derpy, who often had to hover to be seen over the taller children. Sure, they were polite enough, but something still felt off for some of them. When the confusion got too much, Sakura asked, "Papa, I don't understand. Why were they attacking Mason?"
"That's a hard question," Fujitaka began patiently. "I've studied all kinds of cultures from around the world.[19] One thing that a lot of them have in common are gender morés, rules of how men and women should behave. Quite a few cultures think boys and girls always should dress differently. It can be very important to them. And if you break the rules, people may start to bully you. It's just how they choose to live."
"Oh, okay. I guess not everywhere is like Japan. But it's still wrong!"
"Of course. Mason can't be himself, even on a costume holiday. It's hurtful. But Sakura, do you think the bullies know they're wrong?"
She was about to blurt out "How can they not know?" but was stopped by a stray thought. A stray thought which eventually grew into a whole theory. "Maybe not... Not if everyone their whole life told them the bad rules. They just think they're stopping the rule breaker."
"Smart girl! You answered your own question."
"Ah! I did!" The answer didn't exactly make her happy, but at least the night made a little more sense. And her world made a little less sense. Silently, she wondered what it would take to get people like that to understand each other.
As the time approached the 8 PM curfew, Prince Tomo insisted on walking her new friends home. It was just as well, as half of the crowd would have followed anyway. Through it all, Derpy walked alongside the trio, occasionally draping a wing around Mason's waist as she chatted with him, and with Aiden and Isabel. They walked a bit off to the south in the maze of twisty little roads, all alike, where the houses were a little less nice, escorting the kids back to their home street.
"Will I ever see you again?" Mason asked after they had dropped off Isabel and Aiden at their respective homes.
Tomo smiled warmly. "If you can make it to Venice Beach, my kingdom by the sea will welcome you with open arms. I'll make sure of it."
"I bet you will!" he laughed.
Derpy rose up on her rear legs and wrapped her forelegs around him in a hug made slightly clumsy by the backpack hanging from her neck. "My real name is Derpy! If you're ever in Ponyville, I'll introduce you to the other princesses I know, okay?"
Mason beamed as he hugged her back. "Okay!"
"If you never lose your courage and nobility, you will make a fine princess one day," Tomo declared confidently. "Farewell!"
After more hugs from the other children in the group, he ran up to the front steps of his home, where his parents were peering out through the storm door at the assortment of strangers their child had fallen in with. "Thanks for everything," Mason called back, before stepping into his house.
Tomo sighed as the door closed behind him and the porch light blinked out, and let her shoulders slump, "...And scene."
"Hoe?" asked Sakura.
"Oh man, I think I did that great, huh, Yomi? I totally nailed it, right?"
Yomi just started laughing, hard. "Sometimes you are just too much!" Yomi said, then continued laughing.
And Brent stopped holding in his chuckles too. "Unbelievable!"
"Was that pretty good, Brent? Huh? Huh?"
Brent pitched his voice high, "Kyaaan~ Utena-sama!"
"Great job, Tomo," Bob added around his own laughter.
"Sweet!" Tomo had the biggest grin ever plastered on her face for at least the next two hours.
The others started laughing, too – Fujitaka, Minako, and Tomoyo out of understanding, and everyone else because Tomo was acting weird and laughter is just infectious.
Shaoran went up to Brent and asked, "What was that all about?"
"That's called a long walk. And an anticlimax, too."
"So..."
Tomoyo chipped in, "Doing your best to give joy to the people you like is the greatest happiness in the world. That's what Tomo did."
"And letting Mason know he has friends who like him for who he is," Derpy added, wiping a tear from one enormous yellow eye with a hoof. "And don't want him to change just to be like everyone else."
Most of the group was all smiles. But when Minako heard Tomoyo's comment, her mien turned pensive.
"Okay folks, let's get to this party!" Tomo cheered.
"Fashionably late!" Brent enthused. "Actually, if we're going to be fashionably late, we might as well make an entrance. Sakura?"
"Hai?"
"I have an idea."
- BL: Setsubun is a annual Japanese holiday where oni are cast out with soy beans. A culturally inaccurate depiction of this holiday can be found in the pages of Urusei Yatsura.
- RMS: A kind of hard candy, shaped like bumpy spheres.
RK: They've appeared in many anime and games, including Spirited Away, Bleach, Stellvia, Hamtaro (where they got an entire episode), The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, and Animal Crossing: New Horizons. While you can make them yourself, it takes weeks to make them properly.
- RK: Not the bishops, the other sort of primates. Well, okay, the ecclesiastical primates are also examples of the other sort of primates.
- Casino Royale and the characters thereof are copyright © 1953 by Ian Fleming, and are used without permission.
- RMS: She's probably not quoting Hill Street Blues, at least not intentionally.
- BL: The Yamaguchi-gumi in real life are well known for their Halloween giveaways to the community. Yakuza can simultaneously run criminal enterprises and be pillars of the community, protectors of the downtrodden.
- BL: The term "pinky swear" originally comes from Japanese language as "yubikiri" 「指切り」, literally "finger cutting". But the implication Tomo makes is of yubitsume 「指詰め」. In the yakuza, one of the main punishments for failing to live up to one's obligations is cutting off of fingers in ritual penance. As expected, there's a social stigma against having missing fingers in Japan, to the extent that ex-yakuza – or even normal people who had accidents – often need prosthetic fingers to get hired to jobs.
- RK: No, Mihoshi isn't dressed like a Playboy Bunny; she's the other sort of bunny tonight. And that's a good thing, because Mii Konori is dressed like a Playboy Bunny, and two people wearing the same costume to a Hallowe'en party would be a disaster.
- BL: Cats are obligate carnivores; the majority of their diet must be meat to survive. Ryo-Ohki survives just fine on carrots.
- RK: You put the carrots in her mouth, and Ryo-Ohki chews and swallows them. Silly Sakaki, not knowing how an animal eats. ?
- BL: 8th-dimensional vehicles are more common than one would expect.
- BL: And maybe give thanks that you don't have one... yet.
- RMS: For our American readers, Canadian Smarties are basically extra-large M&Ms. The candy Americans know as "Smarties" are called "Rockets" in Canada.
- RK: Because there won't be any. Minako and SI-Rob got two of Skuld's phones, so the texts go through the displacees.yggdrasil server instead of through a mortal phone company.
- RK: Riffing off of It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, of course.
- BL: And change "phat" to "fat".
- BL: Canon: Tomo's sprint speed is the fastest of the Azumanga cast, so long as it's for a very short distance.
- BL: Ugh pronouns. Imma keep it cis for now.
RK: Sure, keep it cis. Transvestism does not automatically mean transgender.
- BL: Fujitaka is an archaeologist, but anthropology is a pretty closely related field. He has almost certainly given lectures on gender roles in ancient societies, since it shows up in all sorts of artifacts.
-- Bob
I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh, Clark Kent, Mary Sue, DJ Croft, Skysaber. I have been
called a hundred names and will be called a thousand more before the sun grows dim and cold....
I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh, Clark Kent, Mary Sue, DJ Croft, Skysaber. I have been
called a hundred names and will be called a thousand more before the sun grows dim and cold....