Treasa walked through the night reveling in it. One of the advantages of being an elder was that she no longer needed to feed constantly and could stop to enjoy the night in all its beauty. Sometimes she liked to stop and think. It had helped her to avoid death on a number of occasions. Tonight, she wondered if she could avoid certain doom this time as well. She could feel that events were coming to a head and soon, well soon by her standards anyway. She did not like this one bit. It also looked like she would have to choose a side. Good or Evil. But what were they anyway? She remembered a saying, something someone had told her once, 'Its not a matter of good or evil, usually. Those concepts are too abstract for most people, even immortals. Most of the time it's just "Us or Them"'. Us or Them? That was something that she could answer. The real question was who were 'Us' and who were 'Them'? ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ C&A Productions Presents A Work of Improfanfiction Mystery Club "Which should we be afraid of?" Created by Aaron Peori This part by Swordfish ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Setsuna was being faced with a similar problem. "It's not a matter of good or evil, really," said a slightly irritated Ibuki, "most supernaturals aren't harmful at all. In fact, many of them want to live normal lives just like you and me." "But..." Setsuna frowned, still confused. "Think about Akumu, he's a baku but you don't think that he is bad, do you?" "Well no, but I thought that he was the exception not the rule," Setsuna said, still frowning. "Most of the supernaturals that you notice are bad, that's why you notice them. The ones who are trying to be nice law abiding citizens never get noticed," Ibuki responded with a smug smile on her lips. "Ok, but what does this have to do with the Self-defense lesson you promised me?" Setsuna asked. "The first part of a fight is the decision TO fight," Ibuki intoned as if she were quoting a famous person, "if you fight for the wrong reasons you are just as bad as the evil you fight against." "Well I suppose that that makes some kind of sense," Setsuna reasoned, "but the only reason I want to learn is so that I won't get killed out there with you two." "The skills I teach you will not apply to just the time you are with us. You will see things differently after learning how to fight. And just because you can doesn't mean that you should," Ibuki said, crossing her arms and doing her best to look stern. "Ok I get it 'no picking fights with the helpless'," Setsuna replied. "It's a start. Enough that we can begin," with that Ibuki motioned for Setsuna to step onto the training mat. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ At a small onsen just outside of town, people relaxed in the nice warm pools of spring water. The cloudless sky gave a great view of the stars, and most of the people present were happy just to drink sake and talk to their friends. Except the two people in the corner. Both were very beautiful women. Just in different ways. The first looked to be in her teens, and had the sort of beauty that comes only at that time of life. The other looked more mature as if she were in her twenties somewhere. She had all the beauty of pure ice and the grace of a large hunting cat. They were seated in a corner somewhat away from the others, and seemed to want all the privacy that this afforded. They looked as if they were having a terrible argument over something, and didn't at all seem to be enjoying the night or the springs. Treasa didn't like the way things were going at all. First the Setsuna girl, and now this. She needed to keep better contacts with the rest of the world. Sure she could just hypnotize the spring nymph into doing whatever she wanted, but it was draining on her power and took too long. Bared fangs and veiled threats usually worked faster than hypnosis, anyway. Maybe not this time though. The Spring Nymph seemed determined to resist her. For her part the Spring Nymph was horrified, the thought of harming any of her patrons was simply wrong. She would sooner go out with a Kappa than hurt someone. Treasa was simply fed up. Enough was more than enough. "Fine if you won't do as I ask, I'll simply make you." Her cat's eyes began to show through her disguise, as she prepared to use more of her abilities. "I won't do it!" cried the cute little nymph. Moving away from Treasa, the nymph looked for a way out. "Hmpf," Treasa Hmpf'ed, as she stalked the human-looking nymph into a corner. Treasa grinned, `This could be fun.' ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Mitsurugi walked into the clubroom to see Setsuna and Ibuki working out on the mats. "Ah, good, I see you have decided to learn to defend yourself," Mitsurugi said. "Yeah *huff* I thought it *huff* would be a good *huff* idea," panted Setsuna. "She's a pretty quick learner, too," Ibuki said, as she walked over to the edge of the mat to get towels for her and Setsuna. "Good. The club trip is this weekend, by the way," Mitsurugi informed the two ladies. Ibuki nearly leapt for joy, 'Finally the Club Trip, a free all expense paid weekend at an Onsen.' Ibuki was so happy that she ran right out the door to get packed for the weekend trip. "Today is Wednesday, isn't it?" Setsuna asked, barely managing to stifle a fit of giggles as she watched Ibuki run out the door. She did break down and giggle after Ibuki had left. "Yes," Mitsurugi looked as if he was considering the merits of sweat dropping. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ This had to be the worst car trip Setsuna had ever been on in her life. Ibuki wouldn't talk about anything other than the hot spring. Mirumoto-sensei was grumpy for some reason; Setsuna didn't know exactly why, but thought it might have something to do with being forced to sit up front with Mitsurugi. Mitsurugi was no fun, because he was driving and didn't want to be distracted. All of which left Setsuna with nothing to do. So, she thought that it was a good thing that she had brought some of her chemistry homework with her. After 45 minutes of listening to Ibuki mumble about food and baths, and Mirumoto grumble about the seating arrangements, they arrived. "Yaaaaaaaaaaayy....." was heard as Ibuki disappeared inside. "Seems quieter than usual," Mirumoto commented looking around the parking lot, "usually there are a lot more people here than this." Mitsurugi grunted and followed Ibuki inside. "Oh well, it's probably nothing, eh, Setsuna-chan?" "Yeah, probably nothing," Setsuna agreed. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ After Setsuna had put her bags in her room, she followed Ibuki out to the baths. When she saw Ibuki relaxing in the spring, she walked over clutching her towel to her. Setsuna realized that this was the first time that she had seen Ibuki without clothes on. 'That's odd,' she thought to herself, 'She has a lot of scars. I wonder if she got them all from fighting monsters.' "Where is he?" Setsuna asked, fearing the worst. "That old pervert?" Ibuki asked. Setsuna nodded, "Oh, he was trying to peep through the fence over there," Ibuki waved at a nondescript patch of fence, "but I hit him with the soap." Relieved, Setsuna set about bathing before getting into the spring with Ibuki. When she was sitting in the steaming water next to Ibuki, she looked around and realized that there was no one else in the pool with them. "Where'd everybody go?" Setsuna asked. "Eh, who cares? I kinda like having it all to myself." Ibuki sank a little deeper into the water and let out a contented sigh. "But why did they all leave? I mean this is a real nice place." "Maybe a ghost scared them all off," Ibuki broke into her best ghost impression going `hyuuuuuuuuu', and waving her arms around a bit. "Stop. There aren't any real ghosts, are there?" Setsuna asked. Ibuki began to laugh. "Remember what I told you before `The ones who are trying to be nice law abiding citizens never get noticed,' " Ibuki stopped waving her arms around and sank back into the water. "Just because we don't notice something doesn't mean that it isn't there." "Eep!" Setsuna exclaimed, sinking deeper into the water. She shivered despite the water's warmth. "Oh, I'm sure it's nothing. Just a bad review in a paper or magazine or something," with that Ibuki closed her eyes. "Besides if there really is anything going on we'll deal with it when it comes up." Ibuki's breathing began to slow as she relaxed in the warm water, and she fell into a contented sleep. Setsuna relaxed, after all if Ibuki wasn't worried, why should she be? ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Setsuna was startled out of a light doze by a noise. "Huh, what?" She looked around for the source of the noise, but couldn't see anything out of place. 'It's just my imagination,' Setsuna thought. 'There's nobody here except us and the guys.' Setsuna snuck over to the dividing wall and took a peek just to make sure. Seeing that there was nobody peeping back, she wondered what had made the noise. She turned to go back and get her towel. It was then that she noticed a weird light coming from the changing room. As she stood there the strange blue light seemed to be getting closer. "Guh.guh..Gho..Gho," Setsuna stammered, as a beautiful, if somewhat transparent, young lady stepped out of the changing rooms, and began to float slowly towards her. As she stepped out over the water, she seemed to shimmer and dissolve down into the hot springs. Setsuna was still having trouble getting her voice to respond correctly when Mitsurugi and Mirumoto showed up, the latter carrying a camera and a mischievous grin. "Where'd it go?" Mirumoto asked, pointing the camera at Setsuna. Setsuna pointed at the water. The camera didn't move, so Setsuna chose to scream, "PERVERT!!" Ibuki sat up groggily from her hot bath and noticed Mirumoto pointing a camera at her and Setsuna. Setsuna was surprised to see Ibuki move a lot faster than she had ever seen her move before, as Mirumoto went flying back out of the baths to land on the other side of the wall. "Damn freak," Ibuki commented picking up her towel and moving over to rub up against Mitsurugi, "I didn't know that you were interested too. Perhaps you should stop by my room later, Mitsu-chan," she purred before swaying back inside. Mitsurugi almost blushed, "What happened? I felt something, but apparently we were too late to see it," he said as Setsuna picked up her towel. "It was a Ghost." Setsuna followed Ibuki inside blushing. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ After dinner, which Mirumoto didn't show up for by grace of being unconscious in the bath, Setsuna and Ibuki retired to their room. "Mitsu-chan is so cute when he does that," Ibuki sighed contentedly patting her full belly and letting out a little burp. "Does what?" Setsuna asked sitting down to brush her hair out before she went to sleep. "Gets all embarrassed like he was earlier tonight in the bath." "You weren't serious, I mean about him coming here tonight," a slight edge to Setsuna voice betrayed her uneasiness. "Oh no I just like to tease him about things like that. He's so much fun to tease. He always so serious. But considering I can't really blame him." "Considering what?" Setsuna went from wary to curious in a heartbeat. "He'll tell you when he's ready I'm sure. Besides it's not really my place to talk about it, and I don't even know the whole story," Ibuki yawned as she folded down her futon, "g'night." "Goodnight Ibuki." ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Setsuna walked towards the front gate of the university. It seemed farther from the Library tonight. She quickened her pace, after all it would not do to miss the bus. The gate didn't get any closer, in fact, it seemed to get farther away. Setsuna stopped, this was not right somehow. Then she noticed a figure, perched atop the gatepost, lit by a street light behind it. Setsuna was sure that it had not been there a second before. The figure slowly stood and beckoned to her. This time one step brought her all the way to the gate. `Something is definitely wrong here,' Setsuna thought to herself. She looked up at the person standing atop the gate. The figure was still cloaked in shadows, even though the streetlight behind it should have made enough light to see by. Then Setsuna saw those dark yellow eyes. She started screaming. Setsuna awoke, still screaming. Ibuki was shaking her. "You okay? You were screaming like a banshee." "Yeah, sorry. I just had a really bad nightmare," Setsuna apologized. "Well, if you need anything I'll be right over there," Ibuki mumbled, as she crawled back over to her futon and went back to sleep. Setsuna sighed in relief. 'I'm not scared,' she thought. 'And if I tell myself that enough maybe I'll even believe it too. Oh well I don't want to go back to sleep just yet.' So, instead she retrieved her Chemistry notebook from her backpack and started to do one of the boring oxidization problems that she had been assigned this week. After alittle while she fell asleep again, still clutching her notebook. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Treasa was less than happy. In fact, she was rather annoyed with the whole situation. None of her normal powers worked on the girl; the only thing she seemed to be able to do was enter into her dreams. This was really irksome, since she had never met anyone like this before. Just to top it all off, the girl was scared of her. She would be much harder to control without any powers, especially if she was scared. Treasa needed to figure out how to lessen the girl's fear, so that she would be more pliable. Perhaps, by giving her something else to fear. Other than this setback, her plans were coming along quite nicely. Everything seemed like it would fall into place in time. In time for what, she still was not entirely clear on. When, whatever was going to happen, happened, she would be ready. Holding all of the cards. She hoped. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Mitsurugi woke to Setsuna screaming. 'This could be bad,' he thought as he pulled on a robe and stepped out the door to go find out what the commotion was about. As he turned the corner to the hall leading to the girls' room, he caught a glimpse of a blue light moving off towards the baths. Despite his astonishment, he remained straight-faced. 'Something wasn't right with that picture.' Mitsurugi began to follow the ghostly apparition. Again it went straight to the baths. This time, however, Mitsurugi was there to witness it sink into the pool and disappear. Mitsurugi waited, watching the bath for 15 minutes before deciding that it wasn't going to reappear. When he got back to his room, he went to sleep thinking that they should probably do something about the ghost. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Mirumoto was in bed with a cold, after being out all night in the springs. Setsuna was even considerate enough to bring him breakfast in the morning. Not that she felt she had a choice since, Ibuki wouldn't be in the same room with the old man, and Mitsurugi didn't seem to care much. She left the room almost as soon as she had put down the tray. "How is he?" Mitsurugi asked around his food when she came back to the dining room. "Sick, but that's not much of a change. I'm sure he'll be fine though." "He's a tough old bastard, I'll give him that," Ibuki interrupted her enjoyment of the food just long enough to add her opinion. "Where did the Hostess go? I wanted to ask her some questions," Setsuna was very curious about the events that had taken place last night in the baths. "She left this morning. Said something about going into town to do a few errands. Hope she gets back before dinner," Mitsurugi threw a look at Ibuki, who stuck her tongue out at him. "Why?" "We might be forced to eat Ibuki's cooking." "I'm not that bad, am I, Mitsu-chan?" Ibuki grinned at Mitsurugi. "If instant ramen appeals to you." He paused. "And don't call me Mitsu-chan." "Oh. Well, then about the ghost?" Mitsurugi and Ibuki looked at Setsuna with mixed expressions. "What ghost?" "I'm not so sure it was a ghost," Mitsurugi stated, simply. "What ghost are we talking about here?" "Last night Setsuna saw a ghost in the baths, while you were taking your little nap," Mitsurugi informed Ibuki, "and I saw it later after Setsuna woke me up with her screaming last night." "Heh. Heh. Sorry about that." Setsuna blushed. 'Gee I'm apologizing a lot lately.' Mitsurugi shrugged. "When I got up to check on you I saw her. I followed her to the spring where she disappeared." "So what?" Ibuki prompted. "Most ghosts don't disappear into water." 'This is the most I've ever heard him say all at once.' Setsuna thought to herself "You think that there's more to this, don't you?" Ibuki asked, looking expectantly at Mitsurugi. "Yes. I want to have a look around, and see what's here. Something had to have triggered it." Mitsurugi and Ibuki left talking excitedly about how they were going to go about solving their pet mystery. Setsuna sighed and cleaned up the dishes. 'After all, it wouldn't do to leave a mess.' ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ `Ibuki is having too much fun.' Setsuna thought. `It's hot, damp, and miserable outside, and Ibuki is enjoying it. Mitsurugi is taking this well, for a guy who wears all black most of the time. I know I look a mess. My shirt is soaked, and my hair is a complete mess.' And what did they have to show for it all? Nothing. Not a single thing. No shrines. No graves. No abandoned houses in the woods. Just heat, bugs, and sweat. Setsuna was considering going back to the hot springs and taking a nap, or at least sitting inside in the air conditioning. After forever and a day of being out in the heat, Mitsurugi announced that they should go back inside, since there was obviously nothing to be found out here. Something Setsuna could have told him hours ago. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ "Well that was fun." Ibuki relaxed into a nearby sofa, "I say we should do it every year." "What? Go out all day wandering around aimlessly in the heat?" Setsuna was still a bit bedraggled from her encounter with the great outdoors earlier in the day. "No this ghost hunt. It's fun." "I wonder where our hostess is? She should have been back by now," Mitsurugi glanced nervously at the two girls. "She probably had more to do in town than she let on," Setsuna explained. "So how do we find our ghost?" Ibuki asked with an eager glint in her eye. "Maybe we could use Mirumoto-sensei for bait." A loud sneeze was heard from down the hall, immediately followed by, "Damn cold." "I don't think that will work, Setsuna." Mitsurugi thought for a second, "Perhaps we should go back to the last place we saw it." "Hey why didn't we think of that before?" "We were looking to clues to its origins. Remember?" Ibuki looked sternly at Setsuna. "Doesn't the club come up here every year?" Mitsurugi and Ibuki sweat dropped. "Yeah," Mitsurugi responded sheepishly. "How about some dinner?" Ibuki laughed nervously. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ After dinner, cooked by Setsuna, the Mystery Club assembled in the women's bath. "Well what now, Ms. Detective?" Ibuki sat down on a nearby stone. "We wait." Following Ibuki's example the other two members of the Mystery Club sat on some rocks near the pool. "You know I always thought that these sorts of things would be scarier," Setsuna said. "I guess it's just what you get used to," Ibuki explained. "We're used to fighting things that are more likely to bite your head off than want to talk to you. So, this probably doesn't seem scary by comparison." "I guess your right, but I can't help thinking that we missed something." "Who knows? Maybe we did." It wasn't long before, the ghost showed up. It came floating out of the women's changing room, and went straight over to the water. "Wait!" Setsuna cried, as it began to sink slowly into the water. It stopped and turned to face her. "Uh, well. That is..." "Well go on." Ibuki pushed Setsuna right up to the edge of the pool nearest the ghost. Setsuna stared blankly at the ghost for a second. "We were wondering what you wanted, so we could get you to stop frightening off all of the people who come here, right guys?" Setsuna blurted out. The ghost reached out and grabbed Setsuna's wrist and moaned, "Waaarrmth." It promptly finished sinking down into the water, taking Setsuna with it. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ It was dark. Not that Setsuna hadn't expected it, it was night after all, but it seemed darker than usual. `Maybe if I open my eyes I'll be able to see something.' She thought. Setsuna realized that her eyes were open. `Well that's certainly scary. I'm sorry I asked why this didn't seem scarier now.' "I wonder were I am." Setsuna tested her voice. It didn't carry but she could hear herself talk at the very least. "You know I really have no clue. Nobody has ever thought to ask before." Setsuna's brain clicked with, `wait a minute I didn't say that.' "Who are you?" "I'm Cleo. I'm a water nymph." "Were you that ghost I saw at the hot springs?" Setsuna asked. "Yes. Treasa forced me to do it. I didn't have any choice. I didn't want to, honest!" Cleo sobbed. "It's all right. I understand." Setsuna comforted the disembodied voice. "You know it's really creepy just talking to thin air. Could you tell me where you are?" "Wherever. It's all the same to me. But here let me just," Cleo paused for a second and appeared next to Setsuna. "There is that better?" "Yeah. So, where is this place?" "I don't really know. It's just where I go when I'm not materialized physically. I never thought to name it or anything." "Does anyone else come here? How do I get back? Why aren't you under Treasa's control anymore?" Setsuna asked all at once. "Well, let me think. I think I've seen a few others here, but things are so far apart, and the physical world is so much more interesting." Cleo paused to consider the next question. "I just go. I can't really describe how. I just sort of do it." Cleo stared hard at Setsuna for a second. "You should know the answer to your last question, since you are the one who broke her control." "Me?" Setsuna squeaked. "Yes. When I was moving us through the water to the meeting place Treasa had told me about, you started to glow and boom, here we are." "How did I...? I mean, what did I...?" Setsuna stammered. "Oh I have no clue. I just know that it's good to be free from that one." Cleo shivered. "See I still shiver just thinking about it." "Well, I guess, but what about going home?" Setsuna asked. Cleo took Setsuna's hand and responded with, "I guess we'll just have to try. Just try to think of yourself as you were in the material world, and then you should just go there." "Ok." Setsuna concentrated, and nothing happened. "It doesn't seem to be working." "Hmmm, try again, maybe you missed something." Setsuna concentrated. She thought about all the things that had happened to her recently. That weird scary monster, meeting Ibuki and Mitsurugi, Yohko's death, that strange Kuroko girl, who Akumu had been with when she first met him, those strange dreams with Treasa, and now this. And still nothing happened. "I still can't do it." Setsuna slumped down. "Try thinking about yourself. What makes you different." Cleo coached Setsuna. "Ok." Setsuna tried again. This time she tried to think about what made her, herself. All she could seem to picture was a little white ball of light. Then everything went dark. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ "SETSUNA!!" Ibuki cried as Setsuna disappeared into the water. "Well, Shit." Ibuki sank down next to the water and stared into it blankly. Mitsurugi sat down again and thought. `I wonder how we are going to explain this to Mirumoto-sensei. Heck, I wonder how we're going to explain this to anyone. "Yes sir, we were just sitting around the women's bath and suddenly a ghost floated in and picked up our missing friend, and disappeared into the water over there." Sure that'll go over real well.' Ibuki hadn't moved in 10 minutes. `Maybe I should go over there and help Ibuki.' Mitsurugi thought. `Well this certainly isn't getting anything done. I guess I'll just go inside and break this to Mirumoto. After all it's not like this is the first time that we've lost a club member to unexplained phenomena.' Mitsurugi rose to go inside. The water began to shine brightly in the night, stopping Mitsurugi before he went inside. With a final blinding flash, the light disappeared to reveal Setsuna. "Setsuna!" Ibuki cried rushing over to her. "Hey Ibuki. Listen, I'm kinda tired, so, could you keep it down some?" Setsuna asked, and promptly fell unconscious. "Yeah kid. I can do that." Ibuki picked up Setsuna and turned to Mitsurugi. "I'm going to take her back to the room. I'll see you in the morning." "Good." Mitsurugi grinned. `I guess this means I don't have to go and tell Mirumoto right away.' ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Setsuna was in art class again. This happened everyday, but today was special because the new professor was supposed to arrive, bringing an end to the endless stream of substitute lecturers they had been having. She noticed that Akumu was absent for some reason. This seemed odd to her, but she remembered that he had been absent a lot recently The door to the classroom opened, and in walked their new professor. Her yellow cat-eyes gleamed in the moonlight. Setsuna's heart skipped beat as she looked around for help. Only there was no one there. Slowly she turned back to face her too perfect art teacher. Treasa smiled at her. Setsuna wanted to scream. `How could she be here? This is my class.' Setsuna frantically tried to wish her away. When Treasa didn't go away, Setsuna settled on putting as much distance between them as possible. Treasa grimaced, this was going to take more effort than she had thought. Setsuna raced outside in record time. She looked around frantically for a way to escape the impending doom. She could feel it coming closer. Any moment now Treasa would be close enough to reach out and bite her. Then she saw the front gate, lit by what looked to be a streetlight just beyond it. She started to run desperately for the gate. When the gate didn't come any closer, Setsuna stopped, completely dumbstruck with fear. Treasa approached Setsuna with an ease and grace earned through centuries of unlife. Setsuna was still staring blankly at the gate as Treasa appeared next to her. "Little girl don't be afraid. I won't hurt you," Treasa purred into Setsuna's ear. Setsuna didn't pay any attention to Treasa, even when Treasa put her hand on Setsuna's shoulder, and spoke again into her ear, "I want your help. I won't let any harm come to you." Setsuna continued staring through the gate at the little ball of light just on the other side. At first she had mistook it for a streetlight, but it was too low to the ground for that. It looked warm and happy, though, but it was still just out of reach through the gate. Treasa was growing annoyed at the lack of response she was getting from the little girl. She angrily whirled Setsuna around to face her. Setsuna screamed at having her gaze torn from the light behind the gate. In a haze of anger, she rounded on Treasa and shouted, "Get out! Go! I hate you!" Setsuna pushed back at Treasa. Treasa was shocked, no mortal had ever done that before. Treasa's control began to waver. She flickered a second in Setsuna's vision before fading completely from view, a surprised expression on her face. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Setsuna awoke breathing hard and sweating, but she felt good. She had stood up to Treasa. But she had to wonder what was it that Treasa had wanted and why her. Mentally shrugging, Setsuna decided that she shouldn't worry about it. After all, this was a vacation. She got up from her bed, and went to see if anyone else was up yet. Breakfast sounded like a good idea. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ After breakfast, everybody got packed and piled into the University's van. "Good bye. Thanks for coming." the hostess said, who had gotten back just in time to fix them breakfast this morning. Mitsurugi was driving again, with him up front was Mirumoto, who looked much healthier than yesterday. Ibuki was already dozing in the back seat with Setsuna. `This is just great. Again there's nobody to talk to.' Setsuna paused and looked back at the onsen. `Oh well, it was kinda fun. I guess I'll look forward to this again next year. Except for the whole being kidnapped by a ghost part.' As she turned back to take one last look at the onsen, she noticed a young lady she hadn't seen before waving at her as she left. She waved back. `She seems oddly familiar, but I can't quite place her.' Setsuna thought as the onsen disappeared around a curve in the road. Author's notes: Wwwhhhheeeeeeeeee!!!!! My first Impro part ever is complete! I don't know whether to leap for joy or go to sleep from exhaustion, well, maybe a little leaping before I hit the sack. "Show don't tell." There is now a little post it on my monitor with this phrase written on it. Five rewrites a draft before I was willing to send it off to pre-readers, and even then it came back several times with "show don't tell" in the comments. "Commas suck" I misused commas more than anything else, with the possible exception of "Show don't tell". However, it did get easier as I got more done. "Do not attempt to play video games, and work 40 hrs a week, and write an Impro part, while sick." I think that this speaks for itself. Things that you hopefully have already noticed: A lot of Treasa in this ep. I hate having villains with no set goals in something I am reading. They bug me. So I tried to give her some goals. Ibuki/Setsuna. As Mr. Peori said in one of his first responses to me "They do need a little development." Well hopefully he will enjoy some of this. Onsens are Japanese Hot Springs. Fairly common. Men's side, and Women's side. Nothing too unusual. See it in most anime. I'd like to give a big thank you to my three pre-readers. Lady Chaos, who caught so many comma mistakes that I was past embarrassed. Aaron Peori, who gave me a great place to find a plot (I stole it from an episode of Tenchi Muyo). And Magic Knight Kiyone, who was good moral support. And the Microsoft Word Spell Checker, without which there would be many more typographical errors in this document. -Swordfish, the guy who has sworn off Impro writing until after episode 20 of Mystery Club comes out, WAY after.