Three More Things!

by Tatsurou


Many Short Tails

Despite the intensity of events in Hollywood, it was some time before anything else major happened in the fight against the Demon Sorcerers. This gave the Chans time to get back to their own lives for a while, allowing for a few small adventures to happen, though not all were world shaking...or even noteworthy.

The larger size of the family had encouraged Jackie to acquire a larger vehicle for long family trips - such as driving Uncle to acquire new stock for the shop - which still managed to lead to an overcrowded trip back once all the artifacts Uncle bought were loaded into and tied down on the van. On an impulse, Jackie had stopped on the way back in an Old West ghost town where they found a book detailing the adventures of someone they believed to be Jackie's great-great grandfather. Jade and Uncle got more into the story than the fillies could, as the two human listeners found characters within the story that could easily be analogues for themselves. No such luck for the fillies.

Of more pertinent interest was the results of a search Uncle sent Jackie - and Jackie alone - on, to find an ancient Archive. The tome was apparently a book of dark magic spells written by the Demon Sorcerers themselves, but may yet contain information they could use against the Demons. Uncle was very firm about Jackie going alone, however. "Is very dangerous Dark Magic book!" he had insisted. "Might hurt fillies or Jade if they touch, now that Jade is learning magic! In dangerous place between ignorance and Mastery where most vulnerable! But Jackie has no magic of his own, not be hurt by magic book!"

"That's a relief," Jackie had groaned with a role of his eyes.

When Jackie had returned, he had the Archive with him and a tale of the Shadow Khan attacking him in an attempt to retrieve the Archive themselves. While the fillies rushed to assist Uncle with researching the tome, Jade had what she felt were more pressing concerns. In amongst numerous other questions and comments said very fast she asked Jackie, "Can I get a tattoo?"

"Why do you want one?" Jackie asked curiously.

"All the kids at school are getting them!" Jade insisted...admittedly a minor exaggeration.

"If all the kids at school were jumping off-" Jackie cut himself off. "You'd be first in line for that, wouldn't you?"

"You bet!" Jade responded eagerly. "Does that mean-"

"No," Jackie countered flatly.

"But Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle-"

"Those are Cutie Marks," Uncle interrupted. "Magical symbols of special talents!"

"Like the kids at school can tell the difference," Jade grumbled irritably.

"...our butts are trend setting?" Sweetie Belle asked in surprise.

"Tell you what Jade," Jackie offered in a conciliatory manner. "When a magical symbol of your destiny spontaneously appears on your butt, you can keep it and show it off. But until then, no tattoos."

Jade returned to grumbling irritably under her breath. She momentarily thought about copying the symbol off the front of the Archive as a 'fake tattoo' just to flaunt for a day or two at school, but quickly decided against it. With the training the other girls had given her, she could feel the evil in the symbol, and between that and what Uncle had said about her being especially magically vulnerable right now, she didn't want it anywhere on her body...especially not on her butt like Jackie suggested.

"Say girls?" Apple Bloom asked as they read through the book with Uncle. "Do the hanzi here look...off to you at all?"

"...kinda?" Sweetie Belle offered uncertainly.

"Honestly look more like kanji to me," Scootaloo observed idly.

"...when they're this old, is there really that much of a difference?" Apple Bloom asked uncertainly. "Ah know there's a lot more difference in modern Chinese and Japanese than people would think, even when it comes ta the use o' Chinese characters..."

"Something about the way these are arranged feels more Ancient Japanese than Ancient Chinese," Scootaloo pointed out. "But...the shape of the characters is more Ancient Chinese..."

Sweetie Belle's eyes widened. "You mean...like if someone from Ancient China had taken a book-worth of spells from Ancient Japan and recorded them in Chinese for the pronunciation?" she suggested.

"Yeah...yeah, that's it, Sweetie!" Scootaloo crowed as she pointed to a specific set of characters. "In fact, I'm pretty sure this phrase is talking about 'legions of Oni', not 'legions of shadows' like it's written. And the Oni-"

"O...oni?" Tohru gasped in abject terror, shivering violently. "Do...do we have enough onions?"

Smirking, Audrey lifted his roots out of his pot, dangling several onions where Tohru could see them. The gentle giant breathed a huge sigh of relief even as the youngsters who saw it giggled.

"Hmm...interesting theory," Uncle observed. "Had not thought Demon Sorcerers would steal magic...but makes sense." He traced over the page for a time. "If that is the case...this research waste of time for now!" Closing the book, he placed a parchment seal upon it before locking it up in a secret compartment of the library. "Not help deal with Chinese Demon Portals if book of Japanese Dark Magic." Smiling, he pet all three girls on the head to praise them. "Is good thing you did that project on ancient Japanese mythology and make effort to study it in original, untranslated language. Uncle only knows hanzi, and Tohru only knows kanji. We would not have spotted difference like you did!"

All three girls beamed with pride.