The Situation at home worsened. July walked to Chir and to Gin who sat there and nipped at his alcohol watching from his point of advantage. 

"July....welcome." 

"Hello." She greeted him. Her expression stoic, she was back to her calm self. Nothing of the July from the evening was left.

"Did you notice something yesterday evening when my flower." He asked her his grin plastered on his face. "You should have." 

She tilted her head. Asking a question without words. 

"So you did notice, marvelous." He boomed and leaned back laughter in his voice. "Listen to me. That had been my first lesson to you." 

"Lesson?" 

"I have gotten a rough guess of your skill set." He said and crossed his legs his eyes shining like molten gold with amusement underneath the morning sun. "I tired you out yesterday to show you something. Do you know how skills work?" 

"Not really." 

"Ahh, as expected. What I wanted to teach you is the side effects of skills. To recognize them and to learn how to control them." He took another gulp of his drink. "Skills. They are your strength, they provide you power, they give you unique abilities but...big but... They can also take control of you, if you don't control them. When you are in a good state, the control is not a big problem. When you are tired however that is another thing. You are distracted...tired so the skills take a larger potion of your mind under their control. If they are as conflicting as yours...from all I have seen, they can rip you apart mentally if you don't watch it." 

"I see." July replied. "That is understandable. I understand." 

"It is a lesson best learned early and from self experience." Gin offered her a glass soft water. "Do you want to continue today?" 

"No...I have to do something else today." She told him. "We can continue tomorrow." 

"Good." 

He gave her some money from the wolves they had slayed. She pocketed the money and returned home, wondering where she would end up in her house. 

Her feet hit the living room carpet. There was much to do. Her mother let out a surprised yelp before spotting her and giving her a tight hug.

"I have money. Where do I put it?" she asked her mother. "If Father wants me to leave, I will do so as fast as I can," she said, Holding out a sack of gold coins. "If the currency works," she said. 

"The Labyrinth Connection takes all currencies; gold shouldn't be a problem." Her mother said, nodding and then smiling. "I show you how it is done. I asked a few old friends from the bank for help." She said. Then, she headed into the pantry and brought a small tool that looked like a scanning device. "We put the coins here and then sign them up. This thing verifies the money, we will get half upon scan, after that we only have to go to an assigned to our store, give them the money. We will find the rest an hour later in our bank account." she stated confidently. "The one I got this from also has a secondary account on the Labyrinth Connection." 

"Okay," she said, but her mother nodded. "Where do we go?"

"That is what you should ask about. You know it's illegal and shouldn't be doing this, but you cannot trust the hunters association anymore." Her mother's voice had a complex tone, and July understood, remembering the conversation she had listened to her first night back home. July took her mother's hand. "Let's do it then." She said, and her mother nodded determinedly. They went to their father's computer, and then her mother sat down, getting to work. July typed in her passwords, and soon they were on her account. Putting the machine next to them, her mother hooked it up to the computer and slowly put handful after handful underneath the scanner. She tied up the bag at about half and took a shopping bag from her pocket. 

"These coins stay with us; the ones I scanned go in there," she said, and July threw the scanned coins into the shopping bag. With a bag full of gold, she stared at how the computer worked, and a considerable amount appeared on the screen. "The first half. We have to get the money to... here. We have quite a few choices. Which one should we take? It has to be close." 

"Actually, it doesn't." July interrupted. "I can go anywhere. Have you forgotten?" 

Her mother stilled, and the mouse hovered, then she turned. "Are you sure you can do it so often? It has to take a cost of stamina." She asked, and July nodded. 

"I can. I haven't figured out my limit yet, but that much is possible without worries." She answered, and her mother picked one as far away as possible. "Japan it is then. I have always wanted to go there, and I remember you did too. You always joyfully listened to Mr. Tanaka's stories about his country." 

Hearing the name, suddenly, a faint memory flashed up inside July. Mr Tanaka had given her a lock of hair from Mrs. Dürr. Did she still have it? Scouring her memories, she remembered she had lost them. Somewhere in the darkness, it had been gone; maybe it was still inside that ant dungeon? She should get it back...if it was still there after so many years, how long had she been trapped inside the darkness, sixteen years. Did a lock of hair survive that long unprotected?

"I promised Mr Tanaka something." She told her mother. "This reminded me of it." 

"Oh. If you tell me what, I can help you keep it." 

"I promised to deliver something, but I lost it and it probably doesn't exist anymore. I just remembered it existed at all," she told her, noticing a hand stroking her hair. 

"Don't worry, my little bird. We will find another way to keep that promise, okay. For now, let us do what we can do." Her mother said, and ripping July out of her own Mind. There was no real point in thinking about something she couldn't fulfill anymore. "We must go to Kyoto, Shimabara, there if the map is right." Her mother pointed to a small store that appeared to be an empty building. "There. To a Mr. Shimabara." 

"I can take us there," July said, "into this alley." She pointed slightly left, where a small alleyway without an end was indicated on the map. 

"Okay, let's go then." her mother said determinedly. "do you have another of those masks?" 

July nodded, and with the bag of gold, she walked up into her room, thinking shortly if she should stash it somewhere. She stopped herself, though. Instead, she fixed it back to her belt and picked up a mask for her mother. When she got down, her mother was standing ready to go there, looking like an ordinary housewife and not someone about to do something very illegal. She handed her a mask and then flickered her hand. 

She waited for the announcement that always came when she used World Wanderer. Instead, the Gate simply flickered open. It appeared she had slowly been used and initiated properly with her skills. 

A Gate for Kyoto, Shimabara, location people-less alleyway