At 3:42 a.m., the doors to my bedroom exploded open with enough force to wake nations.
I sat upright instantly.
Years of executive protection training had conditioned me to react quickly to danger.
Unfortunately, my life now involved Saturn.
"ADRIAN!"
Saturn burst into the room barefoot and visibly deranged, silk robe flying behind him like a prophet outrunning divine punishment.
Behind him, three attendants attempted unsuccessfully to stop him while Blaze sprinted down the hallway carrying what appeared to be emergency incense.
Lucien jolted awake beside me with a gasp.
"What happened?" he whispered.
Saturn looked genuinely horrified.
"This," he said breathlessly, "is a metaphysical disaster."
My soul briefly left my body.
"What kind of disaster?"
Saturn pointed shakily toward the mountains outside.
"A containment breach of astronomical levels."
Silence.
Rain hammered softly against the windows.
Somewhere deeper in the estate, an alarm bell began ringing.
I closed my eyes slowly.
"Saturn," I said carefully, "those words do not mean anything."
"They absolutely do!"
Blaze burst into the room seconds later looking emotionally devastated.
"Oh my God," he whispered after one glance outside. "No..."
Lucien grabbed my arm tightly beneath the blankets.
"What is it?"
Blaze looked at him with the expression of a doctor preparing to deliver terrible news.
"The moon."
My stomach dropped.
Outside, hanging massive and silver above the mountains of Hakone, was the full moon.
Apparently this was bad.
Very bad.
Saturn paced wildly across the room.
"It's too close."
"That is how moons work," I snapped.
"No, Adrian, you don't understand. The atmospheric veil over Hakone is unusually thin tonight."
"That still doesn't mean anything!"
"The lunar pressure is interacting with Lucien's already destabilized energetic field!"
Blaze looked moments from collapse.
"He's spiritually tide-sensitive right now."
Lucien made a tiny distressed sound.
"I knew the moon felt judgmental..."
"Oh my God," Blaze whispered emotionally.
At that exact moment, every light in the bedroom flickered simultaneously.
The room went dead silent.
Then all three humidifiers shut off.
Saturn stopped pacing.
Nobody moved.
Very quietly, Blaze said:
"The protection grid failed."
I felt genuine fear for the first time in years.
"What protection grid?"
"The one around the estate."
"THERE'S A GRID?"
"No time!"
Saturn lunged toward the curtains and ripped them shut dramatically.
"Do not let him make direct eye contact with the moon."
Lucien immediately buried himself deeper beneath the blankets.
"I don't wanna get cosmically perceived..."
"You won't," Blaze promised, climbing onto the bed beside him with the urgency of a battlefield medic. "Stay grounded. Think soft thoughts."
The bedroom doors burst open again.
Marianne stood there in pajama pants holding three phones and the shattered remains of her emotional stability.
"Why," she said flatly, "are there monks running through the koi garden?"
"The grid failed," Saturn explained.
Marianne stared at him for a very long time.
Then:
"I'm going to kill myself."
"Not now," Blaze snapped. "Lucien's lunar boundaries are dissolving."
One of Marianne's eyes twitched violently.
Outside, wind howled through the cedar trees.
A bell rang somewhere deep within the estate.
Then another.
Then screaming.
Lucien grabbed my hand tightly.
"Adrian..."
I turned immediately.
His pupils looked huge.
Reflective.
Concerningly beautiful.
"What is it?"
"The moon knows where I am."
Saturn physically staggered backward.
Blaze looked seconds from tears.
"Oh, this is catastrophic."
I stood up instantly.
"Okay. Enough. Somebody explain what the hell is happening."
The Shinto priest appeared silently in the doorway like a man materializing from collective stress.
His expression was grave.
"The moon has recognized him."
Complete silence.
Marianne made a strangled noise somewhere behind me.
I pointed at the priest desperately.
"What does that mean?"
The priest folded his hands solemnly.
"It means his spirit is emotionally visible."
Saturn sat down abruptly.
Blaze covered his mouth.
Lucien looked ready to evaporate.
Meanwhile, I was developing a stress headache severe enough to alter reality.
"Fine," I said tightly. "How do we fix it?"
The priest looked toward the mountains.
"There is only one option."
Nobody breathed.
"We must relocate him before moonfall."
I stared at him.
"...It is already nighttime."
"Yes."
"THE MOON IS CURRENTLY OUT."
"Yes."
"Then what the fuck is moonfall?"
No one answered me.
Instead, Blaze suddenly gasped.
"Oh my God."
The entire room froze.
"What now?" I demanded.
Blaze looked at Saturn in horror.
"The onsen."
Saturn went pale instantly.
"No."
"The volcanic springs amplify celestial sensitivity."
"No."
Lucien slowly looked up from the blankets.
"...I can hear the water chanting."
Absolute panic erupted immediately.
The priest began speaking rapid prayers.
Saturn grabbed a crystal from the nightstand and threw it into a bowl of salt.
Blaze started crying quietly while trying to wrap Lucien in another blanket.
Marianne turned around and walked directly back out of the room.
Honestly?
Fair enough.