With that she hauled them downstairs and they all ate a somewhat awkward meal with Kurusawa the detective. After that they thought to just give it a day, since they would be getting their final powerhouse tomorrow, and went to their rooms. Inari needed to see if she could get a read on Hato with the orb as well, as it would be the link between Hato and the ritual. Once the meal was over Lawrence helped clean up and went back to his room, where Oku was. Once he entered, Lawrence crossed his arms and looked at Oku, who was laid out on the bed. There were a couple bottles of sake around as well...

“What?”

“You never told me you left power inside of me. Also where the hell do you Youkai get all this sake?!”

“It wasn’t like I meant to do that you know, you were the one that forced me out of you, and it’s jus’ around you know?.”

“Well I can’t deny that, but another thing, when are you going to return those books? You know if Jeremiah looks at a book he can remember the contents right? We have all the information we need.”

“It’s fine ok? C’mere and sit down!”

He sighed, but sat down next to her anyways. She had a shirt on, but Lawrence was pretty sure that was about it.

“I’m glad to see you can get drunk no matter the situation.”

She didn’t immediately respond, but snuggled under Lawrence’s arm and fell down onto his lap.

“Lawrence. I’ve seen a lot. Sometimes I feel like I would be happier if I could just die you know?”

“Oh please, you aren’t like that. You love life.”

“Well yeah but that’s now. I used to hate life.”

“Why?”

“I was alone. I’ve been alone for a long time idiot. Ever since they all died I’ve been alone! Even the guy I thought would never die was put down in the dirt. They’re all gone.”

“Who? Old friends?”

“A lot of them were friends, but some of them were more than that too. It was all because of that king. He started the war.”

“The Youkai king?”

“He’s not my king. I used to be a lot different you know? Everyone loved me. Not only did that bastard take away my friends, he took away me!”

Some of what she said was hard to understand, as it was a little bit slurred, but he was getting the gist of it. Lawrence brushed her hair to the side from his lap and looked at her face. He hadn’t thought about how many of her friends that could have died in that war either. She might need a little bit of cheering up at the moment.

“Well you’re definitely right about the king. If he was evil enough to start a war then he’s no king. He’s a dictator. Maybe I’ll go rough him up for you sometime ok?”

“You’re gonna have to do better than that to sober me up Lawrence.”

He thought for a moment.

“For someone as wonderful and lovely as m’lady I would ride forth into battle with the king’s army all by myself! How’s that?”

“Good but you’re missing something.”

“What’s that?”

“Me idiot!”

Cheeks flushed partly from the sake, partly from mating season, and partly from her personal feelings she put her arms around Lawrence’s head and brought him closer. Lawrence couldn’t deny that he hated where this was going. But he did feel a tinge of something. He’d always tried so hard not to think of Oku and Hato like this, they were Youkai. They lived ten times longer than he. Someday he would die and they would still be fairly young…

Oku felt him partially tense up, and maybe it was her bad judgement stemming from the intoxication, but she just tugged at him harder and he finally complied. For being so old her skin was a lot softer than he would have thought. Their lips met and they began to kiss. Only for a second though, as the door was slammed open by none other than Koichi.

“Yo! I said no illicit relations!”

“Wh-wh-what?!”

Lawrence looked up horrified, but Oku was still reaching for him.

“You never said that!”

“Oh I didn’t? Well the big guys said you two should stay away from each other like that. Besides, it’s mating season! She’s probably got no idea what she’s doing at all. You’re just the closest guy.”

He yawned after saying that, but Lawrence got even more paranoid. Had he just taken advantage of Oku’s drunkenness? That would make him quite the scumbag…

“T-then what do I do?”

“Lay her down and go to bed right?”

“Won't she-”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Nah she’s totally drunk, she probably can’t even remember what you two just did. Look she’s already asleep! Anyways, I’ve got this thing here…”

Looking down, she was indeed already asleep and he held up a small bag that was attached to a string.

“Every time the pellets in this thing glow you’re doing something you shouldn’t be doing. Well according to the police at least. Most relationships between Youkai and humans are bad anyways. They never end well. Trust me on that. Hey you could get with the human girl across the hall, that would make everything work out.”

He yawned as he said the last part, and leaned against the doorframe. As Lawrence, still reeling, put Oku down onto his bed, he realized something.

“Wait do you really think you’re living here.”

“What? Yeah they offered me the other room and I’m taking it. I’ve got to keep an eye on you after all. What better way than being mates again right?”

“Oh god you’ll actually be around now won’t you…”

“Yep! No more partying now that things are getting interesting!”

“So you missed the whole us going to Kazha to get Oku back?”

“What?”

“Ugh, you’re a terrible policeman.”

“Excuse me, that’s detective. But I’m going back to sleep. Don’t do anything you’ll regret, considering I’ll know! Oh, it glows different colors too. White for regular stuff, blue for worse stuff, and red for… well I think you know what I’m talking about heh heh.”

The useless detective dodged a shoe that a red faced Lawrence threw at the door and scurried back to his room.

Most likely unable to get to sleep, Lawrence laid down on his futon. Get with Inari? She probably didn’t even like him. He barely knew anything about her anyways… Wait, he had to be thinking about getting Hato back. That was most important right now. Tomorrow they would be kidnapping, err, acquiring their final powerhouse. He just had to… stop thinking about everything else.

-B

The next morning Lawrence was pretty tired. Sitting in silence with your thought racing through your head for two hours was exhausting. None of that could matter now however, as he had to be focused on his target. Inari was coming with him, as Oku had to stay and help with the setup, and they’d already made Mark get someone successfully. He was going to do this alone, but Inari had spoken up at the last second and he was happy for the help. Getting this guy was difficult. They’d acquired his location from Reinhardt, and set out to find the last powerhouse in their setup. It was a little awkward in the morning with Oku, but it looked like she remembered none of it. Or at the very least God please let her think that it was all a dream. That would solve many of his problems at the moment. She never mentioned anything about it at least, and for now that was all he needed.

They were going to kidnap Seph.

Not because of his lowly power, but the sword he had was more than enough power for his side of the ritual.

Instead of straight up kidnapping him, they thought it would be much more cordial to ask him for his help first, and Inari was sent ahead as an ambassador. Surprisingly even with all the prize money Seph lived in a crumbling cabin right outside of town. Once Inari knocked on the door and he answered, Lawrence looked in through a window. A few minutes of talking and it was apparent that Seph would not help them willingly. Luckily, they had made a plan for this exact predicament. Inari lured him outside, and Lawrence had a hefty branch ready, which he cracked against Seph’s skull. He was getting knocked out a lot lately.With that they tied his arms and legs and carried him back to the inn. While they were walking, Inari looked back at him.

“That was a lot easier than I thought it would be.”

“Yeah no kidding, he’s pretty weak.”

“I guess I never had a dream about it, so it was bound to not be any trouble.”

“You have dreams about tough stuff?”

“Yeah I have dreams when something in my life gets hard, even little stuff, like a really rough test the next day, so if this was hard I probably would have had a dream.”

“Oh that’s pretty damn useful.”

“Yeah I like to think so, but I’ll need to go see my gramps soon. He’s kind of the well of my potent dreams.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know exactly what he does, but whenever I see him my dreams get a lot bigger, like I can see enormous events instead of what the test is going to be the next day you know? Sometimes that’s important, so I go see him.”

“Oh, I meant how do you see him if he’s… well dead.”

“That? He’s not actually all that dead. He’s kind of a ghost actually…”

“What really? Weird.”

“Yeah it is… but hey I could use someone to go with me on the trip to his place. If you had some free time. Over spring break I mean.”

“Oh yeah sure, not wanting to go alone is perfectly reasonable.”

“So it’s a date!”

“Yea- wait a date?”

But by then they had just arrived back at the inn, and Mark quickly hefted Seph on the table in the living room. Once he finally awoke and stopped thrashing around, they untied him as well.

“What the hell is the meaning of this?! You again!”

“Yes, sorry to bother you in your crumbling shed of a house, but we need your power for something.”

“Heh, finally acknowledging my great power?”

“I think what Lawrence meant was that the sword you own has a good amount of power.”

“Shut up dream girl I’m the powerhouse here!”

“Yes you can be one in our ritual at least.”

“Ritual?”

“You’ll be helping us to bring back a friend from the limbo if you must know.”

Oku leaned closer to him as she explained.

“And you will definitely be helping us with this, right?”

“Well- Yeah I guess I can give up a little of my precious time.”

“The right answer for once, it looks like you’re learning.”

“Shaddup girly!”

Lawrence looked around. They finally had everything they’d needed to get Hato back. She wouldn’t be in that limbo anymore… she could finally come back home… The only question left to him was what would he do? He could never really stop thinking about what she had done right before leaving them all. The kiss… should he even bring it up? Ah shit he’d gotten himself in a hole hadn’t he… Hato, then Oku, who was next, Inari? But no, getting her back first was most important. He had to focus on that. That and the fact that the more he thought about it the more it seemed like he was an enormous pervert. Wonderful. Inari snapped him out of his thoughts as Seph and Oku continued to fight.

“I think we’re ready right? Can’t we just send Mark to get Doro?”

“Hey-”

“Yeah I think sending going to Doro right now is a good idea, hey Mark, do you mind?”

“I… Yeah yeah… I’ll be back in a little bit.”

Newspaper boy Mark left, and Inari and Lawrence were left with two softly fighting individuals, a terrible detective, and the owners of the inn they lived at. So much had changed so recently, for both of them. You could argue that much had stayed the same for Lawrence up until this point, besides Youkai entering his life, but Inari had gone from zero to a hundred all at once. It was a lot to take in but she enjoyed it. She’d started seeing them all as friends, and hoped that they saw her that way too.