Once everyone had finally arrived back at the house Mitch and Elaine prepared supper. Of course Lawrence and Inari would be out till pretty late, but that still left quite a few mouths to feed. Even Hato woke up for a meal.

It was a relatively quiet meal. Most of the conversation came from Lawrence when he was around, you could call him the lynchpin of their dysfunctional coterie. Mark decided to at least attempt something.

“So Seph, you had a job today?”

“Yeah I had to take out a hider. They just take refuge in people’s houses and if they get fed off negativity they can cause a person to commit suicide. Nasty shit, but relatively simple to dispel.”

“Oh, you’re out helping people now?”

“Shut up I need the money too!”

The money comment caused Oku to look up as well.

“I thought you were the most powerful exorcist that has taken on jobs worth millions?”

“Ah well to be honest I got the credit, the other guy got the money, better to be known right?”

“Something like that…”

“Seph is that a normal job? Simply getting rid of dangerous Youkai like that?”

“Hiders are probably the most common job, besides feeders.”

“What’s a feeder?”

“Well they’re like the opposite of a hider. They’ll be out in crowds, and they’ll whisper shit that makes you insecure. Make you feel bad about yourself, and they feed off the self deprecation that comes with it. You can’t really blame em though, they’re created off that negativity.”

“Boy you kids sure are busy aintcha?”

“Oh honey they aren’t kids, they’re in college after all.”

Once they’d all started to talk, it felt like Koichi was pushed to the wayside. Not that he would have talked much anyways. Unless he was at a party. In retrospect, when he’d been roommate to Lawrence, he’d gotten a touch… complacent. But now that was all over with. Lawrence hadn’t made any sort of move towards any of them during that time anyways, he thought it was safe. But suddenly after the trip that he had no idea about it was like all their hearts had taken a one eighty!

Looking over he wondered something. They were all so different for god’s sake. An exorcist of a failing family with what he claimed to be a legendary sword, a man who claimed to hate Youkai and had only recently become a bit open to them, then a Youkai who’d fought bravely enough to receive a title from a goddess, and a mask Youkai that was brought back from the dead and saw Lawrence as her master. So odd.

But especially odd was in fact the exorcist himself. Perhaps the only one that Koichi could count on at the moment, Seph served no loyalties besides his family. Well, perhaps the exorcist group he belonged to, but somehow it didn’t appear he cared that much about his group. There was a lot he didn’t know about any of them. In fact… it was about time he visited HQ. Maybe they’d have some files on all of these weirdos.

Not to say he wasn’t a weirdo as well. He chuckled to himself as he thought about how similar he was to these “weirdos”. Maybe they weren’t so bad after all. He didn’t hate any of them by any means, but he did have a duty to uphold. Keep Youkai and human affairs separate. That just has to be followed, simple.

At that moment Lawrence and Inari came through the door and out of the cold.

“Back already?”

Koichi stood up and took their coats, playing the waiter.

“Why thank you good sir! Yes, Inari’s grandparents wanted us to spend the night at first, which was strange yes, but in the end some things happened and we got sent back. Damn you guys are eating late!”

“Yes well we were going to wait for you, but you never responded to Ms. Elaine’s messages.”

“What?”

After a short exchange it was realized that Elaine had been sending messages to a wrong number, and they were all left to number who got twenty messages in a row about being home. Koichi simply continued to look on. After supper, Seph approached him, drinking a soda. He offered one to Koichi, and he took it. Not the sake that he usually enjoyed, but human drinks weren’t all that bad after all.

“We’re kind of the black sheep huh.”

“You think so? Oh I think you’re fitting in just fine.”

“Oh please, you think someone on my level can just fit in? Nah, the real one I’m worried about is the one from the ritual.”

“Hato?”

“Yeah, you been noticing her abnormal power fluxes?”

“Yes well, I haven’t thought that much about it.”

“Whaddya think it means then.”

“If I had to guess it would be that a new body was made for her… She’s getting used to it.”

“Oh just that… Well it was a valuable question!”

“I never said it wasn’t. Keep an eye on her though. If she doesn’t level out, it might be cause for concern.”

“Concern? You? Get outta town!”

“Please, I never claimed to hate any of these people.”

“Coulda fooled me with all the keep em aparts and stuff from earlier.”

“That’s just part of the law, I don’t want Oku getting knocked up and having a child that can be seen by humans and lives for eight hundred years alright?”

“Well hey sometimes they’re full Youkai.”

“I’d rather not leave it to chance. Anyways, I’m heading off to HQ tomorrow, so I’ll be getting to bed.”

“Yeah I’ve got a lurker tomorrow.”

“You making up those names?”

“No they’re in the LeVay book of stuff.”

“Should copyright them, they seem reasonable.”

Seph scoffed and looked at the detective.

“And you, mister high and mighty, should realize that you aren’t against them all that much.”

In the other room Oku crawled into her bed. She had situated Lawrence’s room as follows. First, the entrance where there was a shower and a small kitchenette, very important, next was the room that they slept in, quite important. Front and center to the entrance was her area, which had pillows from her private collection. Inside her private space, even though it was small, time didn’t pass until she opened the portal again, and she’d been gathering pillows for centuries. Sometimes she just liked to open up her space and lay on them. Anyways, next was Hato’s corner, where a small bed was accompanied by a desk that she liked to use. Well, she’d enjoyed it for the past few days since she’d gotten back at least. Hato spent a lot of time at Lawrence’s desk though, where the computer was. That hadn’t changed about her at all, and she loved watching videos and reading stories off of it. Near the right side of the room was Lawrence’s space, and in the far right corner was his bed up against the wall. At the foot of the bed was his desk, and on his right was a nightstand. In the middle was a table that they would sit at, along with a couple of cushions on the floor. They hadn’t been there a long time, but it was still extremely homey. Oku enjoyed her corner in the very least. As soon as she was under those pillows she felt like a fox in her den, back in her natural habitat. She didn’t hate having a home in a tree in an enormous forest, but it felt ten times better to have this small space in a room with people she enjoyed the company of. However at this moment she was kind of sulking in her bed. Hato was surfing the internet, and Lawrence was sitting at the table.

“Are you mad or something?”

“Not at all, but apparently your little trip was pretty exclusive.”

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

“Well she asked me to go with her if that’s what you mean. Hato how long has she been like this?”

“Umm, probably since about the second you left the house?”

“Really… C’mon Oku don’t hide from the problem.”

He nudged at the cushions, which led Oku to dive even deeper into them.

“I’ll hide as much as I want to.”

“Alright, I guess I’ll just eat these candies all by myself then.”

Suddenly the shifting of the pillows stopped and the top of her head poked out. Then she slowly moved to the table as a smiling Lawrence took out the package that granny had given him.

“They’re really good, trust me. I didn’t know that these ingredients could be in a candy so good actually. Hato, you too!”

She came over and they tasted the amazing candies, which gave them almost the same reaction as Lawrence had when he’d tried them in the apartment back in Welzheim.

“These are…”

“I know right!”

“Wait you tricked me!”

“Lawrence tricked you?”

“He just wanted to get me out of the pillows!”

“I feel like I made that fairly clear, Hato?”

“Yeah he told you exactly what he was doing.”

“Nope! You must make it up to me somehow!”

“How’s that…”

“Show me how to use the computer finally.”

“I really tried… you know I did. But you are simply the worst listener slash student that I’ve ever even attempted to teach. I tell you one thing and you do the opposite!”

“It’s just instinct!”

“Well then I feel like Hato would do a better job at it.”

“Whoah master I’ll do a lot for you but teacher her something like that seems pretty hard.”

“Please just try.”

“I’m afraid I can’t accept your plea master.”

“Ugh, maybe Mark will…”

“Patronizing me for hiding from my problems, look at you trying to push them onto Mark!”

They all laughed for a few seconds and looked down at the table. After another beat Hato began to speak.

“It really is good to be back. Even though I kind of missed the last few months it feels like none of you changed, and for that I’m grateful.”

“You’re grateful we didn’t change?”

“More like I’m happy you didn’t leave me behind.”

“Well of course, you’re part of the original bunch. We can’t leave the dove behind.”

“Well said Oku, now you can actually be taught though. How about this. I teach Hato about computers and you can watch. Deal?”

“Nope! Someone has to teach me directly.”

Koichi closed the door the rest of the way and looked back towards his room. Listening in on them had never given good results, and ever since Hato had come back it was almost like old times. Plus a few members of course, but he felt like things were boring again… Guess it really was a good time to head back to HQ for that briefing. He wrote out a short note, and stuck it to his desk. Assuming they even cared, at least he told them he’d be in the capital. With that he picked up his hat and stepped into his freshly made portal. Koichi couldn’t say that he especially loved the capital, but it was nice to head back and say hello to the others every once in awhile. Besides, they were boring yet again...

Honestly Lawrence had started to go out of his way to help Youkai once again. Now that the Hato mishap had ended, he was finding many that were missing small items up in trees, or that were looking for a friend. Lucky there wasn’t anything big like a new Grogs attack, but small peaceful jobs like this were fun. Plus he got memories, and learning about the lives of others was something he was pretty interested in. Maybe he should become a historian…

At the moment a small mouse Youkai was walking next to him, small flower in hand. It had wanted the first flower of spring, and Lawrence was relatively sure that this little thing was truly the first one out there. When he’d heard the request he didn’t think they’d find one at all, but low and behold one small flower was springing up between the concrete slabs on the walkway. Suddenly the little guy stopped and motioned for Lawrence to bring him up to his forehead. Once he did so it touched his forehead and a memory about the flowers of all the years past flowed into his head and he saw the town at a lot of different points in time. Man the mouse was older than he’d thought…

“Thanks human!”

Once it hopped off his hand the mouse floated down to the ground and quickly disappeared in the grasses, but Lawrence could still see the tiny flower waving in the wind. A lot had changed since he was helping the frog king, yet it wasn’t even a year ago. He’d learned about Youkai, about exorcists, a considerable amount about masks, and quite a bit about the others in his little group. At the moment, nothing was even all that big in his life. Classes, a test here and there, cleaning, he felt pretty relaxed. It would be nice if everything just stayed this way for a good long while. Lawrence enjoyed learning about masks, but the fact that Hato had been gone so long was less than enjoyable. A bit of time to sit and put his feet up was definitely called for. As he walked slowly down the sidewalk he saw a few figures approaching him. It looked to be Koichi, and two others. Were they from the capital?

“Hello Koichi, what’s up?”

“Nothing.”

“Where are you and those buff guys going at noon?”

“I’m afraid that information is classified to humans.”

“What about the friend of an exorcist?”

“Ugh, fine. I’m afraid that we have an arrest to make. Ordered by the chief of my agency.”

“An arrest? Who.”

“I’m afraid that is the business of my superiors, so please step off Lawrence. I don’t want to get you involved.”

“I can already see that I’m involved, now who are you talking about.”

A vein popped in Koichi’s head and he turned around to face Lawrence.

“Alright you want to know? We’re arresting everyone. Seph, Oku, Mark, Hato, Gorgo, and Doro. I’d never heard of a successful ritual to bring someone back from limbo. You know what else I didn’t know? That is was illegal. I have to bring them all to the capital where they fill face trial with necromancy charges.”

“Necromancy?”

“Yes, it’s illegal but my superiors feel that a ritual such as this falls under those bounds. I disagree with that charge but it isn’t my job to make the rules is it?”

“No, it’s your job to follow them. But Koichi, do you really need to do this?”

“If I don’t I’ll be disposed of and someone who truly doesn’t care about our little friends will be put in charge of the case. I’m afraid this is the best way. Maybe if we’re lucky the judge won’t see this as necromancy but… it’s a stretch.”

“You’re going to help us out? I knew you cared!”

“Nope! I just don’t see it as necromancy is all. If you all got thrown in the slammer I wouldn’t care one bit.”

“Maybe you aren’t the worst detective in history.”

“Thanks, but that doesn’t change the facts of why I brought these two with me.”

“Why is that?”

“One of them will really not want to visit the capital.”

“Oh god.”

“Exactly. Wait, are you ok with this? The arrests, the charges.”

“If it takes a trial to keep Hato and this is the only legal way, of course.”

“Hm. Alright, maybe you can help.”

As they walked back to the inn, the situation worsened in Lawrence’s head. He would walk in, tell them what was up, and everyone would agree but Oku. Next, she would run outside, turn into a large fox, and bound away through the town. He could almost guarantee that second part. It would be rough, needless to say.

When they approached the front door, Lawrence opened it sheepishly, and quietly entered. Seph was at the table looking in some book and saw them first.

“What’s with the big guys.”

“Could you go get everyone Seph.”

“Ooook?”

He stumbled away and soon everyone was crowded in the small room. Oku was of course the most distressed by the strangely silent men.

“Who are they.”

Koichi stepped forward, monocles on, and started to read from what looked to be a blank sheet of paper.

“For your information the glasses let me see the message. Anyways, it reads, “to all who may be concerned, your presence is demanded immediately in the capital after there were reports of illegal necromancy in the area.”, then it lists some names and all that. Anyways, Mark, Oku, Hato, Seph, and we’ll need Doro and Gorgo as well.”

“You’re kidding. I get involved with some idiot detective and immediately the capital comes after me.”

“C’mon, if master is ok with it they can’t be after you Oku, right?”

Lawrence hoped that Hato’s words would help to convince Oku not to make this bigger than it had to be, but he didn’t expect much. She looked up to him with a worried expression.

“Lawrence, can I trust that this really is a fair trial.”

“I-if I can trust Koichi at all… I would say yes.”

“Then. I’ll go.”

“Oh really? Where’s the feisty girl now baha! Gone with the arrests too?”

“You’re going as well Seph.”

“Shut up Mark!”

“Wait, what about me and Lawrence? We were in on it as well.”

Suddenly everyone looked back at Inari, who had made the comment. Koichi turned to her and relayed the information.

“Regular humans cannot be tried by the court, whereas Seph and Mark are exorcists, they can. You two are quite normal according to HQ. Better to keep it that way, hm?”

Lawrence realized that if they found out about Oku having been inside of him that could be dangerous, and let it go. He did have one question however.

“We can come and observe the trial though, right?”

“Humans that can see Youkai are allowed, if invited. Having said that, I formally invite you to the proceedings.”

“Thank you.”

The large men, realizing that this would be easier than expected, opened a portal. One of them pulled out Doro, and the other, Gorgo.

“Hey what’s the idea!”

After being filled in, Doro was a little more relaxed.

“Well, if that’s how it is… We ain’t even in the capital and we have to follow their stupid laws? But it would cause more trouble to try and run.”

Thus he and Gorgo complied as well. Lawrence felt bad about bringing them into this, but it was too late. He would just have to hope for a smooth trial. Yet he couldn’t stop thinking about what Oku had said. A rigged trial? He remembered her talking about the capital’s attempts to get her back in the past, and if anything this could be something like that… He hoped that telling Oku it was ok was the right thing to do.

As she walked by him to the portal he noticed something different about her. Gone was the flamboyant Oku. She looked depressed.

What the hell had he done.

He’d sent his friends into a kangaroo court.