A few weeks later and there had been no more contact with Hato since they’d found the orb. Jeremiah had told them that it was a regular glass, but had been infused with magic that could transport the minds of specifically gifted people. Like Inari. If she could master the ability, she would be able to go back and forth to the strange area whenever she pleased, and possibly switch out with Hato from time to time to get info on the place. Though nobody knew the trigger for that to happen...

That is, until Mark got a knock on his door.

“It’s unlocked!”

He was sitting down looking at his computer, but yelled for what could be a total stranger to come right in. He heard the door open, but no footsteps, causing him to crane his neck towards the door.

“Hello?”

He got up slowly and inched towards the open door, careful of some horror movie shit that could sneak right up on him. Once he’d gotten halfway there he felt a large mass on his back and hands towards his head. In his mind he was screaming, but he soon felt that the person was rubbing his head… Wait…

Mark ripped free to look around and see a large hairy man before him.

“U-u-uncle?! What are you doing here?!”

“What! An uncle can’t see his nephew?”

“How did you even know where I lived?”

“Oh please, the Youkai in the area know more than you give em credit for bahaha! Either ways how are ya?”

“I’m… fine…”

“Still hating Youkai eh? Did I teach you nothing boy?”

“You practically taught me explicitly to hate them…”

“I taught you to be an exorcist! Just like gramps!”

“But you’re the last one-”

“Nope! I found a whole buncha em!”

“You what.”

“Loads of people that can see Youkai! Just like us!”

“We can’t naturally see them though.”

“Ahh that’s just an aside, we aren’t the only ones like that. We just got our ability to see em unlocked by the eye master. Ohh but I didn’t come to lecture you! I came to get you!”

“Get me?!”

“You can become an exorcist just like me, isn’t that great?”

“I-”

“You always had trouble makin’ friends anyways, isn’t that right? You could find loads of em back with me! Whaddya say? They got loads of things you would love too!”

“Like what?”

“‘Fraid I can’t say, but you’ve been searching for it for a long time.”

“No.”

“No?”

“I have friends here. For your information, some of them are even Youkai. I’m too busy for this.”

Mark started to walk back into his room, but his uncle caught him by the shoulder.

“That course of action is not wise you know.”

“What, did they tell you to bring me back at all costs?”

“Of course not we aren’t savages! But they really want to meet you and… some of them more than others. I’m not trying to hurt you Mark, I really care about you. But if they were to come here…”

“If there’s so many people that can see Youkai I’m no different from any of the others. Tell them to get over me.”

“Well… I’ll be in town for a week. If you do change your mind please come talk to me. Or if you just wanna have a talk like old times.”

With that his uncle shook his hand and left his apartment. But old times? His uncle had always been a force of both good and at times bad in his history. Sure he’d gotten handed around his family a lot, but during the time with his uncle he was… happy. But after almost a year his uncle had dropped him off at another’s house with practically no warning. He was so… erratic. Finally he’d ended up here in town with his last family. A family that he could truly call loving. Of course they’d wanted him to get his own apartment after high school, but it wasn’t because they wanted to get rid of him. They truly just wanted him to have fun at college.

Guess it wasn’t a total disaster.

He would have to go see them sometime.

Either way, he was going to be late for class at this rate.

Inari was a better force in the library than Lawrence had expected. While she seemed like a bit of tsundere at times she was interested in what the information they were looking at. As they worked, he was able to find out more about her, especially her grandfather. He had been just like her. Unable to see Youkai, but a seer all the same. In the old days they were called “blind watchers” according to Jeremiah.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

To be honest, the fact that Inari had gotten the ability to see Youkai from that orb seemed questionable to Lawrence. Not that he could get a real answer to what happened but… None of the books he’d looked at had ever implied someone could gain sight from an item. So strange. But as long as she could help.

He wondered how Hato was doing most of all.

Oku flipped through a small book as she ate some of the crackers Lawrence kept in his cupboard. He was kind of like an old man, keeping crackers instead of cookies. Ever since they’d gotten back from those two Youkai’s house she hadn’t really left the dorm. Something about what had happened wasn’t sitting well with her. Sadly it wasn’t some bullshit intuition this time like with the leech. She was handling seeing Hato again worse than she’d wanted to… it was just so hard to be honest. She still felt somewhat that the entire thing had been her fault, and that she was the cause to Hato’s death. Not that it was a lie… she died purifying her…

Oku had been so stupid. First she let Lawrence go and send her back, then she was put right near the location of her battle with the moon bear. It’s power still lingered and a curse was set on her. Without Hato she might have went on a rampage…

That wasn’t even the only thing bugging her. It would be enough to feel as if she had killed Hato, but Lawrence was practically avoiding her. It wasn’t as if he wasn’t talking to her at all but she felt less important. She felt like he silently blamed her for what happened.

And she couldn’t really hate him for it.

She just wanted Hato back.

If that happened… everything would go back to normal.

“Something wrong?”

She’d been practically in a daze like trance for a few minutes and neglected to notice that someone had come inside. Mark was standing above her.

“Nothing Mark.”

“You see, usually when you say something like that it’s a lie. You know, like when you say you don’t care about Lawrence, or you think Hato did the right thing. I try to take those as total opposites.”

“Like I have inner turmoil, please.”

“For a fox that has been in wars and faced persecution I’d say you have quite a bit.”

“Wha-”

“I had to learn a lot of things about you at the library. When me and Hato were trying to find the forest you lived in I mean. Quite the warrior I’d say.”

“You weren’t supposed to see that. That is personal.”

“Lawrence is probably staying at arms length because he feels as if that is where you want him. I’ve learned he’s pretty reactionary, if you act a certain way towards him he will usually pander towards what you’ve implied you want. And you, miss fox, are the definition of mixed signals.”

“I’ve lived so many lifetimes. You have no idea what you go through when you outlive even the trees you sit next to. When you get forced into petty wars because of a small disagreement. When you see friends die next to you.”

“You’re exactly right. I mean, I thought I was good at bottling up my emotions and sealing that bottle, throwing it out into the ocean, and sinking it to the bottom of the sea. But you, you take it to another level you know that?”

“And why do you think I would do that hmm?”

“Most likely because you think you can’t tell anyone about your problems. It’s the whole “They’ll all just die anyways” mindset. Look, I know you’ve seen a lot, and went through twice as much. But you know, Lawrence would really love it if you came back to him. You’re getting more distant since Hato left. He needs you almost as much as you need him. Well, almost.”

“I can’t just unload thousands of years worth of personal problems to him-”

“I think that would make him happier than hell actually, go for it.”

“What?”

“The only mistake is never trying at all, don’t you think?”

“Mark are you actually some ancient god or something?”

“Damn I wish. Nope, normal, mortal, and absolutely messed up.”

“Just like all of us then huh? Well, minus the mortal part.”

“You’re the least mortal person I know, haha.”

“Well I suppose asking him a few things wouldn’t hurt. He’s not stupid.”

“Go all out. Oh, there it is.”

Mark picked up his phone, which he’d left on the table.

“Thought it was lost forever! See you later Oku.”

“Yes yes goodbye.”

Once again Oku was left in the small room alone. Talk to Lawrence about her insecurities? It sounded absurd but… she hadn’t been honest about those sorts of things since before the war. Maybe she should just tell him a few little stories. It might be fun to tell him about some of the old times. Probably at least. Maybe she would sometime.

Lawrence, walking with Inari and Mark back to his dorm, was wondering why they were making so little progress in the library. You’d think this would be some sort of forbidden art or something, in the bad part of the library. But it was almost like nobody had ever tried to bring back a Youkai with a mask. Still wondering, he knocked into a large man.

“Oof, oh hey there sport!”

“Uncle?!”

“You know him Mark?”

“Yeah he’s… my uncle.”

“Wait your uncle can see Youkai, right?”

“That I can! Wonderful to meet you! My name is Reinhardt Lieberman! At your service.”

“What were you doing around here uncle…”

“Trying to find you to change your mind of course bahaha!”

“Change your mind? Mark?”

“It’s nothing Inari, he just wants me to join some sort of exorcist society. He says they can all see Youkai.”

“There are others?”

“Quite a lot yes! But Mark doesn’t seem to want to even try it out. I’m not forcing you to come, but there is a meeting here on Saturday. Why do you bring your friends? It’ll be great! You can even bring some Youkai with you if you got any friends of their kind too. Trust me, we aren’t some dark society. We simply protect humans from Youkai which would hurt them. Honorable enough, right? Oh god it’s that time already? Better get going! See you on Saturday?”

“In your dreams uncle.”

“Bahaha! I’ll take that as a maybe, see you all later!”

After he’d left Lawrence and Inari looked to Mark.

“He doesn’t seem like all that bad of a person.”

“He’s not…”

“Guess you’re implying pretty heavily that he joined some shady terrible group for nothing then?”

“No Inari, I just don’t trust a hundred percent of his actions.”

“Mark why don’t we go? We can have Oku turn into human form. If they really are just doing what your uncle implied, they could be really good people actually.”

“Ahhh Lawrence not you too!”

“What harm could it do?”

“That depends on if they knock us out and bag us…”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine, Inari do you have anything going on Saturday?”

“Why no Lawrence my schedule is always painfully open.”

“Very good! On Saturday we all meet up at the spiral and go to that exorcist meeting!”

“Yay!”

“Ugh…”