It was a Saturday, so they were all able to meet up in town around eleven. After initially looking around shops for a few minutes, the group went towards the address on the note, which was right smack dab in the middle of suburbia. It was nice around, so they wouldn’t have to worry about neighbors, and once they found the building they were surprised to learn that it was actually an inn. Mark double checked the address, but there was no mistake that this was the right place.

“What’s that old man up to…”

But once they walked inside Mark got quite a surprise.

“Mark! Great to see you! You’re uncle said you were looking for a place to live and I instantly hopped on the idea!”

“Mitch?! You own this place?!”

“Yeah! Remember when I was telling you about that inn for sale in the suburbs? We bought it!”

“That’s… amazing. But where’s Elaine?”

“How many times do I need to tell you to call me mom?”

“Oh Elaine he’s not that used to it. But who are your friends?”

“This is Lawrence and Inari… Yeah they’re… friends from school.”

“Oh I told you he’d do great in school Mitch but you never listen.”

“I never said he’d do bad I just wanted him to call is all!”

“Yes, and I’m sorry about that, but I’m still just surprised that you own this inn!”

“Um, did you nice people have a place open to live or something?”

“Oh yes yes, sorry about that mister uh…”

“Please, just call me Lawrence.”

“Alright it’s upstairs, we’ve got four rooms we can rent out, but it looks like you’ll only need three.”

Elaine showed them up to a quaint upstairs where there were a few smaller rooms without plate numbers. She explained that they were the maids quarters back when maids used to live at the places they worked and told them they’d needed help around the inn since it had opened.

“Not many people around here are looking to do a lot of cleaning, so I asked your uncle if he knew anyone. Not only could you live here, but you’d also have a job if you wanted! If you worked here we’d knock off half the cost and still pay you fairly as well. Seem good?”

“That seems almost too good to be honest.”

The rooms weren’t large by any means, but each had a kitchen and an actual bathroom. The bedroom doubled as the “living room” but with everything else included that was more than alright. It was paradise compared to the dorms.

“Well whaddya think Mr. Lawrence?”

Mitch walked up to him and put a hand out. Lawrence, still dumbfounded, shook the hand of the smiling man and walked into the room that would soon be his. Even Hato could have a place in a room this big. Easily.

“All we have to do is a little menial labor?”

“That’s the deal missie, you work a little you get a helluva deal. How does it sound?”

Inari quickly shook the man’s hand as well, with both of hers. She seemed more into getting out of her place than Lawrence did. Last was Mark.

“Well I don’t exactly love the prospect of becoming some sort of maid, but I do enjoy a nice place to live. And of course living with you two again.”

He shook the face of the smiling Mitch and all that was left to was too his uncle. He sorted out the arrangements and was told by Reinhardt that their leases would be nulled very soon. He also said that he’d send a few portal Youkai to assist in the move. He said it was a little repayment for coming to the exorcist meeting, and Mark was happy to take the kindness.

“Well I guess I’ll have to tell my roommate.”

“I am going to relish telling my roommate…”

“You have a roommate Inari?”

“She’s a piece of shit drunk that goes out every weekday to get banged up, then comes back and throws rotting garbage all over the place! I’ve been wanting to get out of there since day one!”

“Well I live alone right now but doesn’t your roommate never even come back Lawrence?”

“Yeah he’s gone four days of the week but he isn’t a particularly bad guy like Inari’s seems to be. It’d be nice just to tell him at least.”

Mitch came back with papers in his hand.

“Alright just sign these and me and Elaine will come to help you move in tomorrow! Sound good?”

“Actually we’re getting Reinhardt to help us! You don’t need to worry about a thing!”

“Really? Well we could at least come pick your things up…”

“No it’s alright, really!”

Mark didn’t want them to find out about the Youkai, as they were helping move the trio in, and could basically just move their things through a portal into the room. It would be nice to make things that easy.

Lawrence and Oku went back to the spiral to tell the floor advisor as well.

“Well we’ll miss you, but it seems like a nicer place than this… have fun!”

That was all he got, and returned to his room to wait for Reinhardt. He also started to write a note for his roommate when he actually entered the room, smile on face.

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“Yo I heard you’re moving out! For real?!”

“Yeah I found a really great place for me and some friends, not a deal I can really pass up.”

“Wow that’s uh… rad I guess. Where is that?”

“Um, it’s in the suburbs on the east side.”

“Oh that’s nice, so are you sure?”

“Yeah it’s an inn. As long as we do some cleaning the price is unbeatable.”

“Oh really? How did you find that deal?”

Suddenly his roommate’s speech improved from the “rads” and “shits” that he usually included in his sentences to one that Lawrence could half understand. It almost scared him

“My friends foster parents own the place…”

“I see. Well, I’ll keep an eye out for you. Bon voyage bud!”

He walked out of the room, and left Lawrence in a very confused state. That didn’t sound like his roommate at all. That guy was absolutely alien to him, but it had to be him. He shrugged, and heard another knock on his door. This time it was Reinhardt, and he had two Youkai behind him which wore hardhats.

“Hello Lawrence! This is Ugoku, and this is Pōtaru!”

They bowed in succession, and Lawrence did as well.

“Thank you for your help today.”

Without a word they began to move things.

“Their motto is everything that isn’t bolted to the floor bahaha! Whoah boys not the bed nor the dressers, right?”

“Yeah the dressers and bed don’t get moved. The stuff inside yeah, but the dressers stay.”

Ugoku started piling things into his arms, almost everything in one trip surprisingly, and Pōtaru made a portal.

It only took them two trips through, and Reinhardt motioned him to go through the portal.

“Don’t worry it’s safe and everything.”

Once he’d walked through Lawrence followed. Oku had put herself in the clothes hamper to avoid letting Reinhardt know about everything, but the more he got to know the guy the more he trusted him. He wouldn’t even mind letting him know about Oku being a forest spirit and how they’d been linked together. But Reinhardt just waved to Lawrence and walked out of his room to his next stop, which was Inari’s. Mark had already been moved in so she was the last one.

Once they’d all arrived Lawrence went to see them both.

Inari looked a little pouty, and it sounded like her roommate had junked up a few of her things. She was very glad to be out of there.

Returning, Oku was looking into a portal, which looked like it had books in it. As far as Lawrence knew she couldn’t read, so her having books was strange to say the least.

“What are those?”

“Wh-what? Nothing.”

She closed the portal and quickly went back to lounging as soon as she heard his voice, but the damage was already done.

“Oku I obviously saw the books. What are they for?”

“Ugh… they’re from the exorcists library.”

“You stole them?!

“Well yeah kind of, but with the knowledge you got from Shuryo and these books there’s a chance we could bring Hato back!”

“But you stole them…”

“Who cares! Would you return your one chance to get her back?”

At this Lawrence was conflicted. The exorcists were pretty nice to them but… he needed these books. At least until they successfully got Hato back.

“Alright, but as soon as we get her back you need to return them.”

“Cross my heart!”

“You’d better not be hoping to die.”

“To important for that Lawrence.”

The portal opened once again, and she used her hand to scoop out all the books onto the floor. They weren’t quite as pristine as the books in Jeremiah’s library, but for the age of some of them they were in pretty good condition. It looked like they had a new source of info. They’d hit such a dead end in the Youkai library Lawrence was beginning to get worried. He was almost hoping that he could find another source soon… And it looked like most of these books had to do with resurrections and mask remaking. This would help. It had to. He started to leave to fetch Inari and Mark, but Oku caught his sleeve.

“Lawrence can I… tell you a few things?”

“Tell me a few things?”

Oku was definitely acting strange, her ears were back and her eyes were down. She’d just taken a one eighty from the fox she usually was.

“Sit down…”

“What about the books?”

“Just for a few minutes?”

“Ok that’s fine, but what’s this about?”

Oku sat down on the floor, tail moving erratically, and began telling some pretty baffling things to Lawrence.

“I was in a war. A long time ago. And in that war I lost a lot of friends, and killed a lot of Youkai and humans alike.”

He was shocked, and started to say something, but Oku cut him off.

“Not finished yet! I mean… What I mean is that… over thousands of years, I’ve grown into this unexpressive idiot. Sometimes I have flashbacks to the war, no fun at all, sometimes I see my friends get cut in half by gods. I can’t even… tell my friends… how I feel…”

Once again his mouth opened to speak, but she wasn’t finished yet.

“And you! You’re the stupidest of them all! You didn’t even know I was inside of you for over ten years! How the hell can you be that stupid? Then you go and force me to leave just like that… you think I wanted to leave you?! Well?”

“I thought you didn’t want to be with me anymore-”

“What?! Of course I want to be with you you…”

She didn’t even know when she’d gotten up, but she was right in front of him poking his chest with an index finger.

“I thought it would be obvious but… I felt terrible about that. And I took you for granted. I barely treated you like a person sometimes. But to be honest, I thought you were really resentful towards me because of that, so I tried to keep my distance.”

“Resentful!? I felt so shitty I almost completely turned into an evil spirit!”

“Well then what would you have of me miss fox? As retribution I’ll honor an honest request. As long as it isn’t telling me to get a snack for you…”

“Really. You do anything?”

“Except something stupid, yes.”

“What qualifies as stupid?”

“Hmm… something that isn’t genuine, how about that.”

“Well then… you have to promise me something.”

“Sure.”

“Promise that you’ll never… never leave me alone again.”

She stuck her hand out for a handshake, nervous that that would seem weird. Lawrence was not a regular person though. He took it and pulled her in for a hug. Her face quickly got red and she pushed away from him.

“What do you think you’re doing?!”

“Well you wanted me to keep you close didn’t you?”

“I think arm’s length is good enough… Unless I tell you otherwise.”

Just then, Mitch walked in, carrying Inari and Mark by the collars of their shirts.

“I came up here to formally welcome you, and I see my poor old son and his friend with their ears to your door. Musta been a good conversation huh?”

Mark attempted to remedy the situation, with Inari joining in.

“Looks like you finally got that talk with him didn’t you Oku! Hahaha!”

“Right, you two seem to be getting along well!”

Oku just cracked her knuckles and got to work. As they were getting beaten to death, Lawrence walked over to stand beside Mitch, who was laughing.

“Hey…”

“Mitch, call me Mitch please.”

“Ok Mitch, can you see her?”

“Course I can! Reinhardt told us all about Youkai and all that, and enchanted the inn so that we can see whatever’s on the premises.”

“Then you could see her the whole time?!”

“Yessir! Me and Elaine can both see em as long as they’re in or around the inn.”

“Oh…”

This was quite the strange place after all.