Koichi, wiping his brow, finished going through the packet over Oku’s arrest in just under ten minutes.

“As expected, it’s mostly bullshit.”

The chief looked up the table into his eyes.

“Mostly?”

“He’s snuck in a few things that could prove troublesome, but it looks like we’ll be fine if we follow the plan. We can only hope that the others succeed.”

“Yeah you know they ain’t gonna come back unless they have.”

“Seph, I’m mostly just scared about what is happening to Lawrence and Mark right now. Do you have any ideas?”

“Unless they got put up for the trial of the elders I dunno. Could be anything.”

“Trial of the elders?”

“You gotta do some insanely hard quest, then you get to ask for one thing from the elders.”

“Well… we can only hope that they’re alright.”

“Eh, if Reinhardt is with em they should be.”

Tomoe reentered the room, looking over her shoulder. Some of the guards were starting to notice a disturbance, and were whispering to each other.

“”Alright everyone, you’ve had a nice long look it’s time to go!”

She corralled them quickly and soon they walking across the ornate floor and she pushed them out the door. The chief thanked her, but two guards had walked up to them and closed the doors in their face.

“Damn loyalists… so what now Koichi.”

Aimai pranced up to him and nuzzled him.

“Yeah! Do we have to go on some sort of quest now?”

“Nope. We just need to make it back to the mortal realm without getting arrested. You two should go back to HQ and act like nothing ever happened.”

“Hmm, so that’s it huh?”

“Yeah, but chief I’ll need to get that case reopened. Which means you’ll need to talk to Tomoe alone…”

“Can’t you ask me to do anything else…”

“If we hadn’t been physically pushed out of the door I would have.”

The large Youkai sighed and put two large fingers to the bridge of his nose. Koichi wasn’t giving an easy job to the chief of a dying defense force, they were already falling out of favor and this may be the nail in the coffin. But he gave in yet again.

“If the defense force isn’t here to see justice through, then what is it here for? I’ll try my best Koichi.”

“Me too Koichi! I’ll help him out!”

Koichi looked back and forth to the large man and the thin female Youkai. They weren’t always the most reliable ones in that place, but they were willing to try their best just for a bit of justice. That’s what being in the defense force should be about.

“Alright… you’ve got it. I know you’ll succeed. Now, Seph!”

“What?!”

“We’re returning to the mortal world, but not before doing one thing.”

“What’s that?”

Koichi smiled and pointed down to the sword slung around Seph’s waist.

“What? You’re gonna take me now?”

“We’ve got some time, it seems reasonable.”

Chief Kano walked up to them and put his hands on both their shoulders.

“You two go have fun now while me and Aimai slave away now, don’t worry about us!”

With that he flung them towards the city and they spun a few times before regaining their footing. Koichi waved to the both of them and began the trek towards the area of his apartment. He knew a few swordsmiths in the area, and one of them had been in business for millennia.

“The guy we’re going to is one of the best swordsmiths I know of, he’s really one of a kind! Best part is, he lives really close to my place!”

Koichi took a few sharp turns and soon they were on the way to the illustrious shop simply known as the sword shop by most in the area. Walking inside, a small bell dinged, and they entered a smooth counter made of wood. Behind it a tiny Youkai was grinding down a sword for use. At seeing them he looked up, bushy eyebrows covering his small eyes.

“Koichi! Great to see you m’boy! What you bring me today? A sword?”

“Well, an exorcist actually. He thinks he has one of the great swords.”

“An exorcist!”

The old Youkai guffawed and looked over at Seph, sniffing the air.

“Hey, whaddya doing?”

“Getting a smell of the sword of course! Would you mind showing the bugger to me?”

“Mmm… fine.”

Seph took the sword out of its scabbard and laid it softly down on the table. It was a brilliant yellowish metal, something Seph had always been proud of.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“So! What do you claim the sword to be?”

“I’ve been told by my family's ancient tomes that it’s Excalibur, used by the Northern king Arthur.”

“Excalibur! Haha! That sword was lost ages ago! No no, this isn’t Excalibur… it’s something quite interesting though.”

“Wait, you mean it isn’t-!”

“Hush! I’m searching through its memories!”

“Memories-”

“Hush!”

Grumbling, Seph actually shut up and stared down at the old man. A light was coming from his hand and it covered the sword in a warm shine. Wherever he ran his hand across the metal it sparkled brilliantly.

“Mmm… Actually it is a famous sword! It’s no Excalibur by any means, but you have Joyeuse here.”

“Joyeuse?”

“The sword of one of the middle country kings. He was quite powerful in his own right, but perhaps over the hundreds of years your family had the thing the name and the legend got shifted around a bit hm? She’s still full of spirit energy, but if it was Excalibur we probably wouldn’t be able to be in the same room with it!”

The small bushy eyebrowed Youkai smiled at Seph and thanked him for allowing him to see a famous sword like Joyeuse, going back to his grindstone. Seph walked out of the shop in slightly weaker spirits, but Koichi tried to brighten him back up a bit.

“Hey, just because it isn’t Excalibur doesn’t make it any less cool. Joyeuse is pretty famous after all!”

“You ever heard of it.”

“Well no… but I don’t use weapons either. I’m not studied up on swords you know.”

“That guy just proved that generations of my family have been lying. You know how that feels?”

Koichi’s face softened and he strolled a bit more carefree, trying to steer Seph towards the food area without him knowing.

“I don’t really know how that feels, but the fact that you’ve got a powerful sword has been proven to you!”

“Yeah? Well I also got something else proven. I’ve always been weak in spiritual energy, and now I’m just a laughingstock. Got no legendary sword, lyin’ family and I’ve never even taken down a more powerful evil spirit than a leecher. How d’you think I feel?”

“Alright alright ok! Let’s get something to eat before we leave then, alright?”

Koichi opened the door to one of the better noodle places he usually frequented and led Seph to a seat. The kid was a bit annoying at times, but he couldn’t say that he hated him. They lived under the same roof under all, he had to be nice to him. Or at least keep himself in Seph’s good graces.

“Hey old man! Two ramens!”

“Two seaweeds in a chlora!”

Koichi smiled at the simplicity of the place and looked back at Seph who still seemed distraught.

“Alright, now what’s the worst that can happen because of this, hm?”

“The other exorcists can learn how weak I am and finally expel me from the clan.”

“Oh… well that is pretty bad… I suppose you could always live full time at the inn!”

“You aren’t helping you know.”

“I’m kidding! You don’t really think they’d get rid of you, do you?”

“I’m not sure… though I’ve never really wanted to find out.”

“Well then, don’t tell them anything! Let them think that it’s the real Excalibur, they won’t know until you tell them right? After all, they didn’t know before!”

Two bowls of ramen were served in front of them by a smiling Youkai and Koichi dug right in.

“That… that could work.”

“Mhm! Ai alwees ‘ave ‘ood ideas!”

“Swallow your food you slob.”

“I always have good ideas, you should listen to me more often.”

“Well… I’ll try it. You’re right that they wouldn't know unless I told them. I just hope that nobody shows up with the real Excalibur.”

“Oh I’m sure it’s fine, the old man said that it’s been gone for ages, I’m sure it’s still lost!”

With that they both dug into the delicious ramen. The place felt like an old cafe to him, as the Youkai capital was only slowly catching up to the technology craze the humans talked about. Electricity wasn’t used all that much, mostly by the government itself actually, and people out here made food the old fashioned way. Koichi couldn’t complain though, he loved handmade stuff ten times more than the food from the human world. Seph seemed to agree too as he dug into the delicious meal. They barely talked throughout it, and Koichi picked up the check. He wouldn’t be so loose with his money if Seph wasn’t going through a midlife crisis like this to be honest.

As they walked back to the portal area, seemingly safe from the king's guards, Seph looked over at him.

“Hey, Koichi.”

“What’s up?”

“Thanks for… talkin’ me through this. I know I can be kinda hard to work with, but I’m trying.”

“Hey, we live together right? I wouldn’t want to hear you moaning about your bad luck from the other room would I?”

Koichi stepped through the portal back to the inn, followed by Seph, who was smiling. Elaine was sweeping the floor when she was met face to face by them, and she gave a start.

“Oh! You boys need to stop trying to scare me with those portals!”

She whapped them on the head with the broom and they both ran downstairs away from the evil demon. She could really hit! Mitch chuckled from his seat in the living room, where Inari and Hato were.

“Oh hey guys, what’s up?”

“It worked, my chief is just getting everything set up to reopen the case. We should have everything set by the time Lawrence and Mark get back.”

“Did you realize that we would need to succeed with all three as well?”

“Yeah, I only hope that the other two don’t get lazy because they haven’t figured it out yet.”

“Master will succeed! I’m sure of it!”

“Of course he will Hato, I’ve got faith in the both of them. I’m sure that Reinhardt is helping them out as well. So, what did you two learn?”

Inari looked down at the orb and back at Koichi.

“Quite a lot actually. We were able to actually watch the battle that Kuun died in, and learn exactly how he died.”

“Oh, so you know?”

“I want to come have him tell them himself, but we also do yes.”

“How then?”

“The god of knowledge, Omoikane. He killed Kuun. I’m not exactly sure with what, it looked to be a saber, but he definitely did it.”

“Omoikane huh? He died there as well didn’t he?”

“He did?”

Seph piped up.

“Omoikane was one of the names next to Kuun’s and that other guy’s too. Gen right? Yeah, at the library. Pretty sure he died.”

“Interesting… looks like all we can do is depend on Lawrence and Mark at this point though. I won’t have you two go into detail right now, we’ll do that when they get back.”

“Actually I think there’s one thing you should know right now.”

“Hmm?”

“According to one of the commanders in the battle, Kuun and Oku were an item.”

“You met Oku?!”

“It was just a memory of her don’t worry! But yes we did.”

“That’s strange…”

“Should we tell Lawrence?”

Hato looked up from the cookie she was nibbling on.

“Why would that matter?”

“Well… Hato… nevermind. We’ll decide if it’s important or not, so don’t tell Lawrence unless we say it’s ok, alright?”

“Ok!”

Hato could be dense at times, and at others some things simply went totally over her head. That isn’t to say she was dumb, but being a Youkai that had lived her whole life out of the capital meant that there were a certain few areas she was lacking. Emotions and timing were two of these important things.

Koichi looked out the window. Hopefully Lawrence and Mark were able to get the elders on their side or this entire plan would fall apart before they even reopened the case. He could only hope.