CHAPTER TEN

Harada looked around and realized that several of the other guys who had come running at the disturbance were still standing there, staring at Thalia with stars in their eyes.

She did look strangely beautiful; her Fae blood took her just far enough beyond human to be enticing and mysterious without being frightening – unless, of course, you ran up against her Fury side.

But no one save the chief officers and the hijackers knew about that side of her, and one thing that had become very clear to Harada during his sleepless hours was that they needed to keep it that way as long as possible for her safety. Same for her shape-shifting abilities. She was unique, with power no one else in this dimension could duplicate. That power could easily be coveted by any number of warring factions, none of them with her good at heart.

Now, however, he needed to deal with the more immediate issue of the men’s inevitable infatuation. None of them had seen anyone like her up close before, nor had they seen any woman in real life in this state of dishabille apart from their mothers or sisters, and in the case of the older ones, prostitutes.

They were supposed to look at Thalia as a sister; anyone an officer married became ‘Onee-san’, or ‘Sister’, to the rest of the Shinsengumi; anyone a chief officer married became a kind of matriarch – at least in theory; it had never yet happened, since none of the chief officers were married. Harada had already instructed the men that the sister rule applied to any female officer, and anyone sexually harassing a fellow officer would be required to commit seppuku.

He realized in that moment, however, looking at the men staring at her as if she were a holy relic, they would never be able to see her as no more than a sister no matter how long she was among them, if she stayed single.

He cursed bitterly to himself. What the hell was the universe doing to him?

“Oi! Back to your quarters, everyone. Since you’re up early, you can get in an extra hour of training before breakfast. Anyone not training within fifteen minutes commits seppuku, with or without my help,” he shouted. That got everyone moving in record time, as always.

“So terrifying, Harada Tetsuya,” Thalia said, smiling up at him with something like tenderness.

“Thalia-san, you have not yet seen the Demon in me, but make no mistake, it’s there. It’s there, and no one can exorcise it. Not even you.” He was overwrought; he stalked across the lawn back toward the main dojo. The extra hour of training would do him good as well, he decided.

Thalia’s heart ached; both Seizo and Tetsu were remembering more now, and it was hurting them, frightening them both away. She wondered if they were ready to heal in this lifetime, or if they would only self-destruct again. She had seen anguish in their eyes tonight; it made her bleed inside that she could not make that pain stop for them.

“Thally-san, don’t cry,” said Daishiro from her shoulder, looking up at her with sleepy, adoring eyes. His chubby little fingers brushed at her tears, and made her smile down at him. Here, at least, was someone she had managed to help. One small, precious life. She hugged him closer. “I love you,” the boy said with the sweet sincerity of childhood; “and so does Vice-Chief. But it makes him sad, and that makes you sad,” he added with the preternatural insight of small children.

“You’re so right, little one,” she said, lying back down and tucking the covers around them both again. “But I’m hoping we’ll be happy one day.”

“You will,” Daishiro said drowsily. She smiled, letting her tears dampen her pillow a little.

***

Not many hours later, Thalia was suppressing a yawn as she walked with Daishiro along the street toward Nakamura Kirito’s office, which was also his home.

“Cake shop!” Daishiro exclaimed, pulling her toward the entrance.

“Oh, good,” she said, “I need a peace offering. Also some coffee.” So they went in together.

While they stood looking over their choices, however, Thalia began to feel uncomfortable over the whispering she seemed to cause in the shop; she looked down at herself, questioning her choice of clothing.

She could have worn another kimono to achieve more cultural authenticity, but she had seen in the past few days that Edo was diverse enough for her to dress in her own culture’s style with as much confidence. Her brown leather and brocade corset with brass fastenings and black lace-up shift underneath was unusual in the neighborhood, perhaps, but would that cause all this whispering? Her calves were bare above her short boots, but she wore leggings with the green asymmetrical skirt that was above her knees in front and nearly ankle-length in back.

“Hurry, Dai-chan,” she urged him in a whisper. “We should get going.”

She knew Kirito loved sweets, and particularly loved melon soda, so she bought him a big bottle of the latter and an éclair. A box of pastries for Saya, plus the giant cookie in the shape of a rabbit that Daishiro finally decided he couldn’t live without, left her no room to carry coffee. She sighed and left, exasperated.

She was not sure why the cake shop employees had been so slow, but she had not appreciated that on top of all the whispering, wide eyes, and giggles. They had seemed reluctant to let her leave, which gave her the creeps.

It began to make sense when she saw a news van round the corner at a higher speed than it should have been going. Her eyes widened as she remembered what Kirito had mentioned about the media at lunch on Tuesday; could they still be that excited about her?

She saw the van pull over at the cake shop. “Fuck!” she exclaimed, making Daishiro giggle. She scooped him up in one arm and began hurrying; thankfully her goal was not far away.

The news van had pulled away from the cake shop and was in hot pursuit when Thalia reached a rather hunched wooden building with a modest sign out front bearing the legend Ayano’s Snack Shop; Kirito’s place was upstairs, and he too had a sign proclaiming him the most reliable private investigator in Edo; but she didn’t have time for that.

She ducked into the Snack Shop and stood against the door, panting, child with giant cookie under one arm and a bag of baked goods in the other.

Ayano and Naomi, about whom she had been told in entertaining detail by Kirito and Saya, stood staring at her. She blushed.

“Forgive me,” she said, putting Daishiro down and bowing in apology. “My name is Thalia” – here she was interrupted.

“We know who you are,” Ayano said. “Mophead and his Minion told us all about you. What, did those scummy police try something dirty after all, and now you’re running from them? Naomi, bar the door.”

“Oh, no, it’s worse than that,” Thalia told them. “I’m running from the media. The cake shop employees called them, and they nearly caught me just now. That’s why I couldn’t go upstairs.”

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“The media?” Naomi said, her dark eyes lighting up. She began to preen. “Are they coming here?” she asked.

“I hope not, but I’m pretty sure they saw me,” Thalia said. “Wait! Ayano-san, is there a back way upstairs? Could Naomi distract them, maybe, while I go up?” She knew the reporters couldn’t follow her inside private property unless invited by the owner, but once she stepped out the door she was fair game.

Ayano was calmly smoking and stocking shelves. “Sure, there’s a back way up. Naomi, go tell them some bullshit story. They’re getting out of the van.”

Thalia’s already wide eyes got even bigger. “Oh no,” she said in a small voice.

“This way,” Ayano said, taking one of her bags. “Why are you afraid of cameras? They’d be good to you,” she said as they were going up the back stairs.

Thalia shuddered. “That all depends how you define ‘good’,” she pointed out. “I need space, peace, privacy. You get none of that as a celebrity.”

Ayano nodded. “I see. I don’t know about your world, but here we have a saying about how fickle public adoration is when it comes to what counts. People will follow stupid bullshit forever, but really heroic actions, not so much. What you did should be remembered; therefore, it will be forgotten tomorrow. Don’t worry about it – even if they catch you, they’ll forget about you in another week or so.”

Thalia laughed. “You know, I hadn’t thought of it that way. That makes me feel better,” she said. Ayano looked at her incredulously, saw she was sincere, then shook her head and banged on the back shoji panel three times.

Kirito’s voice floated out. “Go away, old hag!”

“You owe me two months’ rent!” Ayano shouted. “Better learn some damn manners!” And with that, she flung the door open.

“Oi! This is my bedroom! You trying to get some thrills, hoping I’ll be changing clothes when you come peeping up here?” Kirito shouted.

“I brought your friend up the back way, you idiot,” Ayano hissed. “You’ll have the reporters swarming up here, you keep yelling like that.”

Kirito spotted Thalia and snorted. “Oh, her? The vultures can have her – she said so herself. LOOK WHO’S HERE, IT’S”- Thalia didn’t wait for the rest, but planted her foot in his gut with all her force to shut him up, although she figured it was too late.

“You dumbass!” she protested. “I was coming with a peace offering! And I want to ask one of you to do a job for me!”

“You could just give the money to me, and I’ll make sure he does it,” Ayano said, ignoring Kirito’s gasping form on the floor. “He owes me two months’ rent.”

Thalia didn’t hear; she was beginning to look concerned. “Kiri-san, are you”-

“He’s fine,” Saya said from the opposite doorway. “He exaggerates to make nice people feel guilty. Don’t let it work, or he’ll take advantage. But also please don’t give Ayano our money, or I won’t have enough to eat this month,” she added. Thalia looked up to see huge blue eyes full of false tears, and a melodramatically trembling lip. She laughed.

“I’m surprised all of Edo can keep you fed,” she remarked. “But I did bring something with me to stave off starvation a little longer, at least. May I come in?”

“Of course!” Saya said, inviting her to step over Kirito’s prone form.

“I thought we were meeting at the park before lunch,” Saya said as they went into the living room and sat on low couches that were covered in what looked like brown corduroy. It was a big room, with wooden floors and paneling wherever there weren't shoji screens leading to other rooms or outdoors. Kirito's desk was near one wall, covered in a cheerful mess of papers.

“I’ve got a job I hoped one of you could help with, but of course we’re still on for lunch as well, although I’m pretty sure I’ll be late,” Thalia explained, smiling as she stepped over Kirito.

A pounding came on the front door.

“Don’t answer that, it’s the reporters after Thalia-san,” Ayano said, also stepping over him.

Kirito sat up, annoyed. “I guess I shouldn’t be offended when people come in through my bedroom, kick me in the gut, and step over my body to get to my living room,” he grumbled.

“Not when you provoke them the way you do,” Ayano retorted. “Sometimes I really wonder whether you’re a sadist or a masochist.”

“I’m neither! But it's obvious which category all of you fit into,” Kirito retorted, rubbing his abdomen and sulking.

“Can you let me apologize, please, before you do anything else that makes me retaliate and have to apologize more? I only brought so much sugar with me,” Thalia said.

“I like how you make it my fault when you have to apologize. That’s good. Did you take diplomacy courses before switching universes?” he said.

“Yes, actually. Aced them all,” she replied with a wink and a grin. She brought out the melon soda and handed it to him with a flourish. “Voila. That’s a peace offering, by the way, which is not the same thing as an apology,” she pointed out.

“Hm. Not bad,” he said.

She got out the little box with the éclair in it and tried to un-crumple the side that had gotten smashed somewhere in her mad dash for safety.

“Is that mine? What is it? Never mind that, it doesn’t have to be pretty,” Kirito said, snatching it from her and opening it. “Ah! A mangled éclair! All is forgiven,” he said, and began eating it at once.

“You bought an apology gift before you kicked him?” Saya asked, snickering. “I knew I liked you. That reminds me, Thalia-san, are you Bloodfire? We were talking about it last time after we had lunch.”

Thalia laughed. “If anyone else asks me that, I might start answering ‘yes’. We don’t have a Bloodfire clan in my dimension, though, so no, as far as I know, I'm not. I guess it’s possible they might be your universe’s version of the Fae, my race, but the Fae originate on Earth in my dimension.”

Saya’s face fell. “Oh. I thought maybe you were my cousin. Or like a lost big sister. I was hoping I would grow up to be as beautiful as you.”

“You’re a dazzling goddess even now, Saya-chan, never compare yourself to anyone else,” Thalia said. “It’s always a mistake.” With that, she handed the younger girl the box of pastries. Saya’s eyes shone with gluttonous delight, and she forgot all about beauty statistics.

“Wow, you got some delicious stuff!” Saya said through a mouthful of custard and pastry, spraying crumbs with a complete lack of embarrassment Thalia envied.

“I’m afraid to ask what this job is,” Kirito said.

“Nothing terrifying at all,” Thalia assured him. “It’s just I have work this morning, and last night I picked up Daishiro-chan; I can’t bring him with me, so I hoped one of you could care for him until after my shift.” She moved aside and brought the little boy out from where he was hiding behind her skirt.

“What’s his story?” Ayano wanted to know.

“Harada-san and I went last night to check on a home the hijackers admitted to robbing about four days ago, before they attempted their miniature coup. This little one was inside; he had lived there alone with his Obaa-san,” Thalia explained, her eyes darkening.

Daishiro spoke up, though he still clung tightly to Thalia’s hand.

“Thally-san told me Obaa-chan went to the next place. So she won’t wake up here anymore,” he said, his eyes filling with tears. Thalia hugged him close, soothing him.

“He has no relatives?” Kirito asked, indignant on the child’s behalf. “And where the hell were the neighbors for four days?”

“We’re trying to find out about family,” Thalia said. “The neighbors I saw were worse than clueless. Maybe some of the officers had better luck with some of the others.” She shrugged, still angry when she thought of the neighbor woman’s avaricious delight in this child’s tragedy. “So, can you help me out?”

“Since you bribed us so well, sure,” Kirito said.

“Thanks,” Thalia said, smiling. “Dai-chan, remember this man? His name is Kiri-san,” she said in a coaxing voice. Daishiro hid his face against her shoulder and attached himself to her like a carbuncle. “What’s wrong, sweetheart? These are my friends, and they’re going to take care of you while I’m chasing bad guys – remember, Harada-san told you all about it? They’re his friends, too.”

Daishiro took his little face off her shoulder to look at her. “He made you say bad words last night,” he reminded her.

Thalia blushed. Ayano intervened, leaning over the little boy. “That man could make an angel from heaven say bad words, Dai-chan. But he’s a good guy. Thalia-san wouldn’t leave you here if she didn’t know that.”

“Don’t want Thally-san to go,” Daishiro said, tears threatening again. But he was looking up at Ayano with trust; it made sense, Thalia realized; she was most like his Obaa-san of anyone he’d been around since they’d picked him up.

“Don’t you trust her to come back for you?” Ayano asked him.

“Yes,” he said, but his lower lip quivered.

“Oi, aren’t you keeping her from helping the Vice-Commander chase those bad guys?” Kirito demanded. “What will he do without her there?” Thalia twinkled at him, though she did not expect this to work.

She underestimated him, however. Daishiro stood up straight, looked at Kirito, then looked at her. “Don’t forget me. I’m here waiting,” he said, blinking back his tears. Thalia thought she might start crying herself.

“Of course I won’t forget you, Dai-chan,” she exclaimed. “I’ll be back too soon and you’ll want to stay, just wait,” she said, kissing his forehead and ruffling his dark hair.