Author's note: Well well well, something featuring John, as he is sorely missing from the fanfic 'Twofold', which will take a while before the next chapter is out, so it seems. Our dear John doesn't have enough fics, so he gets his own, and a trilogy at that. The others will show up later. The entire fic is done and ready to be uploaded, but as this happens in the same universe and during the events of Twofold, I want to finish up that one first.

Disclaimer for the entire trilogy: don't own Ghost Hunt, just playing.

Hourglass Handicrafts

Part 1: Down under

30th of June

When John had been told by his fellow SPR colleagues that they would go on a week long vacation in early July, he'd profusely apologized to them as he wouldn't be able to accompany them. Alas, he had his parents' twenty-fifth anniversary to attend to (at which Takigawa rudely yawned, earning a shove from Matsuzaki Ayako in progress) and it would have been a shame not to celebrate this with his entire family. Siblings, uncles, aunts, cousins, friends and acquaintances; he hadn't seen some of them in years, so it was the perfect opportunity to leave Japan for a little while for Australia.

Although, yes, he desperately wanted to go, John wouldn't have minded to enjoy a trip to a vacation resort with his co-workers to know them better without any relevancies to exorcism or ghost hunting as the boss would call it.

(Later he would learn from Takigawa and friends it didn't turn out that way at all.)

3rd of July

Yet here he was, somewhere down the globe, sitting in front of a cheesed off and ragged man. The odd appearance at the party held a bottle of beer in one hand and in the other lugging an antique hourglass. His own father egged on him to take care of that 'earbasher', who was supposedly an old acquaintance...

(John had never seen him before.)

"Never reckoned little Johnie would grow up to become a priest. ...You came back from Japan I heard? Is that how you got so polite? Y'know," the man said as he mocked a bow.

John inwardly sighed, but his face showed a nervous smile. "Perhaps so...?"

"If anything, I'm glad you came down under, 'cause I need your help with this."

He handed over the hourglass. It had whitish, light gray sand, the exorcist noted mentally.

"Um... this?"

"It's yours now. This thing got me and a lot of other people into heaps of trouble."

John wondered why in the world he had to accept an item like that.

"...How come it does?"

"Cursed! The thing's cursed! You're a priest, an exorcist at that, you should know!" The man shrieked, almost coughing on the booze. Annoyance was all over his face.

"Easy there, sir!" The younger Australian nearly shrunk in his seat, and he began to understand where the man was coming from.

"Johnie, I kid you not," he said, before taking a sip from his beer.

"Have you tried destroying it?"

"Don't you think I tried to? It wouldn't burn away!"

"I see," John frowned, and started to bombard the man with questions, "Where does it come from? What wood is it made of? How old is it?"

"..China? Cherry wood. No idea," he shrugged.

"...I'm sorry, but that's too little information to work with."

"I lost all my pennies in one week, strange stuff happenin' at home, don't think I got any time or interest for this. In any case, the bastard who gave it to me got all fussed about his fortune disappearing. He didn't tell me, that's why I wasn't iffy about it at first. Want his phone number?"

"Ah yes..."

He was instantly pushed a business card in his other hand.

"He should know more."

Before he could read the name of that person, his attention was brought to something else.

"Oh, and how about reading what's written on the bottom? Can't read it."

"Huh? If you can't read, then I-"

"Take a look at it kid, they told me you know that stuff."

John frowned and did as he was told to. At the side there was a small metal plate.

Oh...

"I see. In Japanese it is read as sunadokei teshigoto."

"In English Johnie, I don't speak moon language."

"That would be... 'hourglass handicrafts'."

"Helpful, very helpful."

"It's no problem."

"'was being sarcastic! I was hopin' for somethin' more specific like a real brand or the shop's name. Get it?"

"Oh," the young priest nervously smiled at the man, "right."

"...Can I trust you with this thing?"

"No worries! I'll take care of this."

"Great! Your mum invited me to this party and she told me about you having experience with this kind of... stuff. Well, I didn't want to leave this in incapable and uninformed hands like all my predecessors," he winked.

"It's no problem at all," the two rose to their feet.

"Thanks mate. C'me here," he nearly choked the younger Australian in his embrace. "This was really helpful."

With that he left, disappearing into the party crowd. John never saw the man again... or the wallet that had been stolen from him.

To be continued...