a lot of shit happens this chapter! ;D like, finally getting into the meat of some plot, instead of just messing around with the beginnings of magic in Judal's shop~ I hope you all enjoy!
The more Hakuryuu learns about recognizing magic, the more he comes to understand Judal's seemingly nonsensical methods for running his shop.
It starts small, just the lightest feeling from walking past an item in the front of the shop. But one day Judal catches his eyes and asks him to point out a few magical items in the room. From then on, they'll fill slow days with simple tests, getting more challenging as the days and weeks go on.
'Is this helpful, dangerous, or neutral?' Judal will ask, eyes bright as he waits for Hakuryuu's answers. 'How about this, is there a specific spell placed on it, or is it just covered in magical residue?'
Hakuryuu wonders what Judal has planned for him when he finishes organizing his paperwork, but the magical training has slowed him down enough that there's no real end in sight, for now. He enjoys being in the shop, watching Judal work, and he's not sure how to feel about that.
Judal buys items from people, and at first his prices seemed even more arbitrary and random than what he sells things for. But as Hakuryuu learns, he starts to see the reasoning behind what Judal pays out, and what he passes on. Though occasionally, he thinks Judal just buys things because they're pretty.
He's taking a break from organizing paperwork to dust and clean some of the shelves in the front room while Judal helps another customer. Business has been picking up lately, just as Judal said it would, and Hakuryuu doesn't want to let the mess get any worse than it already is. If he doesn't do it, Judal certainly won't, and no one wants to shop somewhere with dust caked in every corner.
Hakuryuu isn't skilled yet, not by far, but even he can recognize a cursed item when it's so powerful. When the door opens, Judal pauses mid sentence with his customer, and Hakuryuu glances over. It's almost a punch to the gut at first, the wrongness surrounding whatever this new customer is carrying, and it's relieving that Judal looks just as uncomfortable.
"Excuse me for just a moment," Judal says to his current customer. "My assistant would be happy to help you if you have any further questions."
Hakuryuu sets down his cleaning supplies and brushes himself off. Judal rarely has him help customers, especially alone, but something is definitely amiss. Thankfully, the customer mostly wants to look at a bunch of small pieces for a while, leaving Hakuryuu free to listen to Judal and the new customer.
"You buy antiques, right?" he asks Judal.
"Of course, sir, It all depends on what you're trying sell." Judal's eyes are on the paper bag in the customer's hands, though his interest wouldn't be obvious to anyone who wasn't familiar with Judal.
"I see. Well, my wife bought this at a garage sale, and...I don't really like it."
Judal leads him over to the counter, nodding along the whole time. "Mm, I understand. Well, let me have a look at it and I'll see if I can't take it off your hands."
The customer finally pulls it out of his bag and it's almost ridiculous how nondescript it is. Hakuryuu can't quite see all of it, but it looks like a slim book, maybe-
"How much is this?" the other customer asks him, holding up a small gilded picture frame. He glances at Judal before taking it from her. It doesn't feel magical, which means Judal shouldn't be upset if he gives it a price on his own.
"Seven dollars," he tells her, and she looks satisfied. "Can I help you with anything else, ma'am?"
She shakes her head, moving to browse some more and freeing up Hakuryuu's attention again. Judal is still talking to his customer, a bland smile plastered on his face. "I can give you twenty-five for it," Judal says. "It's not in the best condition, but it's quite old."
Hakuryuu cringes a bit at the price, since it does look to be just an old paperback book. But it's obviously magic, in a strange way, and he's not surprised that Judal wants it.
"That's fine," the customer agrees, and Judal pulls out one of the basic store policy contracts and a pen.
"I'll just need your name and a phone number for bookkeeping purposes, and then you'll need to sign the bottom. It's to say that you understand all sales are final."
He signs hurriedly. "I don't want it back. My wife hasn't been the same since she got it. I know that sounds weird, but…"
Judal nods before handing over the cash for it. "I understand. I'm glad I could help you out, then." He pauses, seemingly pulling a jar of hard candy from nowhere, and offers the customer a piece. "Candy?"
"Oh, yes. Thank you."
"Have a nice evening, sir," Judal says as he leaves, calm and polite to the end. As soon as the door shuts, he jerks his head at Hakuryuu, gesturing for him. Hakuryuu glances at the other customer before he walks over to meet Judal at the counter.
"I have to take care of this," Judal says quietly. "As long as nothing she's getting is magical, I trust you to handle it."
"Alright," he agrees, nodding. "Is it cursed?"
Judal looks frustrated. "That's what I thought, but...something's weird about it. You can tell, can't you?"
"Yes. It's why you overpaid for it."
Judal shoots him a pleased grin. "I knew you could learn." His expression darkens and he carefully picks up the book. "Close up when she's done. I'll be in the office."
Hakuryuu nods again and Judal makes his way into the office, closing the door behind him. He's left to watch the store, silently hoping that no one else comes in while the current customer slowly finishes up her shopping. Maybe it's just because he's here everyday, but Hakuryuu cannot understand how anyone could take this long to decide what they want.
She finally finishes up and he patiently cashes her out, one eye still on the office door. He politely leads her out and breathes a sigh of relief as he flips the sign to closed and locks the door. Hakuryuu shuts off a few lights to make it more clear that they're closed for the day before making his way to the office.
Judal has the book suspended in the air, and he's turning it over and poking at it with his wand. He barely glances up when Hakuryuu comes in, but he does nod slightly to acknowledge him.
"Any progress?" Hakuryuu asks.
Judal shakes his head. "Not much, but I'm being careful. I did figure out that its magical aura is masked, so I'm impressed that you could pick up on it."
"Really?"
"Mmhm. Don't touch it, though. It's leaking some sort of magical...infection, I guess would be a good term for it. That guy was contaminated with it from just bringing it here, though it wasn't a full blown infection. It's why I gave him that candy."
Hakuryuu sits down to watch Judal work. "I had a feeling it wasn't just candy."
Judal chuckles. "You are getting to know me. It's just enough of a spell to diffuse what was clinging to him, but I'm wondering about that wife he mentioned."
"He said she wasn't acting normal."
"Yeah, I wonder if it's important." Judal leans back and Hakuryuu realizes that he's floating, practically lounging on air now. What a strange man. "Anyway, I'll be at this for a while, so you can go home for the night."
"Are you sure?"
"I don't want you to get infected with this," Judal says. "Especially since I still don't know everything about it. I don't wanna have to race the clock to save you or whatever."
"But you'll be fine?" Hakuryuu asks dubiously.
"I'm pretty well protected against magic," he says proudly. "So you don't need to worry."
"I'm not worried."
"Cold!" Judal leans forward again, going back to poking the book. "There's a spare key in the register, in the far back of the drawer, so feel free to take it and lock up."
Hakuryuu nods. "Good luck."
Judal doesn't look up this time, too enraptured by trying to work out the magical mysteries in front of him. "Thanks."
x･x･x
Usually, Hakuryuu waits for Judal to text him the opening time for the day, but as the day goes on without a message, he begins to worry. He finally makes the decision to head out anyway, stopping by a hardware store to get a copy of the spare key made first so that he'll have his own from now on.
The store is still locked when Hakuryuu arrives, so he lets himself in. Everything looks normal enough; all the lights are still off, save for the emergency ones. He heads for the office and carefully pushes the door open, looking for answers.
Judal is curled up in a chair, half covered in a blanket and looking oddly comfortable despite his position. Yesterday's makeup is mess; one of his eyebrows looks significantly thinner than the other and there's purple eyeshadow smeared across one cheek. The book is sitting on the desk, still feeling aggressively wrong.
He can't touch it, and he doesn't quite want to disturb Judal, but he also can't let the man sleep the day away. Hakuryuu shakes his shoulder lightly, and Judal groans. He tries to pull away from Hakuryuu, curling further into his blanket, so he shakes Judal again.
"...what?" he finally asks groggily, eyes still squeezed shut.
"Good afternoon," Hakuryuu says. "I'm here to wake you up."
Judal groans again. "Why do you hate me?"
"It's almost 3 o'clock, Judal."
"Ugghhh…" He finally sits up, losing the rest of his blanket in the process. Somehow in the night he lost his shirt, too, and is now wearing a loose fitting vest. Hakuryuu is just glad he's still wearing pants. "Okay. Yeah, I slept in a little late. Bring me some coffee."
"From where?"
Judal shrugs. "The place down the street, the one with all the pastries. I want donuts. Just...take some cash from the register, okay?"
When he returns, Judal is looking slightly more awake. He's washed off his makeup at least, leaving his face looking stark and naked instead of obviously messy.
"Coffeeeeee," he says happily, reaching for the cup.
"I got you donuts, too, and I made sure to use the sweetest creamer in your coffee, don't worry," Hakuryuu tells him, handing them over. Judal's face lights up even more, and it's nice to see how pleased he is.
He lets Judal wake up more, slowly sipping his own coffee until Judal seems properly caffeinated and fed. "Did you make any progress last night?" Hakuryuu asks.
"Of course I made progress! I'm the best!" Judal practically puffs up. "I don't have it dismantled yet, but that's only because I'm still using it. It infects people with...some kind of magical residue, nothing noticeable at first, but it slowly takes them over until they're ready to snap to violence at a moment's notice. I don't really know how it's doing it yet, or how violent it'll make someone, but I found some news stories about people lashing out and hurting other people close to them. It's just the-" he pauses, yawning widely, before reaching for a donut. "The basics, but I was too fucking tired to work out anything else last night."
"But it's all coming from this?" Hakuryuu asks, gesturing at the book.
Judal shakes his head. "I don't think so. That's why I haven't removed the magic from it yet. I was gonna track it…" he trails off. "I think that's when I fell asleep."
"I see."
He stretches, yawning again. "That chair was not comfortable. Ugh."
Hakuryuu takes his empty coffee cup and throws it away, before Judal can accidentally lose it in the shop like so many of his other disposable containers. "I can open up while you get ready."
"Mm, thank you. I shouldn't be long, but...shit, is it really that late?"
"This is why I came looking for you," Hakuryuu tells him.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm an irresponsible business owner and you're so mature, I got it," Judal teases, but his expression is grateful.
"I'll take care of it so you aren't seen looking almost normal," Hakuryuu teases back, and Judal laughs.
"That's the real reason I'm having you open up: no one can see me without makeup." He pulls a sweatshirt out of the back closet and makes his way out of the shop, leaving Hakuryuu alone.
Hakuryuu takes his time opening up, even though he knows Judal isn't this meticulous. He turns on all the lights and balances the register, pulling cash from yesterday's deposit to make up for the coffee and donut expenses. He'll have to sort out the paperwork for that later, but he'll wait for Judal to be here to run the store. Once he's satisfied, he finally flips the sign to open.
It's quiet, giving him another chance to get some cleaning done while waiting for Judal. His thoughts are on the strange book though, and everything that Judal told him about it. He wants to puzzle out the mystery around it.
"Yo, it's really looking good in here," Judal declares as he walks in. He's once again looking like himself, perfectly made up and well dressed in flashy clothes and shining jewelry.
"I've been trying."
"Well, I can tell. Thank you," Judal says, sidling up to him. "But as much as I'd love to watch you clean all day, I think you might be able to help me better in another way."
Hakuryuu tries to ignore how close Judal is, his soft breath against his neck, and grips his roll of paper towels. "What is it?"
"I'd like you to look over the news stories I found and see if you can work anything else out. I was thinking about it all while getting dressed, but I think I've burnt myself out on it," Judal tells him.
He nods, slipping away from Judal to head toward the office. He can hear Judal following him from the soft clink of jewelry as he moves, and Hakuryuu doesn't know why his close proximity has been making him so nervous lately. For now he has something else to focus on, so he files that thought away for another day.
Judal touches the book with his wand and murmurs under his breath. It glows slightly before fading away, and he grins at Hakuryuu. "There you go. Now it shouldn't affect you."
"Thank you," he replies, making his way over to the desk.
"Lemme know if you find anything interesting. Or useful."
Hakuryuu pulls out a notebook and pencil, and he really wishes he had his laptop with him. His phone will still work, but it would be much easier with a bigger screen. "I will. If you think of anything else-"
"I'll tell you," Judal assures him, heading out. "You know, it's an old book of poetry. It's not even anything particularly rare, just a silly little book."
He looks at the battered book, and it really is quite innocuous. "Is the poetry any good?"
Judal laughs. "I dunno, I wasn't focused on that part! It isn't related to the spell on it, that's for sure."
"Well, I'm not going to read it. I have other things to work on," Hakuryuu says, settling in at the desk, and Judal leaves him be.
He loses track of time in the windowless back office, poring over articles and police reports on his phone. There's so much violence daily that it's hard to decide what's important and what's just regular crime. Hours pass, probably, but he's so lost in his work that he barely notices.
"I brought chicken nuggets, cause everyone loves nuggies," Judal says. He's carrying a fast food bag and more coffee, and Hakuryuu is so grateful. "I locked up for the night, but you looked like you were still working."
"Thanks," Hakuryuu says, taking a coffee from him. "I think I'm close to something, but...there's a lot violent crime, so it's hard to tell what is relevant."
"People are assholes," Judal says simply, pulling up a chair next to him so they can share the nuggets. "But I have faith in you."
"Why?"
"Because you're smart, and you're good at problem solving. I've been watching you figure out magic, you know, and not everyone can catch on like you did," he answers. "Now eat some dinner and tell me about the violence in our city."
Hakuryuu nods and gestures at his work. "Help yourself."
Judal looks over some of his papers, tapping a pen against the desk. "This is so organized."
"I am good at that, as you like to remind me," Hakuryuu says, pointing at some of the articles he highlighted. "These seemed unnatural, or at least enough against the norm that I wanted to make note of them."
"Oh, fancy." Judal nearly spills ketchup on his papers, and Hakuryuu takes them away from him, glaring.
"It won't do much good if you ruin them," he snaps. "I'm going to bring my laptop tomorrow so I can put these in a spreadsheet."
Judal looks pleased. "You know, I almost feel like I should be paying you, you're so talented."
"I'd feel so spoiled," Hakuryuu says sarcastically. "But I do appreciate the chicken nuggets. And the coffee."
"Damn right you better appreciate them!" Judal says, laughing. "Come on, relax for a little while you're eating, at least. You can come back to it tomorrow."
x･x･x
The next morning, Judal looks as bright and cheerful as always. He's got his phone out at the counter and he only looks up from it briefly to wave at Hakuryuu.
"Good morning," he tells Judal, heading to the office to get out his laptop and get to work.
"Come back out here," Judal calls after him, so Hakuryuu settles for putting his bag down on the desk for now.
"What are you up to?" he asks.
"Looking up gruesome news stories from the past few days!" he answers enthusiastically. "I figured we could see if there's any fresh blood."
"That's a bit morbid, but a good idea."
"Right? I'm pretty much a genius," he says, going back to scrolling through his phone. "Oh, what's this? 'A crime of passion', that sounds fun." Judal taps on the link, still cheerful, only for the color to drain from his face.
"Judal?"
He doesn't answer, instead handing his phone over. Hakuryuu looks at the opened news report and swallows deeply. "That's the man who sold you the book," he says unnecessarily.
"I know," Judal says hollowly. "Found dead late last night, with his wife covered in his blood and laughing."
The room feels too small and tight, the air heavy as they stand in awkward silence. Judal is uncharacteristically quiet and Hakuryuu doesn't know what to say, and it seems to stretch on endlessly.
"Fucking bullshit!" Judal yells, and a few of the lightbulbs around him shatter. "I hate trying to help people!"
Hakuryuu feels bad, obviously, but something from the murder stuck out. The murderer was found laughing, which he'd seen in a couple of the reports yesterday. Judal is still throwing a bit of a frustrated temper tantrum, but that's fine. He has work to do.
"Where are you going?" Judal snaps.
"I have an idea," he says, heading to the office.
"You can't bring back the dead."
"I- Why would you think that was my idea?"
He shrugs. "Just wanted to make sure you knew."
Hakuryuu nods and goes back to the office, pulling out his notes from yesterday. He's very glad he set up an organization system for them; it shouldn't take long to find all the abnormal ones he's thinking about.
Perfect. He pulls up a spreadsheet on his laptop and starts filling in the details. If he can put all the crimes that fit this new criteria in here, then maybe he can find something else that ties them all together.
Judal wanders in a few hours later, looking calm and composed again. "Making progress?"
"I think so," he says. "I've narrowed it down to less crimes, but there's still a lot to go through. They don't seem to use the same method in more than one or two, though they are all pretty messed up."
Judal slinks over, leaning against his shoulder to look at his laptop. "How so?"
Hakuryuu opens a few of the individual documents to show Judal. He's working on one for each case, with details and pictures as he finds them. "There's another case of spousal murder, but they were strangled to death instead of stabbed. Here's a man who stabbed all of his friends on a weekend trip, and one of them barely survived by pretending to be dead. He says the laughter from his friend while he murdered them one by one still haunts him." He moves onto another file and he can feel Judal shudder next to him. "A young child killed both his parents and was found incoherently laughing in what was left of them. And a girl who attempted to murder everyone in her sorority, and had to be shot to stop her rampage."
"Yikes," Judal says, leaning forward for a better view. He pokes at one of the pictures, pulling a face. "That's gross."
"I know. Please don't touch the screen," he says, swatting Judal's hand away.
"Whatever," he says flippantly. "Anything else?"
Hakuryuu shakes his head. "I feel like there must be something, since you said that book was causing some sort of infection. So each of the murderers would probably have to be contaminated somehow, sort of like passing on the flu, maybe?"
Judal nods. "It's a good theory."
"Thank you. I'm still working on the exact details, though," he says, gesturing at his still unfinished work. "I'll let you know when I'm done."
"Sounds good," Judal says, chipper again, and he finally leans out of Hakuryuu's personal space.
Hakuryuu never thought he'd spend so much time on social media, but here he is, digging through every friend and follower list, trying to connect the murderers and victims together. Judal has wandered in and out, complaining about the slow day and failing to offer anything but unhelpful commentary.
Eventually, Judal drags him away from his work to get late night fast food, and he only pretends to not be grateful.
"Sometimes I think you just like my car," Hakuryuu tells him, cringing as Judal nearly spills fries everywhere.
He nods enthusiastically, and this time he does drop a few fries. "I mean, you have other skills, but did you know they won't let you go through the drive thru without a car? It's fucking bullshit!"
"I'm sure it's a safety issue."
"But they also close their dining rooms too early," he whines, gesturing with a fry. "It's a conspiracy."
Hakuryuu shakes his head. "Maybe you just keep a strange schedule."
"Whatever, now I've got you to ferry me around. It's very convenient."
"You're welcome. Now please stop making a mess of my car, or I won't let you in it anymore."
Judal whines and petulantly tosses a napkin in the footwell. "You're so cruel."
"I drove you here and I've been working all day. At this point, I have a terrible headache from staring at a screen for so long."
"You should take a break for the night then. Not that I'm one to talk about irresponsible sleep schedules, but-"
"I'll think better with more sleep, I know. I just feel like I'm so close to something…"
"Then keep working. But don't sleep in the chair, I'm serious about that. My back still hurts from the other night."
He finishes his soda, considering Judal's advice. He really should go home for the night; it's not like he's really going to make much progress tonight at this rate.
x･x･x
Hakuryuu looks over his graph, pleased. He finally has everyone connected somehow, perfect lines drawn between each event. Now that it's complete, he can tell Judal.
"Judal," he says. "When you have a free moment, I have something to show you."
Judal glances at the few customers browsing the shop and back at Hakuryuu. "Is it important?"
"I've got everything connected," he says. "I can give you my work, but I'd rather go over it with you."
He nods. "I'll deal with these people then. Just go sit tight and wait for me; I shouldn't be long."
Hakuryuu disappears back into the office, and, true to his word, Judal joins him quickly, looking calm but pleased.
Hakuryuu laughs. "What did you do, kick them out?"
Judal grins. "You know the saying 'If you have to ask, you can't afford it?' I just priced everything way out of their budget until they left."
"You can be such a menace."
Judal pulls up a chair and straddles it. "I know! Now tell me about this!"
"So this is how the first victim knew their murderer," he says, pointing as he goes. "And eventually it made its way to this woman, who hosted a garage sale a few weeks ago to raise funds for her cousin's funeral. I think that's where the book came from; it was even in the same neighborhood that the last victim lived in."
Judal looks over his graph and notes as Hakuryuu talks, face oddly blank. "I see," he finally says. "Good work."
"Thank you. I think that traces it back to its source, unless there are some older murders I didn't find."
"You've been hard at work," Judal tells him, and it sounds like real praise. "We should go check it out."
"Right now?" Hakuryuu looks shocked.
"Nah, it's a little late in the day. But I can close up tomorrow."
Hakuryuu eyes him strangely. "Why?"
"So we can get rid of it, duh." Judal sets down the paper he was looking at and goes to leave. "Do you have any idea where else it spread?"
"No."
"Well, maybe I can help with that one. I did want to use the book to try to track things." He pauses, looking thoughtful. "Do you wanna watch the shop for a bit?"
"Oh, you trust me to now?"
"You're not an idiot. Just grab me if someone wants something magical."
Hakuryuu nods. "Good luck."
Judal pulls out his wand and shoos him out of the room. "Yeah, and I'll need it. Now go get to work out there!"
Lucky for Hakuryuu, the shop stays slow as afternoon fades to evening, until he realizes that he hasn't heard anything from Judal for hours. He's not sure if he should be worried. Eventually, he decides to check up on him, and knocks firmly on the office door.
"Come in," he answers. Judal has the book floating again and there's a black mess surrounding it, thin veins twisting and splitting off like a distorted map made of spiderwebs.
Hakuryuu keeps his distance and waits for Judal to explain it. He continues working though, turning the book over with his wand and slowly drawing more out, and with each step it looks more and more like a proper map.
"Judal?"
"Hmm? Did you need something?"
"I was just wondering how you were doing."
He grins, finally looking up from his work. "I've gotten it to listen to me. Do you see this?"
"I do," Hakuryuu says, hesitantly making his way closer. "What is it?"
Judal looks ecstatic, gesturing wildly with his wand. "I used it to track anything else in the area with the same magical signature. I mean, a lot of it has been a little bitch to do because it's all trying to keep hidden, but I finally figured out a way around all that bullshit."
"And so this is a map?"
"Exactly! We'll hit up the darkest spots on it, since those have the strongest magical residue. And then hopefully we can kick some fucking ass!" Judal is practically vibrating with glee, impossibly balanced on his chair and pointing wildly. "I think one of these points line up with the original source you found, so we're gonna check that out first."
Hakuryuu looks at the spiraling map, suspended in air, and Judal's excited face. Something still seems weird, though; something has been bugging him for days now. "Why are you doing this?"
Judal cocks his head. "Hm?"
"You're putting a lot of work into solving this problem, and you don't strike me as a selfless man."
"I can be good," he argues, looking affronted. Hakuryuu raises an eyebrow and Judal continues. "I'm sure you don't want to believe it, but I like helping people and beating up bad guys. I mean, mostly it's the beating things up part, but whatever. It's still a good deed."
"If you say so."
"I do say so. Don't be jealous that I do it for free; you got yourself into your trouble, and it wasn't even exciting to fix. This sounds like fun!"
He frowns. "I'm not jealous."
Judal just grins at him some more. "Just be prepared for tomorrow! I'm excited."