Chapter 50

Almost Reunited

"You've got to be kidding me, Harry." Mr. Hayashida dragged his hand down his face in annoyance, glaring through his fingers at the uniformed American man seated behind the desk. "You want me to watch a bunch of brats all the time?"

"Oh, stop complaining Hiroshi," the Lieutenant Colonel chuckled. "It's only a handful at a time. Besides, you've already agreed to it."

"I have not!" the elder argued loudly, standing and walking off to the side in a huff.

"You agreed to go where I tell you and do as you're told," Harry reminded him, his smile vanishing. "What I'm asking is a small price to pay, don't you think?"

"And what makes you think I'm the ideal candidate to watch a bunch of blood-sucking military tots?" Hiroshi asked incredulously. "Shouldn't 'former yakuza member' immediately disqualify me?"

"In this case, no." Leaning forward, the military official looked him hard in the eye. "These kids are… special cases."

"Oh, I know you're not giving me a bunch of cripples to watch!"

"Not that kind of special. I'm talking about situations that a man like you should actually be very familiar with."

The elderly Japanese man paused for a moment. "You want me to look after abused kids?"

"Possibly abused kids," the American explained. "These are kids who have had cases in the past that have been investigated and closed under less than trustworthy circumstances."

Hiroshi snorted. "And this has been approved by your superiors, I'm sure."

Harry half-smiled. "I… would consider it a personal favor if you kept your reports as clear and anonymous as possible."

"Damn it, Harry," the Japanese man cursed, "I got out of the Yakuza because I was sick of this illegal shit!"

"It's not illegal," he corrected, "just… unofficial."

"What's that American expression… a rose by, um… Fuck, call a rose what you want, it's still a rose."

"What is a name? That which we-"

"The non-poetic version, please," Mr. Hayashida grumbled.

"A rose by any other name is still a rose," the other sighed.

"Yup. That one."

"I don't know why you're so against this," Harry stated, tiredly. "While not technically by the books, it's for a good cause."

"Yea, we told ourselves that all the time, too," Hiroshi sassed with a slow, pitying nod.

The military man's face turned grim. "Listen to me, Hiroshi, and I'll put it plainly; I have seen far too many cases get dismissed far too early, and evidence of abuse thrown out because of the strangest variables and alibis."

"And you think I am somehow the man for the job? Me, the former thug who hates kids?"

"That is what I need. You won't pry into these kids' lives, won't get close to them and compromise everything with emotional investment. I need you to be you; distant, lazy and, to put it politely, an unapologetic ass. But I also need you to observe; listen to what the kids tell each other and see how they react to things. I don't even need to send you a list of signs to watch for; you know it well enough already."

"Don't remind me," Hiroshi huffed. Rubbing his temples with one hand, he muttered, /Why me?/ before sitting back down across from the man who bent over backwards to get him out of his old life. "Fine, I'll look after the little shits and report what I find. But if you think I'm faking shit just to put someone away that you don't like, forget it."

"My friend, if I thought for a second you would do that, I would never have picked you for this."

Looking off to the side with a distant glint in his eyes, Mr. Hayashida inhaled sharply before leaning forward. "Alright, when do I start?"


"Now!" Hari ordered.

With a hard tug, Ayuka tightened the stitching as hard as she could to let Hari work on keeping the wound closed, but after another moment the Jorōgumo had to release her grip when Hari couldn't get his needles through Eliza's scales. "This would be… easier if you'd just… change back to normal. Your demon form is quite… what's the word?"

"Sturdy," Hari finished with a grimace.

"Not the word I was looking for, but it will do." Ayuka dropped the strands, ready to place another temporary patch over the wounds to hold back the blood.

Eliza, who was wheezing and squinting from the pain, looked up weakly. "I don't know how."

"It should happen naturally," Hari mused, laying out on the floor with a tired sigh. Ayuka just glared down at him; she was doing all the hard work, but she was too tired to rebuke him for being lazy. "Have you ever been this way before?"

"Once that I remember," Eliza answered, somewhat embarrassed, "and… one time that I don't."

Hari raised an eyebrow with a smirk. "Had a good time, did we?"

She looked away with narrowed eyes, and Alastor chuckled. "It certainly seemed so," he answered for her. "But perhaps there is a connecting factor. After all, the last of the pictures showed you as your normal self, so clearly something happened! What did you do before changing back the first time?"

Thinking back, Eliza squinted through the haze in her mind. Between the pain, the emotions and the sheer fatigue from the day, it was hard to remember things. Even yesterday felt like a bit of a blur. Then her eyes widened as the memory finally came. "I changed back while I was eating a late breakfast."

Alastor snapped his fingers. "Ah, of course! And the second time you gorged yourself on-"

"-A lot!" she interrupted, glaring at the floor. "I… ate a lot."

The wendigo gazed down at her in confusion. "I thought you weren't embarrassed about that?"

"We're not around people we know," she whined, quietly. "It's not exactly something I want to advertise to everyone we meet, especially since, again, I was too drunk to remember!"

"Oh, I see," Alastor said sheepishly. "My apologies, sweetheart."

Hari glanced back warily at the overlord before looking between him and the dragon. "You two a thing, or..?"

Alastor raised a finger to reply, but Eliza beat him to it. "No, he calls everyone by nicknames, particularly women. He calls my boss 'sweetheart' all the time. Usually I get 'my dear,' and on rare occasions, 'darling.' In the end, he doesn't really mean anything by it."

"Yes indeedy!" he agreed with a nod.

"Huh, weird," Hari shrugged. Then an idea came to him; the first test to see if she was someone he knew. "Well, if food is what you need, then perhaps we shouldn't wait for Eichi's oden!"

"It doesn't take him long-" Ayuka started before being quickly cut off.

"Here we are! I made this earlier, but never got to eat it because the workload picked up!" Pulling a small box out of thin air, he opened it up to let the smell fill the room.

Alastor sniffed curiously. "Hmm, it smells unusual. Is it a local dish? I must confess I have not had the opportunity to-"

"None for you," Ayuka snapped, angrily.

"None for me, either, thank you," Eliza declined as politely as possible, scrunching her nose and turning away. "I'm afraid I don't like fried tofu."

"And yet you made some as a gift?" Ayuka asked in surprise.

However, Hari honed in on the promising answer. "What don't you like about it, exactly?"

"Everything," she grimaced. "It's supposed to absorb flavors and have a variety of textures, but in the end it always has a sour taste and it feels…" she made a gagging sound, holding her snout with a clawed hand. "Ugh, it's nauseating."

When his eyes sparkled mischievously, he stabbed a small cube with one of his needles. "Well, as the American expression goes…" shifting into a squatting position, he massaged the side of her jaw as he wedged her mouth open, making it hard to resist. "Beggars can't be choosers!" Before she could clamp her mouth shut, he dropped the tofu cube on her tongue and backed away with a short, victorious laugh.

Making a face of absolute disgust, she fought the urge to spit it out and just swallowed the food down, glaring at the healer all the while. With a shake of her head, she made a soft gagging noise as her reflex wanted to return to sender. "Ugh, nasty! It's just as bad now as it was then!"

There was a brief moment of silence as her own words suddenly clicked in her head. The smell, the taste and the texture were so familiar that it caused a strange pang in her chest, and not just because of the stab wounds. This wasn't the first time this fried tofu has been shoved down her throat, only back then it was supposedly to make her acquire the taste for it. In the end, she was convinced it was just a sadistic game.

This felt hauntingly similar.

When she seemed to stop breathing, Ayuka moved to check her only to be stopped by Hari holding up his hand. "I think we should be alone for a moment."

At first his assistant looked terribly confused. Then realization flashed in her eyes and she bowed respectfully. "As you wish."

"I think not," Alastor growled. "I will not leave her alone with-"

"Leave."

The overlord sputtered a bit at being cut off before turning to glare down at Eliza, who still wasn't looking up. "I beg your pardon?!"

"Leave, Alastor."

When she finally looked up at him, he looked beyond pissed and downright betrayed. When he opened his mouth to speak, she could practically see the venom of his words dripping from his teeth. Then… he stopped, straightening up and smoothing out the front of his suit. "Very well. I will wait outside." As he turned to leave, he glared down at the healer, who gave him a passive, lazy gaze, though the wendigo knew what was hiding behind that look. "But I will be close by, and I am not leaving without her."

Hari watched with a raised eyebrow as the overlord marched out of the room, his shadow shutting the door behind him. Turning to Eliza, he pointed back with his thumb and asked, "He's not listening in with that thing, is he?"

"I don't think so," she answered, though honestly she wasn't sure. There was a time she would have been certain he wouldn't do something so rude, but now, not so much.

"Well… you certainly make interesting friends," he commented, awkwardly. Ugh, emotional shit has never been his strong suit…

"Mr. Hayashida?"

He blinked as, for a moment, he almost forgot to react. It's been a really long time since anyone called him that. "I go by Hari, now."

"Oh, so I won't be tossed in a ditch if I call you something else?"

He just huffed out a laugh. "I think I can make an exception. But only for Hari, got it?"

"That's Ok, I go by Eliza now."

"So I've heard."

After a moment of silence, he watched her paw at the ground nervously. He knew why; before he died they had much to talk about, but never had the chance. Hari felt tired just watching the conflicted emotions she was failing to hide; things went so very wrong with her case, and there were many important things between them that went unresolved. Before either of them had the chance to even start that conversation, however, Eichi arrived. He opened the door and waltzed right in, a steaming bowl in his paw. "Good to see you again! It's rare for me to serve the same person twice in one day. Feel free to brag to everyone you know; I assure you you'll be the envy of the temple!"

Giggling before wincing in pain, she stared hungrily at the oden bowl, which was exactly the same as her previous order. As she hypothesized, she slowly changed back as she ate, eventually returning to her humanoid, pearly scales and brown hair. Suddenly she felt a wave of exhaustion and fell to the floor. Both of them knelt down immediately, Hari looking her over in surprise and Eichi keeping her steady while the other worked. Aside from the known injuries, nothing else seemed to be wrong, so the sinner just sighed. /Help me lay her flat./

Moving to her legs, Eichi helped to straighten her out as Hari put her arms at her sides. The fox then grabbed two nearby cushions and handed one to the healer. One went under her head, the other under her knees. /Is she alright?/

/She will be, now that we can properly stitch these,/ he answered, gesturing to the two large holes going straight through her body just beneath the rib cage. They saw her eyes flutter as her head moved a little, a soft groan escaping her. /Is Ayuka busy?/

/She was dealing with Takahiro's mangled pride./

Hari just rubbed his eyes. /Guess I'll have to save her./

When he walked out of the room, Eichi called out, /Try not to nearly kill him this time./

Hari peeked inside the door. /Not my fault the guy has the constitution of dried seaweed. And the personality of it, for that matter./

When the healer disappeared for real this time, Eichi sighed. Turning to look down at the patient, he told her quietly, "Kichi will be happy to hear that you're doing well. She found you and brought you here, you know!" With no small amount of pride, he added, "her powers are finally developing! Still I'll have to have a talk with her about handling power." While they waited for Hari to return, he continued to just talk about his daughter, occasionally mentioning Genki and his wish that his son took his position more seriously.

Eliza listened, unable to do anything else. Maybe someday she could have a real talk with him about how to handle his Wild son; it sounded like there was a big disconnect there.

Outside the room, Alastor's shadow watched as the healer walked away, leaving his friend to watch Eliza in his absence. Through the open door he saw her sleeping on the matted floor. Slithering in while carefully avoiding contact with the bragging fox, the shade noticed she was naked and gulped. Still, he didn't look away, coming as close as he dared to inspect the wounds. In her normal form they appeared to be slightly smaller, and the silk bandages over the wounds were already soaked with blood. They would hurt for quite some time, but thankfully sinners heal quickly. Well, quicker than in life, at any rate.

Hearing familiar voices, the shadow looked up in surprise before fading into Eliza's shadow, slinking from one dark spot to the next to hide. His master told him to make sure she was safe, and so he sat in wait. Now was the time to make sure they did their job correctly.

"Eliza?" Hari cooed, poking her cheek with a finger. Her eyes fluttered as she tried to open them, but failed and her head fell slightly to the side. /Looks like the day really caught up with her./

/Poor thing,/ the Jorōgumo fussed, moving some hair out of her face. /Still, this form will be easier to deal with./

Eichi dismissed himself as the two of them got to work, Ayuka producing silk for Hari to gather and stitch into place. It took quite a while, as the back and front needed to be stitched up, but the silk strands held strong in spite of the instability of rolling her over. Stabilizing her once it was all over, Ayuka looked over his handiwork as always before nodding. /Now we should let her rest./

/I'll leave in a minute,/ Hari told her. /I have something to say to her, first. If she doesn't get her strength back soon, I doubt her 'friend' will just wait around for her to be able to leave on her own./

/Pompous ass,/ Ayuka spat. /Can't even be bothered to wait for her to recover./

/You really should be used to that by now,/ he teased. /It's not like our clan has a shortage of assholes./

/Which reminds me; you will un-paralyze Takahiro when you're done here, right?/

/Let me sleep on it,/ he drawled with a smirk.

Giving him an annoyed huff, his assistant just walked out and closed the door behind her. Alastor's shadow looked between the exit and Eliza, unsure whether or not to remain and listen or leave and report. Things were already tense between his master and the therapist; if he remained to eavesdrop, would that make the situation worse? Perhaps that was a risk he shouldn't take, at least for now. As such, he bolted across the floor and under the door to return to Alastor with news of Eliza's progress.

"Look," Hari began, sitting on the floor and leaning against the wall near her mat, "before I try talking about this shit, I'm just going to say it: I don't blame you. You were a scared kid, and I know I got pissed but… I got over that part. Eventually." He looked down at her, noting that she wasn't moving anymore. Maybe she had fallen asleep before he even started talking; probably wasn't hearing a word. Still, he had to say it before she left, and as much as he'd like to believe otherwise, he knew that friend of hers could pull her out by force if he decided to. "Fuck, everything went to shit, didn't it? If I'd just… or if you didn't… and if he…" Struggling hard to find the words, he eventually just put his hands down to his sides in defeat. "Damn it, you were always better at this talking shit. You better wake up soon, before your friend decides to just carry your unconscious ass out of-"

He paused when he heard a noise. It was soft, but he could have sworn that she said something. Was she talking in her sleep? Bending down, he turned until his large ear was focused on her face. "Did you say something?"

"I'm sorry."

She kept saying it over and over, clearly not entirely awake but apparently conscious enough to get the gist of what he was saying. He sat straight up and turned away, but she kept repeating the apology like her life depended on it.

He wasn't crying, and if anyone walked in right then and saw him crying he would turn them into a pin cushion.


Harry looked over the reports with a frown. "This one was odd the first time, and this time is no different."

Hiroshi just raised an eyebrow. "Why? The mother doesn't even try to hide that she hates the girl, and she always shows up with strange marks."

"That's the thing; the marks always get explained away and ignored."

The caretaker rolled his eyes. "Of course; parents make the best excuses."

"It's not the parents that do it."

Mr. Hayashida scoffed. "You're telling me Elizabeth lies about them? On her own?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying," the Lieutenant Colonel sighed, putting the papers down. "Or at least that's my opinion on the matter, since the last investigation believed her."

Hiroshi blinked. "You're fucking with me."

"I wish I was," Harry lamented. "She has an explanation for every cut and bruise. Her stories don't change, and her mother either backs up her claim or says she doesn't know how it happened. She got into the knife drawer and hurt herself, she slipped in the tub, she jumped off the couch… the list is endless. Worse yet, they're all believable because kids her age do those things all the time."

"She's only five!" Hiroshi cried. "And she's been in the program for almost a year now! What kid her age can pull excuses out of their ass like that?

"Now you see why the case was dismissed," Harry growled.

"And before she was old enough to make shit up? Who gave the answers then?"

"They weren't asked before then, but the questions she couldn't answer were handled by her father. His behavior definitely helped the dismissal along; he was a lot more cooperative than the mother." When the Japanese man got up and paced a bit, he raised an eyebrow. "Is there something I should know about, Hiroshi?"

The elder sighed. "She's… odd. You've seen the reports; reactionary violence, doesn't talk much, responds strangely to unusual circumstances…"

"Like walking in on you naked?" Harry joked with a half-smile.

Apparently the caretaker wasn't in the mood for jokes. "She didn't react at all! Watched me pull off my pants, saw me in my wrinkly glory and just commented on the fucking Yakuza tattoo on my back before I kicked her out. What kid her age doesn't bat an eye at seeing a naked person she barely knows?!"

"While I would normally chalk it up to childhood innocence," the military man muttered, his brow furrowed in concern, "it is possible that she's seen more than any child should. And with the father being something of an unknown variable in the investigation, that is concerning. Should I recommend scheduling her for a… special health check?"

Hiroshi looked a little green. "I… think that might be best."

Behind his desk, Harry reached underneath and touched his gun for comfort. "I should mention that I take a… special interest in cases of child molestation. I may need assistance in checking myself if any tests come back positive."

The elder huffed, throwing his hands in the air. "Don't look to me for help; I'd sooner provide the bullets."

Harry glared at the papers in front of him. "No need; I'd only need one. Two if the mother knew about it and didn't say anything."

"I'll handle the mother if you take the father," Hiroshi offered, completely serious.

Harry smirked, though it wasn't in good humor. "Deal."


Author's notes:

Holy shit, this is chapter 50... HOLY SHIT, THIS IS CHAPTER 50! WOOHOO!

Sorry it's on the short side, but I got talked into posting it as is because, if I didn't, I was going to start throwing my keyboard. Alastor was supposed to have a segment before the second flashback, but my husband told me to stop stressing over it and start the next chapter with him, so that's what I'm going to do.

Anyways, now to the important part: I have a question. As you may have noticed, I am a very slow writer because I really like character development and relationship building. That being said, that means this story is likely to be quite long, and I want your opinion on something. Do you think it would be better to break the story up into books, or just keep it one long, continuous book? I've seen stories upwards of 250 chapters (not short ones, either) and they're still going, so I know that's a thing on this site, but I'd like to know what the preference is for you guys.

See, my plan for this story is to actually span the life of the hotel, to an extent, and a lot is going to happen during that time. My husband and I have already picked a nice stopping point for Psyche Evaluation should I break it up, but I didn't want to commit to it without seeing what my readers thought of the idea first.

Seriously, your faves, follows and reviews make my day every time I find them in my email. You guys are amazing and I'm so glad you like this story. I hope you continue to enjoy!