Sorry that took so long, guys! I swear I wasn't being lazy, all my plot bunnies just really wanted to keep working on Perfectly Alien instead. You guys have all been fantastic, thank you so much for your patience.

Because this arc is going to be an original case, I'm going to put OC character profiles here after this chapter so you guys don't get confused. I'm not flooding this story with OCs, but even I had to keep checking on my notes to keep the characters straight.

Also, on a side note- I made a writing blog on tumblr. It's my first one so I'm not really sure how to use it yet. But I'm planning on including excerpts from stories and answering any questions from that blog. The link is signaturedish dot tumblr dot com Or just look up Signature Dish on tumblr if you're interested. Right now it's more of a notebook.

Okay, thanks for your time and on to the show!

"Harry! I'm so glad you could make it on short notice." John grinned from ear to ear, looking more like a child playing dress-up than a priest in proper cloth.

Harry hopped up the last steps of an impressively large porch to meet the other at the door. The entrance was huge and rather run down, grand hand-carved double doors covered in a peeling old finish thrown open against a contrasting downtown setting.

"How could I say no to such an interesting case?" Harry laughed, ducking past John to step into the rickety manor. A young couple stood stiffly at the foot of a winding staircase, they must be the clients.

"Oh excuse me," John rushed forward to introduce them. "This is the colleague I recommended, Runemaster Harry Potter. Harry, this Misao Hiruma and Jou Suguro, the owners."

"Pleased to meet you." Harry sketched a quick bow before leaning back to look over his employers.

Suguro's hands were wrapped in white bandages with shiny pink scars climbing up his wrists, his dark eyes were rimmed with fatigue that played badly on his pale complexion. Hiruma didn't look as worn out as her partner, but when she spoke, it was with a noticeable rasp that didn't match her girlish features at all.

"Likewise, thank you for coming here on such short notice. I'm confident that between Father Brown and yourself, things might finally go back to normal."

"Well, that is certainly our goal." Harry smiled.
Suguro broke from his place beside Hiruma to stride to a door on the left of the stairs. He stopped and looked back impatiently. "We'll give you a tour of the place now."

"Oh yes!" Hiruma burst in, giving a forceful bow. "And welcome to Eastern Manor Bed and Breakfast."

John and Harry exchanged glances but followed the owners deeper into the manor.

The tour was quick and spartan, just enough that he wouldn't get lost immediately in the large house. An open sitting room was right past the stairs, decorated in creaky old-fashioned furniture. It had been converged into a waiting room before the desk slotted against the far wall for administration. Beside it was a dining room fitted with a long table that connected to a rather humble looking kitchen.

Moving back toward the staircase was a claustrophobic little bathroom that was meant to be shared with two bedrooms through a narrow hallway. Up on the second floor were a few more bedrooms, ranging in size and mothballs, and one last bathroom.

"There's also a basement, but we haven't decided what we want to refurbish it for yet." Hiruma added as she led them back downstairs.

"May we be allowed to go there during our investigation?" John was quick to ask.

"It's not locked, just filled with that old lady's garbage." Suguro shrugged, and they came to a halt at the bottom of the stairs.

"Old lady? Do you mean you have things from the previous owner?" Harry piped.

"Yeah, she didn't have anyone to will her things to, so they just threw it in with the house. Most of this is her furniture." Hiruma waved toward a particularly faded and dusty armchair.

Harry hummed, eyeing a shelf full of decomposing books. If their problems ended up being from a truly supernatural source, it was probably going to be from some old relic stuffed somewhere in this giant house. Hopefully, his detection glyphs would be more conclusive during this case or he and John might be looking for weeks.

"If you don't mind, I'd like to ask some questions about the activity you've experienced so far now." John looked at the owners expectantly, politely ignoring the scowl spreading across Suguro's face.

"Fine, whatever gets this over with faster." Suguro brought them back to the sitting area in front of their desk and sat across from Harry and John, Hiruma at his side.

Harry dug through his satchel until he found his notebook. Flipping past his previous work, he found a blank page and waited.

"So, the whole story?" Hiruma hedged, and John nodded patiently.

"Well, it didn't start immediately when we bought this manor. It was on sale and cheap since the old woman who lived here before us didn't maintain anything."
"I'll say." Suguro snorted. "Practically blew what we saved up on refurbishing alone."

Harry frowned, not immediately? What could've agitated a spirit after the previous owner died and the house was remodeled?

"So how long had your bed and breakfast been running before phenomenon began to occur?" John asked, leaving the note taking to Harry in favor of looking approachable and sympathetic, though Harry doubted he did so purposefully.

"After two weeks of business." Suguro answered, "That's when the first fire happened."

"Where was it? Any strange color or behavior?" Harry asked, looking up.

"Only that it was in the hallway of the second floor. We thought one of our guests did it and sent them packing." Hiruma shrugged.

"What about the next time? Was it in the hallway again?"

"Oh no, in fact it was in a completely different area. About a week afterward, a fire started on the wall by the first-floor bathroom. But it was in the middle of the day and both our guests had chosen upstairs rooms so we couldn't find a culprit."

Harry jot that down quickly, random fires could definitely be from a poltergeist. "Do these fires happen when a certain amount of people are accepted? Or perhaps noisy people?"

"No." Suguro sighed, Hiruma rubbed his shoulder. "The next time it happened we had one guest and he only slept the night. I was in the basement clearing space to walk." He didn't look at his hands, but they were tense in his lap. "I was bent down to pick a box up when it burst into flame right in my face. I barely pulled myself up to avoid that, but...I- my hands have second-degree burns."

"My word, I hope your wounds aren't serious." John hissed sympathetically, and Suguro shrugged down at his bandages.

"Right now the doctors are optimistic that the...damage is only superficial." He gave a dark laugh. "Whatever that means."

There was a heavy pause after that, broken only by the traffic outside the manor.

"After that, we decided to get in contact with someone who could help us, and Suguro had a friend from church recommend Father Brown." Hiruma's coarse voice was low enough to be considered a whisper if it weren't so quiet already. "There was one more fire after we let a family stay with us. It was in the middle of the night and we're not sure where it originated from. Only that it got into the vents and was pouring smoke into our rooms. Jou was still in the hospital, so it took both me and the family to get the fire under control. We're lucky we didn't…" She swallowed harshly. "And we've been closed since then, fixing the fire damage."

Harry reviewed his notes, mulling over the story. It still wasn't a sure thing that this was an actual spirit and not an arsonist or a bid for insurance fraud, but he would consider everything.

"Has there been any activity since you closed your bed and breakfast?"

"None. But it also hasn't happened for weeks at a time when we do have guests, so…" She smiled apologetically.

"Was there any similarity between the guests that stayed when there were fires?" John asked, peeking over Harry's shoulder to read what he'd jot down.

"Nothing I could see. The first one we kicked out was a bit eccentric, but the others were normal." Suguro looked to Hiruma who nodded agreeably.

"Do you mind if I look over your records later to learn more about those certain people?" Harry looked over to the desk. With any luck they kept a record book, as he still wasn't completely proficient on a computer.

"Already a step ahead, I asked them to provide us with a marked copy for our investigation." John assured, and with a quick tap of his phone, Harry had the records he needed, complete with helpful highlighter.

"Thanks! I'll look over it later." He pocketed his phone. "Now do you know anything about the previous owners?"

Suguro gave a huff and nudged at Hiruma playfully. "She certainly does, running a bed and breakfast by herself must've been boring because by the time I got out of the hospital she was practically an expert on the woman."

Harry leaned forward excitedly and looked to the co-owner expectantly. She was a little flushed but began easily enough. "Okay, so this house was constructed in the late eighteen-hundreds for the Hata family, though I'm not sure why they chose a Victorian style. Either way, the old woman who lived here before us was a cousin from a branch family of the Hatas, since the main heiress died unmarried. Her name was Mayako Izuhara and she lived here for almost sixty years. She lost her parents at a young age, married briefly and was widowed before they could have children, and might've been sick, she never looks healthy in her photos. She was clearly a hoarder and kept all her relatives' things. The neighbors also said she was a very angry person and once screamed at them from her window for playing music."

Harry noted the name, but not much else. Most of what Hiruma said wasn't very significant proof for a haunting. "And the neighbors never reported any fires before she died?"

"There were never any fires before we had our third guest." Suguro interrupted, sounding as though he'd repeated this many times. "And Izuhara didn't even die here, she died in the hospital of natural causes."

"So you don't believe Izuhara is haunting you?" Harry asked curiously.

He shook his head. "There's definitely something here. But I was the one who bought this place, haggled with the realtor, hired the clean-up crew, and most of the initial work to get this place to code and there's no proof Izuhara was anything more than a sickly old hermit. You should've seen how many soap operas I had to give away, she definitely wasn't making voodoo dolls in her spare time."

"What else could it be?" Hiruma demanded and he growled irritably.

"I don't have a clue, for all I know the house is lighting itself on fire, but it doesn't make any sense that Izuhara is doing this either."

"Well," John interrupted before they began to fight. "Thank you very much for answering our questions so patiently. If it's alright with you, I'd like to exorcise the house of all evil spirits to see if that has any effect."

"Of course, Father Brown." Suguro mumbled, rising to his feet and jerking his head to the hallway beside the stairs. "Those two bedrooms are for you and your friend, stay as long as you need to fix this for good. I'll be busy for the rest of the day but don't hesitate to ask for anything." He left without another word.

"If it interferes with your business, I can easily rent a motel room close by." Harry felt he should protest, but Hiruma smiled sadly.

"No, you're welcome to stay. I can't in good conscious let guests in after what happened last time, so it's good that some of our rooms get some use in the meantime. We won't schedule your meals, the kitchen is always open, so please feel at home while you work."
She bowed and followed after Suguro, neither seemed at all interested in watching John perform an exorcism.

Harry noted as much to the priest.

"It's likely that they're scared of what might happen." John explained, ducking in his assigned room to place his bags before coming out with his bible and holy water. "With Suguro's faith in the Catholic church and Hiruma's fear of the fires, it can't be easy to see an actual exorcism take place in their home."

Harry didn't leave his satchel in his room, not yet comfortable enough to put them down in a house prone to fires.

He followed John back into the front room, where the priest paused for a drawn out moment in which it seemed he was thinking very deeply. Finally, he gave a sigh and smiled. "I was going to suggest you leave the building for a moment while I exorcise it, but I doubt you'd listen."
Harry nodded seriously, only a curve on his lip to soften him. "No way I'm leaving you here after last time." John had proven quite quickly that he couldn't be trusted with his well being while working, far too determined to drive away spirits to fear for his own safety.

John chuckled wryly, having probably guessed what Harry was thinking. "Well in that case, you should go get a bucket of water or something. If a spirit sets me on fire I'm not sure my flask of holy water would be very useful."

Happy with the compromise, Harry set out to do just that.

The exorcism passed uneventfully, leaving behind only the faintest smell of incense in the empty manor.

With the rest of the afternoon to wait for any telling activity, both Harry and John ducked into John's room to go over the guests who stayed in the bed and breakfast, both those who were present during a fire and those who weren't.

John was using his laptop to access an online database for more information while Harry examined any details or requests listed in their descriptions in hopes of finding a unifying factor.

Suguro's first impression of this compilation seemed spot on, though. No matter how Harry looked at it, the guests all appeared completely average and varying in age and appearance. No strong leaning in any characteristic

"There are a lot of foreigners listed, perhaps the spirit dislikes outsiders?" John murmured thoughtfully, scrolling over an elderly Russian man.

"Only a couple of them were present during a fire, though. And the last family to stay had been completely Japanese." Harry pointed out, scrolling to another page.

"Maybe a focus on men? Whenever there's a fire a male guest was present."

"Hmm yes, but Suguro didn't experience any harassment when he was alone." John sighed, and they both went back to frowning at their lists.

"If it's not dependent on the visitor, perhaps it's just based on a certain time? Like a moon phase?" Harry was just guessing now, flipping open his notebook to stare at that instead of his phone.

"That might be something, I'll set up a calendar for the specific dates." The priest said, and Harry loaned him his notebook to set it up while he conjured up more wild theories.

"Or maybe the guests that were present during a fire caused some accidental damage? Like scuffing a door?"

"Suguro was burned while moving things around in the basement." John mumbled, frowning down at his rough calendar. "But that wouldn't explain why it didn't happen during most of the refurbishing."

"It might've taken a while for a curse to settle or something." He pointed out, most took at least a couple days to create and many could take a week or more to start affecting their victims.

"But who would curse them? The former owner was a hermit without any family for years, and she died after weeks in the hospital so I doubt she could curse it herself."

Harry slumped against the mattress, abandoning his notebook.

"Hmm…"
He perked, twisting to look back at John. He too had discarded the notebook and was now scowling heavily at his computer again.

"What is it?"

"Well," John hummed, leaning closer. "This is a Japanese database so I don't have information on the foreigners, but I noticed that there is never a fire when all of the guests are high school graduates."

It was something. Harry sat up and leaned over John's shoulder to inspect the records. "So it might have something to do with high school dropouts? I've never heard of a spirit that cared about that sort of thing before."

"Neither have I, but it's all I can find right now."

It was too strange, Harry couldn't come up with a single reason for a spirit targeting high school dropouts in an old Japanese manor. But it was also their only lead. He sighed dejectedly and pulled away from John.

"So you wouldn't happen to be a high school dropout to test this theory, would you?"

"Oh no, one of the requirements to become a priest of the Catholic church is a bachelor's degree."

Harry's eyebrows shot up. "So you have a bachelor's degree at nineteen? That's incredible."

The priest flushed proudly. "Yeah, I skipped a few grades in high school and didn't have much of a social life in college so...I wound up becoming a priest far earlier than even I expected."

First Shibuya and now John, he was bumping into a lot of prodigies lately. "What did you major in?"

"Religion, actually." He tugged on a blond curl bashfully. "Heh, it's a little embarrassing to say out loud. What about you? Were you a history major?"

Harry laughed and shook his head. Wouldn't it be funny to tell him that he graduated with the equivalent of a masters in runology? "Nope. I didn't go to college. Just did some certification to build a resume for my work."

"Oh, I see. I suppose it was a smart move considering how successful you are now. Does that mean you left high school at sixteen and took up an apprenticeship, or something?" John asked curiously.

British muggle schooling was only compulsory until sixteen, then two more years of some sort of education, academic or vocational depending on the student, was required. He'd found this out from Hermione, who had gotten a laugh out of how their grueling year-long adventure had ended up mirroring that sort of school system rather closely-at eighteen now selected careers based on their experiences beyond their sixth year at Hogwarts.

"Yeah, something like that." Harry said agreeably. At any rate, he wasn't considered a dropout by the ministry.

They drifted into silence after that, so Harry plucked his notebook back and looked over the discarded calendar. The moon phases were marked in the corner, but it was clear just from looking at the dates of the fires that it was all totally random. He flipped the page back to his case notes and wrote down their discovery of the guest's educations before letting it drop back to the bed. He almost hoped the case was a bust if only to avoid making sense of the bizarre clues they'd managed to glean.

"Well," John snapped his laptop shut and climbed off the bed. "I don't know about you, but I'm famished."

Harry glanced at the clock on the wall and started. They'd spent the entire afternoon in John's room, the lamplight must've hidden how dark it had gotten. "There goes day one." He murmured, gathering his satchel together.

"It would seem so." John sighed. "I'm going to find something for dinner, come with me?"

"Sure, I'll make us something." Harry volunteered, slinging the satchel over his shoulder and heading for the kitchen.

"I certainly won't stop you." John chirped happily and followed after him.

"Hmm, that smells delicious!"

Harry looked up from the pan, twisting to catch Hiruma wander into the kitchen nose first. He quickly added two more eggs to the pan and gave it a stir before smiling back at his hostess. "Would you like some? I've made a little extra."

She stiffened self-consciously, clearly not comfortable asking for food from her guests. Harry slyly flipped his sizzling bacon, allowing the smell to speak for him. She didn't stand a chance, and caved immediately.

"Well, so long as I'm not putting you out."

"Nonsense," John cried around a mouthful of eggs, Harry doubt he'd noticed Hiruma before right then, so absorbed in his food he hadn't even made it out to the dining table. "Harry's giving out huge portions, I'll be amazed if there isn't anything to put away afterward."

Harry gave a wince, looking down at the plate that barely contained the massive omelet he had been stacking high in bacon. He had gotten lost in the routine and had automatically made his servings Dursley-sized, far past what was normal for a Japanese dinner. He would have to restock their fridge as an apology or something, how wasteful.

Hiruma thanked him for her heavy plate and dug in with careful chopsticks. As soon as the omelet touched her lips, her eyes lit up. "Harry!" She shouted, almost losing the eggs still in her mouth. She chewed furiously for a few seconds before continuing. "Harry, this is delicious!"

"Truly." John agreed, chomping on his last strip of bacon. "I had no idea you could cook. Or put so many herbs in eggs."

Harry shrugged, keeping his back to them both in order to hide his pink cheeks. It wasn't often he was complimented for his cooking skills, after all. Though he didn't hold much fondness for cooking, it was still nice to get compliments on something he'd worked hard at almost his entire life.

He put his own omelet and side of bacon on a third plate and moved to join Hiruma and John at the counter. John was already almost done, which really was a feat considering his size. "It's been far too long since the last time I had a western meal." He sighed blissfully, drawing a quirk to Harry's mouth. So the Australian was feeling a bit homesick, hopefully the inevitable stomach ache wouldn't put a damper on the nostalgia.

"Jou makes something similar for our guests." Hiruma noted, chewing contemplatively. "This bed and breakfast is meant to appeal to western foreigners visiting the city, so most of our menu is meant to be familiar to them."
"So Suguro is a chef?" Harry asked, interested.

"He's taken a few lessons to get certified but he's a better handyman. We were hoping to hire an assistant once we had a steady income." Hiruma whole body drooped sadly, her dark eyes gaining new shadows.

Harry didn't know what to say, the couple were clearly on the brink of financial failure no matter if it was intentional arson or a legitimate ghost. So instead of using words to comfort, he plucked his last piece of bacon off his plate and slid it onto hers.

She gave a surprised snort and looked up to grin at him thankfully.

"Sorry, what I meant to ask was if you could give him this recipe? It might help keep his mind off of things."

Harry was already nodding, it was just a few spices dropped in with his eggs, and they already had the ingredients. "I'll write it down sometime." He promised, and received another surprised smile.

"Thank you very much. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm sure Jou could spare a few minutes for a meal." She gave a quick bow and snatched a second pair of chopsticks before leaving the kitchen, her plate carefully halved.

Harry watched her go. If the case ended up being simple insurance fraud he had pegged her as the instigator upon introduction, seeing as how Suguro probably hadn't willingly burned himself to that degree. But now he wasn't so sure, she truly seemed like an honest young woman and he didn't sense an ounce of ill will within her. Of course, that didn't mean he would debunk that possibility just yet, but he hoped his intuition was right.

He turned away to eat another forkful of omelet and caught John grinning at him from the corner of his eye. He paused.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing." John sang innocently. "I'm just not sure Jou would appreciate you stealing his girlfriend, especially so soon after breaking poor Kuroda's heart."

"Oh shove it!" Harry snapped, face burning. He had been doing his level best to erase those few seconds from his memory ever since. He still had a hard time being in close proximity with anyone wearing the same flavoured chapstick.

John snorted at whatever expression had landed on Harry's face and moved past him to dump his plate in the sink. Harry didn't hesitate to throw an elbow out before the blond could draw away, catching him in the side.

"Hey, hey! I'm too full for that!" John groaned in protest, rubbing his abdomen wryly.

"Then you shouldn't go picking fights." Harry replied unrepentantly and returned to his dinner.

John shot him a hurt look. "And here I was, trying to clean up for you. Only to be attacked in return." He sniffed, gathering the oregano and thyme to put back into the cabinet.

"You poor thing." Harry snorted, packing away the rest of his omelet in the fridge. He couldn't have eaten the entire thing if he were starving, much less after the brunch he'd had before arriving at the bed and breakfast. He put the pan and fork into the sink to begin washing.

"You've been hiding sarcastic streak." John noted, playfully bumping into him at the sink.

John wasn't the type to roughhouse, and that was clear in how gentle the jostle against him was even when the height difference was so small. Harry had never been tactile, though, and the point of contact shoulder to hip prickled unpleasantly.

John stepped back a bit abruptly, giving Harry room to breathe again. A cloth appeared in the priest's hand, and without further ribbing, he began to dry the dishes.

Unsure of what had just transpired, Harry went along and began passing him clean dishes to dry. A heat pressed against the side of his head, but every time Harry tried to glance discreetly at John, the other appeared completely involved in his task.

Soon, the rhythm of the familiar task distracted him from the awkward atmosphere, and Harry's shoulders slumped from a defensive height he hadn't noticed before.

They finished fairly quickly after that, and Harry detoured to the sitting room, the strap of his bag clutched tight as he ran through his plans.

He would need detection runes again if it turned out that a haunted item causing the fires knowing which floor it was on would be necessary. So perhaps three separate glyphs for each level of the bed and breakfast. There was a likelihood that an arson was responsible for the fires as well, and as Shibuya had pointed out during his last case, Harry's glyphs only detected vague characteristics and not enough to distinguish individual people. So three high hyper-sensitive detection sets? That sounded...unpleasant to maintain, maybe he could make a better triad for this case in particular.

Perching on a linty armchair, Harry dug out his notebook.

Sowilo would stay, he would need to revelation rune regardless of the focus. After that, maybe Mannaz? It would blunt the spectral detection abilities by a great deal, especially if the source was inhuman, but Harry was sure he would get a much better read on people with a humanity rune. He should probably end the triad with Ansuz, knowledge with a slight lean toward spiritual would help overall.

Harry sketched it all together, appraising the glyph set with a critical eye. Hmm, it wouldn't have much range, the Mannaz rune had no inclination toward seeking or uncovering and it was close to crippling. He would set up a trial run on the bottom floor first to see how effective it was in detecting people. If it wasn't worth the drawbacks, he would try something more elaborate.

Harry slipped off the chair and onto the floor, leaving his notebook on the seat in favor of digging out the appropriate runic tiles.

Sowilo. "The Sun is ever the hope of seamen

When they fare over the fishes' bath,

Until the sea-steed

Brings them to land."

Mannaz. "A mirthful Man is to his kinsmen dear;

Yet each one must from the others turn,

Because Odin desires by his decree

To deliver that frail flesh to earth."

And then the Ansuz. "The Mouth is the source of every speech,

The mainstay of wisdom,

And solace of sages,

And the happiness and hope of every eorl."

His magic was carefully fed to the triad, his breath catching as the drain took effect. He cut it quickly, watching the runes link together in a successful snap, circling magic in a perpetual loop.

It immediately pinged off- four people, three males, one female. One wizard, one exorcist, two powerless muggles. Two on the first floor, two on another. Four unique signatures, easily distinguishable from each other.

It immediately sought out humans first then, Harry would need to write that down. He dug a little deeper. The wizard signature and the exorcist signature were the strongest, closest to the detection triad. In fact, they seemed almost identical in distance, was the measure off? Unless-

"You could've waited for me to get a bucket."

Harry rolled away, nearly scattering the glyph set in his scramble away from the voice over his shoulder. Breath on his neck, warmth right at his back, dangerous.

He stopped at a crouch, ready to spring behind a loveseat as his eyes connected with John's.

The blond was still bent over from where he had been surveying the runes over Harry, stiff and purse-lipped.

"Oh, John." Harry said breathlessly, trying to give the impression of relaxing even as he was strung tighter. What an embarrassing overreaction, honestly what had he been expecting? A Death Eater to pop out of nowhere right in the middle of activating his detection triad? "Don't sneak up on me like that! I almost elbowed you in the nose." He chided, tacking a wobbly grin to his face as he climbed to his feet. "And now I'm covered in dust, you're lucky I don't have an allergy." He continued, blathering mindlessly as he began brushing himself off, feeling the frantic flutter of his heart gradually slow.

John remained quiet, straightening up with an unnerving grimness about him. He wasn't offended, was he?

"Er, are you okay?" He asked uncertainly. "I didn't catch you with a foot or something, did I?"

Finally, John gave a wan smile, letting out a careful sigh. "No, I'm fine. Are you going to do this on every floor? If so, allow me a moment to get that bucket of water."

He left before Harry could reply, leaving him standing stupidly in the center of the entrance room.

Harry stared after him, befuddled. What was John thinking now?

He hadn't forgotten that John had sat with him during his concussion, and knew a bit about how he'd gotten his hip injury. And now with how over the top he'd just been, was he making the priest uncomfortable? A pain shot through him at the thought, he didn't want to make John regret inviting him onto his case. Especially over suspicion of insanity or something equally ridiculous.

He turned back to his triad, physically tearing away from his increasingly gloomy thoughts. He still hadn't detected anything past the humans in the house.

Harry returned to reading the scans, skipping over the dozens of minuscule details his glyph could uncover about his coworker and hosts, finally coming to the supernatural verdict.

It was weak, his ability to even pick it up was next to null. But a paranormal presence was there.

Human enough to skim across the Mannaz, distorted enough to differentiate from people, and so disfigured that it was near impossible to pinpoint.

Harry peeked around the room, but it had to be on this floor. His glyph as nowhere near strong enough to make it up the stairs or into the basement.

"I've got the water." John announced loudly, trotting back in with the bucket in hand.

Harry hummed in acknowledgment, feeding the glyph a little more magic in hopes of measuring the distance more clearly.

Farther away than John at the doorway, but that was where it became indecipherable.

"What is it? What are you doing?" John asked seriously, looking around as though a ghost might pop out of the walls.

"My detection glyph is picking up a presence, but it's very weak." Harry explained, switching tracks and trying to get a read on the type of spirit instead.

Humanoid, enough for the Mannaz anyway, and weak. "It's too weak to be a poltergeist."

"A presence? You mean there truly is a ghost here?" John sounded very surprised, had he been betting on arson?

"Yes, but I'm honestly not sure it's strong enough to cause fires." He didn't dare feed the set anymore, already a dull ache was creeping into his temple from the sheer amount of detail thrumming into his head, the humanity aspect working overtime with the extra magic.

It was a little weird to know that John was exactly nineteen years, six months, and fifteen days old, nearly eight months older than Harry was.

"Are you saying there's a spirit here and an arson?" John's eyes were wide.

"I don't know." He snapped, pulling back from his glyph to ease the headache, frustration curling around him instead.

"This triad isn't enough. I'm going to set more up." Harry ran a hand through his hair, tugging at his fringe. Could there be an arson and a ghost targeting the same house by coincidence? It was so outlandish.

He tugged his satchel back on and scooped up his notebook, and with John trailing silently behind him, he descended into the basement.

The narrow stairs leading down were pitch black, only the barest shine of the light from the first floor illuminated the switch at the bottom. Harry pressed a hand against the wall to keep his balance as he slowly made his way down.

Once he clicked on the flight, a cheap hanging bulb flickered on, casting long shadows across the numerous piles of old junk crowding the small space. It was apparent now that the furniture chosen for the bed and breakfast were gathered from the nicest sets, the truly ugly, rotting rest were left here, to stink of mildew alone in the dark.

He kept to the edge of the basement, away from the short and tall stacks of books and dolls and albums littering the floor. When a shadow didn't shift with the bulb, Harry paused. John almost ran into him, hopping away at the last minute and sloshing the water precariously.

"Sorry." Harry mumbled, his attention narrowing on the black mark spread against the wall like a charcoal finger painting. What was is? It didn't seem to be mold, but it definitely wasn't wallpaper either.

"This must be where Jou was injured." John whispered, pointing at a tipped box nearby. It was also blackened, cardboard curling where a flame had licked. Harry winced, it must've been quite the blaze.

"I guess he didn't come back down afterward." Harry noted. Even the smelly clothes from the box were still scattered across the space, Suguro must've just run away to treat his injury and neither hosts went back down to clean up the mess.

A tickle at his elbow made Harry flinch away, but when it morphed into a firm hold on his forearm, it was clearly just John. He settled himself and glanced questioningly at the priest.

John's lips were pursed again, but it was hard to read his eyes in the dim lighting. "We should get away from the walls. Just in case." He cautioned, pulling Harry with him and deeper into the hoard of keepsakes.

It was slow-going finding a spot clear enough for a rune glyph while avoiding any half hidden piles and trash waiting to trip them up.

Harry finally kicked a table out of the way and began writing his triad on his notepaper. He would keep his selected runes in case there really was both a spirit and an arson and wait for any activity in the meantime.

Sowilo, Mannaz, Ansuz.

Harry's breath got a little heavier, the only noise in the deathly quiet basement. Running a sweaty hand across the runes, he let them crackle to life on his magic and strung them together like a live wire.

Once it thrummed successfully, settling across the basement, he placed it on the floor and let it read the room.

Two people, male, wizard and an exorcist. And there were the signatures. He pressed harder.

What on earth...He peered into the alarming amount of deep shadows surrounding him at all sides, searching nervously.

"What is it?" John whispered, following his gaze and clutching his rosary tight.

"There's a spirit here too?" Harry hissed incredulously, stretching to the edge of the triad's detection, but it definitely wasn't strong enough to overlap with the glyph upstairs.

"Two lost souls? Are you certain you're not sensing the same ghost?" John asked incredulously.

Harry shook his head. "It shouldn't be possible. It can't reach upstairs. But...it's human too. They're similar."

He grabbed his bag and headed for the third floor. He supposed that given how much ancient garbage was in the bed and breakfast, it wasn't too outlandish to discover more than one spiritual presence. But surely there couldn't be a third…

"Hey wait!" John called in alarm, and Harry spun around so fast his trainers squealed against the cement. What was wrong? Danger? Attack? Fire?

John was running toward him as fast as he could navigate the mess, and then suddenly he wasn't. John's legs flew out from under him, his bucket crashed to the side, and just as quickly as he'd been running he was falling instead.

Harry dove and caught him across his chest. His knees nearly buckled under John's momentum, and he ended up with the blond slumped across his front and bent at the back from the added weight.

"John, are you okay? Are you hurt?" Was already flying from Harry's mouth as he steadied the priest on his feet, torn between checking for injuries and finding out what had scared him so badly.

John appeared dazed, unruffled saved for the bottoms of his robes. From the knees down they appeared soaking wet, and water was pooling everywhere from the bucket. Thankfully, he recovered under Harry's frantic stare, eyes connecting with Harry's but then skirting away.

"John?" Harry prompted, he was now turning a bright pink under the failing light.

"My apologies for, ah, landing on you." John mumbled stiffly. "I meant to warn you about the puddle and…" He shrugged helplessly.

Harry could now see that nothing had been chasing John, but it took a moment to connect his humiliated misery with the water now soaking several cardboard boxes.

"Did you honestly slip in the very same puddle?" Harry demanded, lip twitching.

John's pink face deepened into red before he charged ahead of Harry. "Let's just get out of here already, it's not safe."

"Standing water is a hazard." Harry agreed cheekily, enjoying the way John hunched in embarrassment. Ah, sweet revenge. "We'll also have to apologize to Himura and Suguro for the water damage, of course once we explain exactly what happened I'm sure-"
"No worries! I can do it all on my own, it was my accident after all." John cut in, bounding out of the basement and shooting off to the upper level, no doubt hoping to spin the explanation on a slightly less silly note. Harry had no intention of racing him up the stairs and instead watched the hustle in amusement. That should teach John for messing with him.

Harry closed the door to the basement and made his way to a guest room on the second floor. He still had to cast his last rune glyph, clearing the last floor of any haunted items to look for and keeping a record of people's whereabouts during any fires in case it ended up being the work of an arson.

Harry wrote down his triad and activated it quickly, ignoring the sweat beading at his temple and jittery fatigue from his magical exertion.

Once it was complete and humming on its own power, Harry skipped over the initial read, he knew all four of them were upstairs already, and went straight for the spiritual signature.

To his shock, the triad picked up the exact same presence. Humanoid, weak, too far away to tell exactly what room it was in. There were actually three spirits in the bed and breakfast, it was impossible.

Harry glared down at his triad, at this rate he was more inclined to believe he'd messed up his runes than that there were three separate, identical ghosts hanging around the same building, especially when the only known phenomena was fire.

Leaving the rune glyph buzzing independently, Harry jogged down the steps and out the door. Crossing the porch, he placed himself on the sidewalk before the bed and breakfast and began redrawing his runes by the light of a lamp post. It was fairly late now, so it was the perfect time to test his runes without risk of overloading it with people.

He dropped the finished paper on the ground and let it tug at his magic, feeding it until the popping static charge steadied out. He cut the connection and allowed himself to pant lightly, he was already tired from a long day and after this Harry was looking forward to his bed.

He accessed the fourth glyph, enduring the pounding in his head from all four detection glyphs connecting to his mind and sought out a spirit in his final set.

He almost hoped he was wrong, but no matter how much he concentrated or boosted, he didn't detect another spirit.

Which meant there were honestly three spirits waiting to be handled in the place he was spending the night. He tore through the glyph more aggressively than strictly necessary, breaking the magic apart and ignoring the sparking singes where he usually coaxed.

Screwing up his courage, Harry slid his wand up his sleeve and braved the bed and breakfast once more. It was definitely going to be a challenge falling asleep now, no matter how tired he was. At least he and John were roomed close together in case any of these spirits tried to attack.

When he reached his room, he found John standing in the small hallway.

"There you are," A wrinkle smoothed out across his forehead. "I wasn't sure where you went. Did you find anything else."
Harry nodded seriously, dragging his attention over all three of his glyphs. Though they each had a different number of humans on their floor, the paranormal presence remained constant. "There is a ghost on every level of this house."

John's eyes rounded. "Are you absolutely certain? That wouldn't make sense with that's been witnessed."

Harry shrugged. "All three ghosts are almost too weak to pull it off themselves, I don't know if this debunks an arson just yet. But my glyphs can't overlap and they are all picking something up."

"Three ghosts in one house, goodness me." John murmured. "Perhaps the previous owner- Miss Mayako Izuhara was a spiritual collector? My exorcism might've cleared up the other ghosts."
"That would make sense considering how much she hoarded." Harry agreed. "If that's the case maybe another exorcism could get rid of the rest."

John nodded thoughtfully. "So we won't rule out arson just yet, but tomorrow we'll begin tracking down these three spirits. How's that?"

"Sounds like a plan." Harry agreed.

The blond smiled cheerfully and stepped out of Harry's way. "Then I'll see you in the morning and we can get started. Good night."

"Good night." Harry echoed, and closed his bedroom door behind him.

He washed and changed and fell into bed with a long exhale. What a strange case. Three faded ghosts and arson targeting high school dropouts, it all seemed so random.

Harry allowed a small smile to grace his face in the dark. This was why he liked taking Japanese cases, they were certainly never boring. Even now he had no idea how this was going to end. He might've been paid a great deal more to remain in Britain and sell rune binds, but it would never have the adventure and flair of a true mystery.

Harry shut his eyes and went to sleep, ready to take on another long day tomorrow.

"Harry! Harry! Get up!"
Harry's eyes snapped open and he was already off the bed, wand in hand.

"John what i-" He gave a racking cough, smoke filling his lungs. It wasn't just dark in his room, it was choked with smoke. A fire!
He ran for the door, there was light pouring from underneath though he couldn't tell if it was from a lamp or flames. He wrapped his hand around the knob only to jerk away with a yelp. It was burning hot to the touch. The fire must be right outside his room.

"Harry there's a fire! Are you okay?" John continued screaming, muffled by the walls.

"I'm fine!" Harry rasped, eyes watering. "But we need to get out of here!"

"How? The windows don't open, I've already tried!" John sounded panicked, and that more than anything sharpened Harry to a single-minded point.

He would not allow his friend to be hurt, never when he had he means to help them. He was a wizard, he could put out a bloody house fire statute be damned.

Gripping his wand so tightly his scars stood starkly from his knuckles, Harry placed his hand on the burning knob and threw the door open, a spell on his lips. He was half-blinded by smoke, a cough ringing around his throat tighter and tighter, but it was child's play to face the baking heat after all he's been through and he didn't hesitate for a second.

"Augamenti!"

Shout out to all my wonderful reviewers who gave me fantastic ideas and tips for writing this mystery! I hope the answer isn't too obvious, I put a lot of thought into how this is going to turn out.

It's a little weird writing Harry and John's interactions without buffers. I keep wanting to include some conflict but John's too sweet to take much personally. At least I've got Harry to muck it up, poor guy's so confused on why John's acting weird. Should someone clue him in?

I got a few questions this time, but all of them were either for spoilers or something I've already answered. Sorry!

I'm back in school and working hard, so I can't promise another chapter soon. But I'll hopefully have something done before another five months go by. See you then!