Hey guys! Finally got the latest chapter out!
A ton of stuff has kept this postponed. I had a plumbing disaster that put me on a couch for a week and then my aunt's for more than a month. I'm still here, I'll be finally going home in a few days. My poor bathroom was destroyed, but it's a good thing we caught it when we did, because it's directly attached to my bedroom and I got pretty close to having a bathtub crash through my ceiling- or so I've been told.
There was family drama too. TMI and all that. Cherish your loved ones, you guys. Related or not, the people who hold you up should be one of the most important things in your lives.
Also, tragically, my biggest source for my runic interpretation was taken from me! T_T
I followed an honest to god runemaster on his very own website, he was some weird old man who lived in the countryside somewhere in the UK and sold runic tiles and runebinds on his site. He had the BEST resources, a list of runes with their respective poems, how they work in spells or in relation to tarot cards, palm readings, elements, and even dreams. Inverses, different spellings...he had EVERYTHING.
But I recently checked to use it again and...it's gone. The whole site is gone. I'm really worried he died. He had already said he was too old to make handcarved runic tiles anymore and he hadn't interacted with his forum in a while… ugh, we lost a true niche master.
To put in perspective, to get a similar amount of information needed for my runes, I had to use three different websites plus Wikipedia for cross-referencing.
So don't go to hard on me if I make some contradictions here or there okay? I might have to write my own lore doc to keep things straight now.
Thanks for getting through that whole spiel. To make it up to you, I made this one extra long!
Onto the chapter!
It was at the height of summer when Harry got the call. The heat had reached its peak and the sweltering morning sun was already too much to bear without cooling charms.
Shibuya's company, SPR, was undertaking a case in the Japanese countryside and requested his assistance.
Harry had agreed, curious to see what Shibuya had in mind for him. He hadn't done much in the way of effective runology during their only case together, but still, Taniyama had sounded adamant that Harry personally joins in during their conversation over the phone.
He wasn't sure why Taniyama was still working for Shibuya, the principal had paid them well for their service and the SPR had doubtlessly gone on more cases since then. She had to have finally reimbursed her employer, and yet there she was, sounding every bit as frustrated being Shibuya's secretary as she had his assistant.
"We're here." His cab driver announced, pulling Harry from his thoughts.
Harry looked out the window to find a huge, old-fashioned mansion up the hill. It was isolated from the rest of the neighborhood, positioned far from any other home and barely visible from town amidst the tallest trees. The roof was the only part visible for most of the ride up, and even then it was almost choked into obscurity by the thick forest canopy cluttering in high above his head.
The intense sun was just rising above the mansion, casting a black shadow all the way down to the taxi that inked everything it touched to the darkest shades.
Harry found it to be the natural opposite of the Eastern Manor bed and breakfast, traditionally designed for all that it was similarly ancient, and sprawling across its property in a way the tall and narrow city manor couldn't. He hoped it also didn't share the manor's propensity for fire, his burns had only just healed.
"Thank you." He murmured absently to the driver before he became too impatient with him, and paid the fee. He climbed out with his duffel slung over one shoulder.
There was a pristinely swept cobblestone pathway leading up to the mansion, he followed it to a large set of double doors and a familiar van parked on a patch of gravel.
When he rapped on the door, a tall woman with short red hair greeted him.
She didn't say anything, staring down at him with all the imperious expectation of a queen in court.
Harry was reminded of Narcissa Malfoy and tucked away any foreboding in favor of making a cheery first move. Manners blunted the Mafloys' fangs, they took too much pride in their fine breeding to disregard well-wielded etiquette. With luck, the same approach would work here.
"Hello, my name's Harry Potter. I'm the runemaster Shibuya might've told you about?" Shibuya better have told the homeowner about him, he wouldn't put it past the prickly ghost hunter to forget.
She arched a critical brow but let him inside. "Yes, he said a few of his colleagues would show up. I didn't realize you would all be so young."
It didn't sound like a compliment.
"I've noticed that too." Harry aimed for a smile, it's not as though it isn't strange that no one over the age of thirty was working in this woman's house. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say Shibuya collects prodigies."
"And you would consider yourself a prodigy?" The redheaded woman led him through the deep hallways of the finely furnished mansion. From the china cabinet to the beautifully threaded rugs, it was clear he was dealing with a family of great wealth.
"I've done a lot more than many people my age, but I don't know if that says anything about my natural talent." Harry shrugged. He practiced like a madman throughout his years at Hogwarts, ambition and recklessness going hand in hand when he took on the most ludicrous of projects. Harry had never met another runemaster who successfully created a six rune glyph set at the age of seventeen, but if it was due to his desperation or affinity was anyone's guess.
"I see," She still didn't sound very impressed and halted at a closed door. "Well, my name is Kana Morishita if you need anything. Your friends are using this room as some sort of command center for all these cameras." She shot a disdainful look at a glinting silver camera placed at the end of the hallway.
"Is there anything else you need?"
Harry was more than happy to let her escape, and so waved her off. "I might have some questions for you later, but I'm fine for now."
She gave a curt bow before stepping away. "Then I'll leave you with the others."
"Thanks." Harry bobbed his head respectfully and swung the door open.
It was a whole different atmosphere inside in comparison to the icy tension Kana Morishita gave off in waves.
"Harry, you made it!" Taniyama chirped as soon as he stuck his head into the room.
The guest room was lined floor to ceiling with a dozen monitors and speakers, each humming busily with its own footage and recordings. Just as obstructive and monstrous as it had been in the schoolhouse, Shibuya never packed light it seemed.
Lin sat in front of one of the computers, completely engrossed in his work. He seemed completely healed from his injuries in the schoolhouse, that was good.
Shibuya was rifling through a box of files and only glanced up once to meet his eyes before returning to his task. Harry supposed that was all he was going to get, still such a brat.
"How have you been? I haven't seen you since that creepy schoolhouse." Taniyama continued chattily.
"I've been well, Japan is one of my favorite countries to work in so I'm enjoying myself." He shared, grinning at the way she puffed up in pride over her country. Harry wasn't sure if having a unique set of spirits and ghosts was something to necessarily be proud of, but he wouldn't ruin her fun. "What about you? Still a part of the SPR, I see."
Taniyama nodded, slanting a glare Shibuya's way that went completely ignored. "Well, having a cold-hearted narcissist for a boss gets old fast, but I'm learning so much about ghosts! It's definitely more exciting than working at a cafe."
"Oh, is that where you worked before?" Harry asked curiously.
"Uhuh, the manager was pretty nice but the work was boring. What about you? What did you do before being a Runemaster?"
"I became a Runemaster as soon as I left school, I've never been anything else." He was very lucky in that way, most spiritualists needed a sponsor or mentor to start building a name for themselves. Harry hadn't been given fame free of charge and it wasn't worth what he lost, but his name still lets him do what he loves without any extra hoops to jump through.
"Oh, so you're like Naru then. Did you hear that? You're not the only one to start a successful career at a young age so you can stop lording it over everyone else." She crowed at her boss.
Shibuya gave her a flat look. "If you have time to fool around and make noise, you have time to adjust camera six three inches higher. You pointed it too close to the ground."
Harry bit back a snort at her cowed expression, every bit a scolded puppy slinking out the door. Shibuya must've caught it because he faced Harry next. "And you," He tossed him a folder of papers. "Here are the details of the case so far. Read it and go start working on detection glyphs and any protection amulets that might work against this paranormal activity."
Harry swiped it out of the air and quirked a brow. "Hello to you too. No, it was no trouble getting here on such short notice."
Shibuya turned right back around to resume digging through files. "If you had any troubles pulling yourself from a case, you would've already told me. Now get to work or go play with Mai some more."
Harry watched the line of his shoulders for a moment, they were a little stiff. Was that jealousy or irritation? It was hard to pinpoint on such a naturally sour personality.
Giving a sigh, he pulled up a chair and set down to start working his way through the data. It wasn't a dense folder, but he didn't want to miss anything important. Harry leaned in and focused.
A family of three lived in the house, owned by a man overseas. Kana Morishita was his wife, his sister Noriko also lived with them, and together they cared for his daughter Ayami from a previous marriage. A little girl in the mix, that hardly ended well.
The activity itself wasn't particularly alarming. Opening and closing doors, knocks on walls, rattling furniture, all fairly standard. If the dates put down for the occurrences were to be believed, it was escalating though. Either way, Harry was prepared to remain skeptical even as he littered the house with runes to protect Ayami Morishita.
"I'll just start on detection glyphs for now," Harry told Shibuya, leaning back in his chair. "Is there anywhere, in particular, I should put one down?"
"The sitting room, the entrance, the kitchen and every bedroom," Shibuya listed off, finishing whatever he was doing and finally making eye contact again.
"After that, it can be at your discretion."
"Fixed it! How does the feed look now?" Taniyama came skipping back, scowling up at the wall of screens as though they were meant to answer her.
"It'll do." Shibuya stared her down, maybe a glint of amusement in his oddly blue eyes, maybe not.
While Harry was having difficulty getting a read on his almost-employer, he had no such struggle with Taniyama. He retreated out of the room right as her explosive retort hit maximum pitch and shut the door hastily behind him, the lungs on that girl.
Shibuya deserved everything he got for antagonizing her, but a sliver of pity went out to Lin. The ride up the mountain must've been heinous if they all went in the same van.
Harry set off for entrance room first, the closest designated room from the hallway.
He'd only gotten a glance on his way in, now that he had the time to really look, it was an expansive space.
The large, decorated doors led into a short, polished wooden square of flooring meant for removing shoes. At the step, the wooden flooring continued, broken only by a heavy, clearly antique rug.
There was plenty of space to lead into either the hallway or the sitting room, with a staircase similarly decorated like the doors, pressed against the wall separating the hallway from the entrance. The walls themselves were also decorated with many fine portraits and tasteful paneling alongside wallpapers, but Harry moved on.
He plopped himself down on the rug, plush and well-cared for under his fingers, as he finally got to work.
He would need a spiritually leaning detection glyph for this case. There was no need to keep it closer to humanity or basic detection without any possible vandals or frauds, only the chance that it was just an old house settling and playing tricks on the client's family. This one would be geared toward seeking information and the supernatural in its entirety.
The rising failure rate of all his previous detection glyphs set his teeth on edge but he was willing to give it another shot. Hopefully, the larger set of teammates meant that even if the detection triad didn't work, he wouldn't be left to invent a new method during the case, he didn't have the time and energy if he was expected to do this several times on top of crafting protection talismans.
He ran his hand thoughtfully through his premade wooden tiles, quietly forming his new set.
Sowilo would stay, a base of revelation. Then Ansuz for a sharp focus on gaining knowledge, doubling down the seeking element. And finally, to give it an edge, Eihwaz, for a specialty in death.
He hadn't used a set like this before, but it would hopefully give him a hint if it picked up activity even if it wasn't centered on the cause. He didn't want to start pasting runes to every wall now after the unpleasant realization that was Yoshimi Hata's corpse.
Without further fanfare, he lined up his pre-charged tiles and allowed the spitting, volatile magic to press into themselves, forming a natural circle he could snap into place just so.
Sowilo first.
"The Sun is ever the hope of seamen
When they fare over the fishes' bath,
Until the sea-steed
Brings them to land."
Ansuz second.
"The Mouth is the source of every speech,
The mainstay of wisdom,
And solace of sages,
And the happiness and hope of every eorl."
And finally, Eihwaz.
The yew is a tree with rough bark,
hard and fast in the earth, supported by its roots,
a guardian of flame and a joy upon an estate.
The glyph sprang to life, an immediate feedback surging into his own magic, sinking itself into his head to create a direct pipeline of information. He pressed just that tiny bit further with his magic, feeding the exact focus of the glyph until it was as sharply tuned to death as a diamond-tipped needle.
It wasn't very wide in scale, barely stretching to the corners of the room. And so his immediate reading was only of himself, no soul living or lost was unaccounted for.
The focus on deathly traces Eihwaz gave him was a bit of a disappointment as well, with the rigid, small-scoped design, all Harry received was the knowledge that a housefly had been killed near the door an hour ago, perhaps as far into the past as it could manage.
Well, at least it worked. And at the very least he now knew for a fact that no spiritual activity had happened in the entrance area over the past hour, whatever good it did him.
There was a sudden rapping at the door behind him, loud and invasive in the silence. Harry leapt to his feet in alarm, spinning around before he even recognized the noise.
The knocking continued, obnoxiously unwavering. Harry settled himself and peeked into faceted windows framed on either side of the doors.
There was Monk pounding impatiently on the door from the other side, unmistakable ponytail and childish frown and all. Matsuzaki stood next to him, she had been staring blankly at the door, back straight and chin high but her eyes kept flicking to the window where she must've seen movement.
With no hostess in sight, Harry unbolted and eased the door open for the both of them, polite smile in place.
"Hello,"
"Harry!" Monk cried in surprise, striding right inside to give him a look over. "It's been a while, man. I thought you'd gone back home or something."
Harry leaned away from the scrutiny. "No, I've mostly been working in the city by myself. Shibuya asked me to help with this case."
"Well that's strange," Matsuzaki smirked, "Shibuya has called me multiple times now, I suppose he agrees there's no contest between a shrine maiden and a runemaster."
"Don't let her grandstanding fool you. She hasn't done a single thing for a case yet." Monk broke in before Harry could drudge up an appropriately catty reply.
"Speaking of, he's already set up shop in one of the rooms down that hallway if you want to get the details about this case." Harry pointed the way, eager to hand them off to his young employer.
"Thanks dude, see you later." Monk tried to give him a pat on the back, but Harry pulled out of reach as soon as the arm was raised.
Monk blinked, looking a bit dejected. Matsuzaki wrapped a manicured hand around his wrist and pulled them down the hallway before Harry was forced to excuse himself.
Grateful to have escaped, Harry hurried to the sitting room and pulled out his notebook.
Sitting on the couch and placing his notebook on the low coffee table before him, Harry dug out a pencil and sketched out his glyph. Sowilo, Ansuz, Eihwaz.
"I heard knocking, was someone at the door?" Came Kana Morishita's call, interrupting him as he was about to infuse the glyph with magic.
He craned his neck over his shoulder as the clack of her heels came around the corner, she appeared moments later with an irritated purse to her lips.
"Yes, two spiritualists Shibuya called. Buddhist monk Takigawa and a shinto shrine maiden Matsuzaki. They went to the command room if you'd like to speak with them."
Morishita didn't look back toward the hallway, instead, she quirked a brow and maintained a steady gaze, her lips remained pursed.
Was she angry with him? Harry gave a hesitant smile, perhaps she was feeling invaded. "Sorry about letting them in without you. I didn't want them to think it was the wrong house and leave, but I should've gone to get you."
"What are you doing?" She asked, completely dismissing his apology in favor of stalking into the room. Her eyes roved from his slouched posture to the rune glyph etched in lead on the coffee table.
"Is it some sort of ritual?"
Harry looked down at the three runes, still unactivated. "Oh, well sort of. I'm a runemaster, so I'm making detection glyphs to help narrow down where a spirit might be."
"So you think there really is a ghost here?" She slid a hand to her hip.
"I can't say, it could be anything right now. That's why I'm looking for any spiritual presence before making protective amulets."
This time, both eyebrows drew up, draining some severity from her face. "Protection amulets? Have they worked against spirits before?"
Harry turned his attention back to his client, not sure where the interest was coming from. "They don't protect against spirits themselves, but I can make them repel any physical attack a spirit might use. I used fire amulets during my last big case against a ghost that kept setting rooms on fire, for example."
"Hm, well this is the first I've heard of preventative measures, so don't let me keep you. I'd like Ayami to have some protection as soon as possible, she insists on being alone far too often to be safe with these...occurrences going on." She gave an imperious wave but made no move to leave the room.
Harry nodded seriously and got back to work.
Pressing his palm into the runes, he infused them with magic and carefully wove them into place.
The air buzzed and crackled with static, heat licked at his fingertips as he patiently ran and reran his magic over each specific rune until the unruly magic clicked into place. He fed it even more magic this time, maybe it needed the extra boost to give him a longer timeline? It couldn't hurt.
Then he pulled the finished pieces together, like separately colored, braided threads being twined together for their ultimate design.
The detection glyph, armed with Eihwaz's spiritual touch, rang out like a clear bell to take in the surrounding area. Harry allowed his own magic, separate and moving on its own now, to wash over him with the glyph's readings.
For the first time in what felt like too long, he finally gets a resounding pulse of spiritual detection.
Triumphant smile quirking his lips, eyes fluttering shut to concentrate on the information, his joyous relief only lasts a few scant seconds before its choked out.
When the information starts, inking into his thoughts, it doesn't stop, can't stop. An uncontrollable torrent that won't stop pressing into his head as it picks up signature after signature. More than he'd ever detected by far, more than he should be able to think about simultaneously all crashing into him at once.
Harry thinks he makes a noise, but he can't hear it over -male spirit, child of eight years, brunet, standing by the bookshel- female spirit, three, blue-black hair, floating over the cou- female spirit, solid and recent in the corner, only ten, died of an illness, brunette- male spirit, seven at death, missing two front teeth, and right by the doo- female spirit, three years old with light eyes, trying to leave through the windo- male spirit, a little older than five, black hair, and moving fast across the carpe- male spirit, almost twelve, a birthmark on his cheek and sinking through the ceili- But they weren't really there and moving around the house, because each and every one was tied directly to another presence, infinitely more dark and powerful. At the base of all the children ghosts was a poisonous poltergeist that reeked of rot and obsession. Far older than any other spirit in every sense, all details smeary and uncertain with age. And it was standing right there.
"Potter!"
Harry sucked in a huge, gasping breath. Eyes flying open as he was suddenly aware of the searing emptiness in his lungs.
There was a cold hand on his shoulder, and as Harry swallowed as much air as he possibly could, his eyes focused in on Morishita's wide-eyed gaze.
"Can you breathe now? Were you attacked?" She was ashen with fear, all composure stripped away as she stared down at Harry as though he were about to explode.
Harry's pants quieted, he focused on evening his breaths as slowly as possible. He shook his head, tearing his hands away from the still running glyph.
It continued on, just waiting to be tapped in again so it could submerge him in- was that nine spirits? Ten? He hadn't counted, he hadn't been capable of any thoughts at all.
"I'll go get that Shibuya." Morishita decided, pulling away.
"N-no, I wasn't- I'm fine." Harry huffed out. He definitely didn't need an audience for this. Runology was known for being volatile, especially toward its user, but it had been a long long while since one had turned on him so spectacularly
"You weren't breathing! Those other ghost people should know it's gotten stronger." She scowled, looking a little more collected now that she had anger.
Harry beckoned for her to come back, resting his back against the couch as he swiped his hair out his eyes. His temple was sweaty, just how much time had passed?
"I wasn't attacked, I'm sorry for scaring you, Mrs. Morishita," Harry explained, "My detection glyph overwhelmed me, it was just a mistake."
"What do you mean? What happened?" Morishita demanded, caution in her steps as she returned to his side. She didn't go behind the coffee table, a clear threat to turn on her heel and alert the brigade if he didn't answer her questions.
Harry obliged.
"There are children spirits here, more than I've ever seen in one place. They're all over the house but something is….the children are tied down to this room." Harry couldn't hold back a shudder. Too many dead children, especially for an area as quiet as this. It wasn't a natural amount by any means, there had to be a malicious cause.
"C-children?" Morishita's eyes darted, she took another step closer, "Why would there be dead children here? The realtor didn't say anything about a tragedy in the home, and this room is one of the newer ones too."
"I couldn't tell you, it's just a detection glyph," Harry shrugged helplessly, "But they aren't connected to the room itself. I've never seen anything like it. There's another spirit, female, I think, and she's a part of them, maybe? Or controlling them? They're all tied to her."
He couldn't keep his eyes from drawing back to where he sensed the dark spirit, so murky and smothered in the souls of children that he still wasn't even sure it was a female spirit. Only that it had been standing so, so close.
Morishita tracked his gaze, and whatever color she regained drained out of her in seconds. "It's still here?" She hissed in disbelief. "Why are you still sitting there? Can't it see us?"
"I don't know, I'm not even sure it's hum-" Her hand wrapped around his arm and suddenly she was hauling him right out of the room and down the hallway before he could even dig his heels in.
Morishita threw open the command door and immediately zeroed in on Shibuya. Abandoning Harry at the entrance, she confronted the teenager in the middle of the room.
"What's the point of all this clutter if you can't even detect when one of your ghost chasers is being attacked?" She sniffed, drawing everyone's attention in an instant.
Even Lin stopped typing as every head turned in their direction, Harry grimaced at the dramatics.
"There wasn't an attack, I found something and Mrs. Morishita was a little disturbed when-"
"Disturbed?" Morishita glowered at him before rounding back on Shibuya who had yet to say a thing. "More like horrified to find out that even though you've been investigating since Noriko explained to you what happened and you've been here since this morning, I'm only now finding out that this house is full of dead children."
The air left the room in a physical sweep, Taniyama actually gasped.
"If this is some kind of sick joke, I'm calling the police and will be pressing charges to the fullest extent of the law. And if this isn't a joke, then I demand you remove them at once."
There was a pause, Harry hunched his shoulders a little, uncomfortable with the number of wide eyes centered on both himself and Morishita.
Finally, Shibuya stood. "What happened, Potter?"
"M-my detection glyph in the sitting room, it caught something." He pointed to the correct monitor and Lin was already in motion going over readings from that room, Shibuya didn't blink.
"What exactly did you detect in that room?"
Harry rubbed at his temples, "It was a little overwhelming, but children. Lots of children spirits are in this house, and they're all tied to something in the sitting room. Another spirit, but older and more powerful."
"Children…" Monk whispered.
"What about the older spirit, was it human?" Shibuya prompted.
"I don't know, I, er, it caught me off guard. I wasn't prepared for the response." He admitted sheepishly. He'd detected a greater amount of subjects before. Hell, he'd detected about the same number of humans at the schoolhouse. But he hadn't dialed up the sensitivity so high, runemasters rarely did for that exact reason. The human brain couldn't comprehend that amount of detail all at once, at least not without repercussions.
Harry had gotten impatient, what a rookie mistake.
It hadn't helped that it had been spirits, on top of it. Not easily quantifiable or summarized, but the glyph had to try anyway. And then it had to shove as much detail into a runemaster's head as possible, so even a small payload felt massive when it had to communicate every murky aura clinging to the very corners of the room. Like a linguistics student's translation note-peppered homework, filled with uncertain add-ons and unstructured delivery.
"What do you think it could be? Some kind of residual presence from a massive tragedy?" Monk asked Shibuya, arms folded in front of his chest.
Breaking from his abashed revelry, Harry looked up.
"I can find out if it's human, it's gender, and a so-so timeline if I check again." He volunteered, steeling his spine. It would probably make his blooming headache an unmistakable reality, but it would be more than worth it to ensure the house wasn't dangerous to Ayami Morishita.
"Do it, I want as many details as possible moving forward." Shibuya nodded.
Morishita reared back, incredulous. "You'll allow him to do it again? What if something worse happens?" Harry was almost touched by the concern, though how much of it was for his actual wellbeing and not her nerves were up in the air.
"What do you mean? Runology isn't dangerous…." Taniyama trailed off uncertainly, shooting him a confused look.
Shibuya continued watching him, even as Monk and Matsuzaki shuffled out to peek around the sitting room.
"I made the glyph a little too overpowered, it won't affect the results and it isn't harmful to anyone. It just startled the both of us, I think." Harry smiled at Morishita who squinted back disbelievingly.
Thankfully, she didn't push the issue, but she didn't leave either.
"Did it hurt, though? You do look a little worn out." Taniyama continued fretfully.
"Mai, stop bothering people. This is important." Shibuya sat back down, facing the monitors.
"You don't have to be so rude." She grumbled under her breath. She also disengaged, frowning worriedly at the footage Lin was looking over in lieu of Harry himself.
Harry couldn't agree with Shibuya's sentiment more, there was a lot more at stake than his general comfort after all.
Harry took a deep, steadying breath and shut his eyes. He tapped into the glyph and allowed himself to be washed away by the onslaught of spirit children.
It was a little easier, he was prepared for the force of it now, and tried to keep a level head even as his runic magic forced more information than any human could naturally process through his brain all at once. The children's positions had moved, they seemed to bounce from wall to wall. But the number was the same, this time Harry was coherent enough to count eight.
That was all he had though, just the ability to try remembering as much of it as possible. His thoughts had been wiped away, too little room for more than a sense of self and purpose while he registered spirit after spirit. But he just needed to last a little while longer, just until he got a reading on the last spirit.
It felt like a nanosecond stretched into eternity, but eventually he reached the dark mass, the tether to all the children. It hadn't moved, wrapped up in all the other ghosts. But Harry paid attention, he didn't balk in horror or fight it. A woman, this time he was sure of it. Human at one point, the glyph didn't consider her very different from the children. But still too powerful, too rigid, too miasmic. A woman, perhaps in her late twenties but her humanity was so long past it's impossible to be certain.
Harry's eyes flew open, awareness slamming back into him as he instinctively drew in a sharp breath.
"Harry! Are you okay?" Taniyama jumped.
"Well, at least you're breathing this time." Morishita grumbled, she was directly in front of him now, staring speculatively into his face.
And she was right, Harry's lungs were working fine and his breathing was only a little wheezy around the edges. It had just been the shock that stilled his lungs the first time around, if runemasters could suffer oxygen deprivation from a simple detection overload, novices would be dropping like flies.
What was really wrong though, was the headache that had come back tenfold. Like someone was hammering at his head, rhythmic and already far past the thin shell of his skull.
Harry let his eyes fall shut again, blocking out the light.
"Potter, did you get the reading?"
He could actually hear Taniyama sucking in a breath to chide her boss for his lack of sympathy. He blurted it all out as quickly as possible, more than eager to cut her off before she gained volume.
"There, she's still there. A woman, used to be human. Early thirties at the oldest upon her death, but she's very old now. She's bound to the children, or they're all bound to her more like. She's much more powerful than they are." Harry grit out.
"Where exactly is she? Point at the monitor." Shibuya instructed.
Harry let his eyes open again, the headache had receded the tiniest bit. Still a nauseating, hard thud, thud, thud, but he could move his head and point to the left of the grainy footage of the coffee table, where the woman still stood.
Monk and Matsuzaki were doing slow circles around the room, blessing it in their respective religions. But the woman hadn't even wavered while Harry was getting his second reading, the spirit has anchored herself well to the property.
"Mai, set up a camera and point it to the center of the living room." Mai stomped out of the room without another word and one of the monitors began to shift perspective as she dragged it from a corner to take in the scope of the sitting room.
"There are eight children here, Shibuya. All under the age of thirteen." Before he forgot, that would probably help narrow down his search for where all the children came from.
Shibuya swiveled in his chair to give him a considering look.
"I see, that will narrow things down. Lin and I will start identifying them." It was probably the closest he's gotten to a thank you in Harry's presence yet.
Shibuya swiveled back to the table where his laptop was open, effectively dismissing both Harry and Morishita.
The sound of keys clicking filled the room for a while, as both Lin and Shibuya typed away on their computers, flying past black-and-white article after article from databases Harry was unfamiliar with.
Harry allowed himself to get swept into the soft music of it, focusing on that while his headache eased at a glacial pace.
"I want you to diffuse the glyphs you've set up in the sitting room and front room, they won't be of any use anymore. Make better ones to replace them. Then, I want you to start working on Ayami's room."
"Wouldn't you want to leave it up in case something changes with the woman spirit?" Harry asked, confused. So far she hadn't moved, perhaps sitting where she had died many years ago. But he couldn't be certain and if that thought had occurred to him, then surely it had for Shibuya.
"There's no need. I'll contact Miss Hara about joining the investigation, she'll provide more insight. In the meantime, your glyphs will suffice so long as you check frequently."
Hara, Harry relaxed. A medium would do a much better job at monitoring the nitty-gritty, even if he cranked the power up even higher on his glyphs, he wouldn't match that effectiveness. The family would be in good hands in that regard, leaving him to the much easier, comfortably runic tasks already planned.
"Perfect."
And with that, he trot out of the room to leave Shibuya and Lin in peace while he tore power away from of the magic coursing through his runes. He wouldn't have to completely replace them, like Shibuya had suggested, thank Merlin. If the glyph was a braid of threads, he just needed to unravel a few.
It could be quite the light show, his magic hissing angrily at the intrusion every time. Harry snuck a glance behind him, where Morishita was confidently headed in the same direction.
It would hopefully be an entertaining distraction for the woman working very hard to appear as though she wasn't trailing after him. He couldn't imagine how stressed she must be right then, with her step-daughter just upstairs the room filled with dead children.
Harry finished all the detection glyphs in the span of an hour.
He now had a direct link to the front room, the sitting room, Ayami's room, the kitchen, and both Noriko and Kana's bedrooms. While children's spirits flitted throughout the house, with the decreases sensitivity now all he knew is that they were adolescent human ghosts, the female spirit still had yet to move.
Completely drained and still nursing his remaining headache, Harry collapsed into a chair at the control room at last. His eyes fell shut immediately and he didn't bother to acknowledge anyone else in the room.
"Don't tell me you're going to take a nap here." Monk laughed somewhere to his left.
"Course not." He mumbled, folding his arms over the table in front of him and allowing his face to drop onto the makeshift pillow they made.
"Then I'm sure you won't mind helping me convince our illustrious leader that testing for a living poltergeist is still a smart move."
"Unnecessary." Shibuya stated bluntly
Harry peered up at Monk, who was slumped against a wall with a look of frustration that didn't match his casual tone.
"But what would be the point? We already know there are ghosts here and almost all of them are Ayami's age, there's clearly something going on with them."
Monk waved it away. "I'm not saying that can't be true, but come on. Why would an evil lady ghost keep doing low-grade stuff like opening doors and knocking on walls? The activity doesn't match. And you've seen those sisters-in-law right? Don't tell me there isn't some tension between them."
Harry thought back. He'd only seen Noriko Morishita and Ayami for a small time, as she took her niece outside to play while Harry put glyph sets in their bedrooms. Kana had led him upstairs and remained, but hadn't spoken to either her sister-in-law or her step-daughter. Only Noriko and Ayami had spoken, greeting him softly and giving their permission so he could complete his task.
"Not really," Harry said slowly, "They didn't speak to each other when I was with them, so…"
Monk arched a brow. "Exactly! These two women are basically family who share custody of a child together, but they never speak unless they have to. Even with all this supernatural stuff going on, that usually drives people closer for safety if nothing else."
Did it? Harry blinked up at Monk, he wasn't sure he trusted that assessment.
Wordlessly, Harry turned to Shibuya for his reasoning on the matter.
"While the activity does fit within the parameters of a poltergeist, we've already established there is, in fact, a haunting here. I would've stopped looking into the structural stability of the house as well if that hadn't already been completed. There's no point in wasting time on theories when the most likely scenario still needs to be addressed." Shibuya summarized.
"Oh come on, it wouldn't kill you to do your latent psychic test thing just in case. What if we clear out the ghosts and leave and this stuff still happens? What if things get tense enough and someone gets hurt?" Monk rounded on Harry again.
"What if it's Ayami and it only gets worse when she enters puberty? Wouldn't you feel terrible if her step-mother was hurt during a big fight?"
Harry doubted very much that either Ayami or her caretakers were the cause of poltergeist activity, just on their ages alone. Ayami was young enough that it was almost unheard of and the other two would've noticed that sort of activity beforehand if they were powerful enough to keep it up after leaving their teens.
But Monk had a point, there wouldn't be any harm in it.
"If nothing else, it would clear up another theory without any second guesses. It would probably help the family too if they saw us actively doing things to help them." Harry offered Shibuya.
"Are you still talking about the poltergeist test?" Taniyama burst in as she stepped into the room.
"You should listen to Monk, Naru. Ayami is acting strange, she refused to eat lunch just now."
"So we should suspect psychic abilities now every time a little girl doesn't want to eat her greens?" Shibuya very pointedly turned away from her.
Taniyama scowled ferociously. "Stop being an egomaniac for two seconds! You'd think a guy like you would be leaping for the opportunity to prove Monk wrong anyhow!"
"I thought you were on our side!" Monk whined.
Harry let his face drop back into his folded arms. So now there were sides, he should've just found a shady spot in the garden instead
"If the two of you are determined to act like children, I'll move forward with the test." Shibuya finally sighed out, he had already begun typing away on his computer as well.
"Oh, that's grea-"
Shibuya cut off his assistant. "In return I expect both of you to be on watch duty with the cameras. For all my considerable talent, I can't complete my research and monitor the entire house singlehandedly like this."
"Narcissist." Taniyama grumbled.
"Why can't you make your assistant do all of it?" Monk looked incredibly put out at the chore ahead.
Taniyama spun around to scowl at Monk. "Excuse me?"
"Take it or leave it, you're wasting my time." Shibuya snapped above them both with all the iciness of an arctic wind.
This seemed enough to finally cow the two, who slipped off into resentful muttering as they took seats to stare up at the wall of monitors. Conspicuously, Matsuzaki did not return to the room, clearly thinking further ahead than Harry had.
For his part, Harry dozed. Letting his eyes fall shut and his mind drift.
Occasionally, he checked on his glyphs. But things remained steady save for the wandering children spirits, constantly traveling from one room to the other. Maybe they were trying to escape whatever killed them, even in death. Maybe the woman spirit was keeping them against their will, he'd have to discuss it with Hara once she arrived.
Time passed slowly for a while, warm even in the air-conditioned home. The soft clutter of noise that was Lin and Shibuya's typing and Taniyama and Monk's low chatter filled the room with pleasant ambiance. It was nice, or maybe he was just more tired than he thought.
Six detection glyphs weren't superhuman to create in a single day by any means, but it had been taxing all the same. And he still hadn't made any runebinds for the family yet, he should get on that as soon as they had more information on what kind of activity to protect against.
Hopefully, Shibuya wouldn't be as militant with his all hours of the night approach to monitoring spiritual activity as he was with the schoolhouse, Harry wouldn't mind an early night to refresh himself for what was still waiting ahead.
That sounded lazy, maybe he'd just catch a nap tomorrow? He wouldn't want to leave the family in danger just to catch up on sleep, the amount of children ghosts was a valid reason to keep alert. But so far there hadn't been any real activity...
"Potter. Wake up."
Harry jerked upright in his chair, suddenly wide awake as he nearly spilled right onto the floor shooting away from Shibuya.
Shibuya remained where he was, having clearly just stood from his own desk to the right of Harry, mouth an impatient line.
Harry glanced around quickly, Monk and Taniyama were nowhere to be seen and Lin had moved on to shuffling through one of the many file boxes stuffed into a corner of the room. Had he really gone to sleep?
He let out a breath, heart slowing. This was a little like the schoolhouse case all over again, maybe he was getting lazy.
Harry looked up at his employer. "Sorry about that, I didn't mean to really take a nap."
Shibuya didn't blink. "I will be conducting the latent psychic ability test right now, the others have chosen to watch. You're to watch for any paranormal activity while we're away."
Harry nodded agreeably and turned to take in the glowing readouts and various shapes and colors on display. He couldn't understand most of them, all gibberish in a dizzying language of ones and zeros, but he could just watch for any changes and report to Lin.
Shibuya's footsteps trailed off to the hallway and paused. "And Potter, next time you decide to go to sleep, pick a guest bedroom."
His footsteps picked up again, this time he sounded further away. "I only expect that kind of behavior from Mai."
"What did you say, you big jerk?" Came Taniyama's bellowing demand from somewhere down the hallway, with her impressive set of lungs, it could've easily come from upstairs.
Harry winced and focused back on the monitors. The chiding more embarrassing than anything else, a seventeen-year-old shouldn't have to tell him to not nap at headquarters.
Oh well, at least his headache was all the way gone and he felt a bit perkier. He really had needed to catch his breath and it had been a long day. He'd take what he got and make the most of it.
Harry sat at the foot of his guest bedroom, toweling off his head.
The house really was decadently beautiful, even the shower had been spacious and expensively designed, with smooth, dark tile and an overhead waterfall spray. He'd set the flow to its coldest setting and was now enjoying a blissful chill after the scorching sun had finally dipped beyond sight.
His guest bedroom was just as nice. The bed was large and ornate, which wasn't common in most old-fashioned Japanese homes, paired with a solid chestnut dresser. For decor, a few framed paintings and a large window viewing into the picturesque garden.
He changed into comfortable loungewear and padded back downstairs, hair still damp but no longer dripping.
It was nearly ten at night, so this would be his final check in with the rest of his coworkers before heading to bed. So far the vase assigned for the latent psychic test hadn't moved a single inch like he and Shibuya had already expected, and there wasn't a hint of even the mild reported activity yet.
"Hey, anything happening?" Taniyama hummed from her slouch in front of the monitors, true to their word both she and Monk had been sat in front of the surveillance since Shibuya completed the test.
"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" This earned him a dirty look.
"Nothing's happened for hours, man. My ass is going numb here." Monk grouched, twisting in his seat to give Harry a once-over.
"Going to bed already? What are you, five?"
"Why? Jealous?" Harry shot back. Truthfully, he had a romance novel stuffed into his duffel that he wanted to begin. Ginny had recommended it during the last birthday party he attended back home and he had only just gotten around to owling it to himself.
"Whatever," Monk huffed, not fooling him for a second. "If you ask me, you should be here with us, you told Naru to do the test too."
Taniyama blinked, "Oh yeah, how come you got out of it?"
Harry gestured toward the monitor displaying the center of the sitting room, moved to his instruction. "I didn't, I'm monitoring these rooms too."
"With you runes, right? Not gonna lie, I was pretty sure those wouldn't work." Monk arched a brow, "How much stock do you put into those runes away?"
Harry folded his arms across his chest. "I put my complete trust in them, you can't just make up results in runic glyphs."
"Alright, alright, I just thought you'd be sweating a little since Naru's inviting media darling medium Masako Hara to double-check your work." He laughed.
Double-check, Harry completely disagreed with that outlook, Hara was coming to help shed more light on his findings not to undermine them. But it still dug a little under his skin, that Monk thought he'd bring up such a serious assessment if it the evidence were truly so flimsy. "Well, I'd rather somehow be wrong and have Hara correct me than keep guessing blindly with your chanting as background music."
"Excuse me? My chants aren't-"
"Potter, did you come here to report any changes?" Shibuya brushed past Harry and into the room, casting a quick glance at the wall of monitors before coming back to him.
Harry shook his head, "Just heading upstairs, so I wanted to check in before I left."
"Everything appears stable."
"And Hara? What's her ETA?"
Monk looked like he badly wanted to say something, but Shibuya answered quickly. "She'll be here by tomorrow evening at the earliest, it was rather short notice."
It was short notice, especially for a celebrity. Harry nodded understandingly and headed for the door. "Goodnight then."
"Night, Harry!" Taniyama chirped while Monk gave a grudging wave.
Harry made his way back down the hallway and to the staircase, intent on heading to bed and putting an end to their first day on the case.
"Potter, are you headed up as well?"
Harry peered up the stairs to find Kana Morishita only a few steps above him. He felt a little underdressed now, barefoot and damp to her full makeup and heels. Didn't she get uncomfortable? He knew he was on the less stylish end of things, but even Fleur wouldn't still be wearing earrings after hours in her own home.
"Potter?" Oh, he hadn't answered yet.
"Yeah, I want to get an early start tomorrow. You?"
He began climbing up the stairs and she followed suit. "I'm putting Ayami to bed, it's already far past her bedtime."
"Is she having a hard time going to sleep recently? I can imagine it's been stressful."
"No, she's been a night owl for as long as I've known her. Takes after her father that way, I suppose. And of course Noriko isn't much help, if I left those two alone they'd never be up before noon."
Harry laughed. "That's a strong family trait."
They reached the top of the stairs and Kana kept walking for Ayami's bedroom, which was on the opposite side of the house to the guest bedrooms. Harry split from Kana and started for his own room, already wondering how delightfully hideous the cover of the book was, he still hadn't unwrapped it from its packaging.
"What about those ghosts? Are you any closer to getting rid of them?" She continued, already far enough down the hall that Harry could politely ignore her and continue on his way.
Harry turned around and trotted to catch up, it helped that she was walking slowly. "Now that we know they're there, Shibuya has contacted a credible medium to get a better picture of what's going on. We don't have an answer just yet, but today made great headway."
Kana pursed her lips. "I see. And what about that protection you were supposed to give us? Don't think I forgot about that."
Was that was this was about? "Neither have I, don't worry. I just need a better idea of what you all need protection from, and luckily no one has been hurt so far. If our luck continues, I'll never be able to make those for you."
Harry checked on his glyph just then, it had been about fifteen minutes and those were the intervals he would be using until finally going to sleep.
"Hmph, I suppose. But given the nature of the spirits in this house, I would appreciate- Potter?"
"Ayami." Harry hissed, breaking into a sprint for the last dozen feet and throwing open the door to the youngest Morishita's room.
The woman's spirit still hadn't moved, powerful and still like a dormant volcano. But the children's chaotic spirits had suddenly and jarringly changed behavior. Now they were collected as one, a giant hand for the woman's spirit to stretch out with, and it stretched for Ayami.
The little girl flinched from the door, a china doll clutched close to her chest as she startled from him.
"What is it? What's wrong?" Kana demanded as Harry beckoned for Ayami to come to them. He didn't want to scare her, a stranger yanking her from her own bedroom would do more harm than good. But it wasn't safe.
"The ghosts are all collected here, I don't know what they're doing."
"Ayami, come here this instant." Kana turned on her step-daughter immediately, features stern but fear glinting in her eyes.
Ayami...backed away, holding her doll even tighter as she stared up at the two of them distrustfully. Would she disobey her step-mother? Why?
Kana strode forward and Ayami backed away to maintain their distance. "Ayami, I don't have time for your games-"
Harry had been keeping himself continuously tapped into his glyph, and he could sense the second that hand tightened into a fist, the children crushed together to resemble a single dark spirit more than the multiple ghosts they had been just moments before.
The shelves, bookcases, dressers, even the bed were yanked away from the walls in a single, massive shift. The rug was literally pulled out from under Kana, following the furniture's lead by being shoved by a powerful force to fit diagonally in the bedroom.
Harry dove for the woman as she came crashing down, catching her under her arms with a grunt. She was taller than him, so he couldn't stop her rear from hitting the hardwood floor hard, but nothing would be broken.
It didn't escape either of them that Ayami, who had been near the center of the room, hadn't lost her balance in the slightest. Her eyes were squeezed shut and he was impressed the porcelain hadn't shattered in her arms with the force of her embrace, but she hadn't even wobbled.
Kana was trembling slightly as she pulled away, the whites of her eyes unnaturally bright. As soon as she regained her footing, she bolted for the stairs without saying a word.
Harry lunged forward and wrapped his arms around Ayami before taking off after the woman, more than eager to leave the room and the ghosts falling away from it. Ayami gave a squeal of shock and immediately began to struggle in his grasp, but Harry just held on until they reached the first floor, though his eyes watered with every sharp-toed strike to his legs.
Kana, unburdened by a resistant, kicking child, was already coming back with the SPR in tow.
"Are you two alright?" Monk asked seriously.
"Kana took a tumble," and Harry was going to have some bright bruises decorating his shins come morning, "but other than that we're fine."
"Don't you ever touch me or Minnie again! You big bully!" Ayami shrieked, teary-eyed but furious with him.
"What happened?" Shibuya asked, and Kana headed back up the stairs with more bravery than Harry expected.
"Follow me, you'll see." She panted, a quiver in her voice.
Cautiously, they all traveled back upstairs, eyes and eyes sharp for any further activity. Ayami was kept to the back of the line with Harry as they arrived at her bedroom, still in a disarray.
"I came up here to put Ayami to bed and then all the furniture just- just moved on its own." Kana explained, hands clenching in the folds of her skirt.
"Everything's moved away from the walls." Taniyama mumbled in confusion.
"What's going on? I thought you people were supposed to stop things like this from happening!" Kana continued, anger masking over her clear fright.
"Are you sure they moved on their own?" Matsuzaki asked, disbelief in her narrowed eyes.
Taniyama's brows shot up incredulously. "Are you suggesting a little girl did this?"
Harry stepped forward. "I was here when it happened, no one was touching any of the furniture when it moved."
He paused, considering. "Although, Ayami was completely unaffected when the rug moving nearly gave Mrs. Morishita a concussion."
"Are you suggesting she did this with psychic abilities? There's no way a little girl is capable of that!" Taniyama snapped.
"Relax," Harry frowned, "the ghosts all gathered here right before it happened, they were probably responsible. But that doesn't mean she wasn't involved somehow."
"If the girl were capable of this, her latent abilities would've moved the vase first before trying to accomplish whatever this was." Shibuya said, staring down at the rug with interest.
"It wasn't Ayami." The little girl protested.
Taniyama crouched down before the girl and gave her a soothing pat, a comforting smile on her face. "We believe you."
Harry checked the glyphs to make sure the ghosts had fully dispersed, but what he found was another coiled fist directly below them.
His eyes widened and he turned to Shibuya. "The-"
"Ahhhh!" A shrill scream pierced the air.
"The sitting room!" Harry finished, and they all sprinted back down the stairs, Ayami in tow, and into the adjacent room where only Noriko had been.
"What's wrong?" Taniyama plowed ahead only to stiffen in surprise.
When Harry rounded the corner as well, he could see what had frightened Noriko so much.
Similarly to Ayami's room, the furniture had been manipulated by a strong force. The chairs were upside down, the pillows flung from the seats and now on the floor. The portraits were flipped to show their backs, the bookshelves were turned around, even the rug was upside down, perfectly in place to make for a strange sight.
"This looks like classic poltergeist activity." Monk announced.
"But the ghost children did it again. Just before, they all came down here I could sense it." Harry protested.
"What do you mean?" Shibuya turned to him, brow furrowed.
Harry struggled to describe what the glyph revealed. "They all, all the children gathered tightly together. But it wasn't them, they were being used I think. When they came together in Ayami's room and in here, it was like they lost all agency, just one big blob of power."
"For what purpose?"
"I don't know," Harry confessed, "I think the woman spirit is definitely controlling them and using them now, but I don't know what this was supposed to accomplish."
Shibuya placed a hand to his chin thoughtfully.
"You look like you're onto something, care to share with the rest of us?" Monk seemed open to different opinions from his poltergeist theory, he was watching them both speculatively.
"Don't you think this response is a little quick?" Shibuya murmured, "Paranormal phenomena tend to have an aversion to outsiders. Usually, any signs of a haunting back off for the first twenty-four hours of an investigation."
"Really?" Taniyama asked, intrigued.
Monk continued for her benefit, but Harry was listening as well. "If you ever watch those TV shows that cover famous haunted houses, usually nothing substantial ever happens on camera, right? Normally, the spirits will shy away from the visitor initially, that's not the case here. I think this is full-on hatred."
"You think the woman spirit here hates children?" Harry asked, dread weighing in his chest.
"Maybe not that specifically," Shibuya shook his head, "why would she keep them here if that were the case? But the spirits in this house are aware of our presence, and are quickly becoming angry with us."
Monk continued the thought. "So if you couple that with these increasingly brazen attempts to scare us off, we're dealing with a poltergeist that means business."
Could the woman truly be a poltergeist? Harry wasn't sure she was still human enough for that classification. "Can poltergeists control other spirits like this? Use them as tools?"
No one answered, the atmosphere tense and troubled.
"We may have a hard time with this one." Shibuya said darkly.
It was pessimistic and foreboding, but Harry couldn't argue. He felt the exact same way.
Funny story. I actually began this chapter a good three chapters beforehand, but I didn't like where it went and completely rewrote it after replotting some storylines. So I've got like thirty pages of alternative, slightly crappier scenes I don't know what to do with. Oh well.
So Dollhouse is one of my favorite arcs and a beloved storyline by most fans, but I wanted to start taking these cases in new directions with Harry to keep things interesting. We already know this story, you know? I hope it wasn't a total let down that I'm already tweaking with big reveals and key events in the timeline.
Sadly we didn't get to see a lot from Minnie, but I dragged this a little more than I intended and I don't think we even got completely through the first episode yet, haha. Whoops.
On an entirely unrelated note, I just saw Coco for the first time this week and if you haven't seen it yet, I strongly urge you to. It was gorgeous in every sense of the word. Imelda is a star and La Llorona is imprinted on my heart (sorry Remember Me, that duet was spectacular).
Anyways, I hoped you guys enjoyed this and please drop a review on your way out! It helps so much with kicking my ass into gear and I seriously appreciate you all taking the time to talk about what you liked or didn't like about it.
Thanks so much!