Soooo….
I've been a little busy don't know if you guys noticed. I mean, maybe not busy enough to justify way too many months without an update, but life has kept me on my toes. I aced my final exams (including the precalc one, not to brag). And I like to write when I'm stressed about things (such as finals week) but I know I'm crappy and overindulgent when I do, so I decided to make a new work and ruin that instead. Aaaand now it has a good 130 pages. I don't know why, it just kept growing. So yeah, if anyone's interested in a slice-of-life author-was-clearly-just-playing-with-pov-and-butterfly-effect FMA:B/HP x-over, let me know.
I also worked on my grandparents' ranch for a bit, so I almost have an excuse. Their ranch's wifi is absolutely terrible and I didn't have time to be on my computer. And now I'm taking a working summer with two part-time jobs so it's not like I was sitting on my ass, right?
Welp, at least you have almost forty pages? And I thought I made it pretty exciting, a lot of little plot threads lining up here. It didn't have the ONE scene I promised myself I'd include, but I guess it'll be a fun climax in the next chapter.
So in short- I'm very sorry, you're all angels who don't deserve this and please enjoy.
The sun was just peeking over the mountains when Harry awoke.
Despite the early hour, already heat crept through the windows and humidity sank into his bedroom, heralding the sweltering day to come. The sun even seemed brighter, too close and concentrated for a rising dawn. Like a magnifying glass had been placed over the sky to fry people as a child would ants.
Harry yawned and tossed his thin sheets off, the welcome rush of cooler air helped soothe the near feverish heat under his covers. The paperback fell off his chest with the movement, flopping on his pillow and losing his page.
Harry gave a sigh but didn't bother leafing through it again, he remembered well enough where he'd left off. Just as Ginny had promised, it was a fast-paced drama with memorable climaxes and gripping mystery. The heroine was spunky and her prickly love interest was already allowing glimpses of his typical heart of gold to shine through. Harry still hadn't figured out who was stalking the heroine, but he had his eye on the kind barkeeper.
He tucked the novel under his pillow and shuffled off to the bathroom, ready to start the day.
Once he was dressed and refreshed, Harry padded down to the kitchen and got to work making breakfast.
Shibuya had declared the living room and Ayami's bedroom off limits for now, but Harry kept regularly checking into his glyphs and there was no further activity in either room. He understood the caution, but he doubted the spirits would strike twice in the same room.
The female spirit loomed in utter silence, a streak of malice among the scattered lights of children ghosts. They had since resumed circling around the manor in random bursts and showed no signs of condensing again. Harry felt comfortable enough to be alone as he went about ingratiating himself to Ayami.
Blueberry pancakes were never a hard sell. He dug out the pancake batter he'd spied the other day and swiped a few blueberries from the fridge and got to work at the stove.
Sure enough, within minutes of flipping his first pancake, Noriko and Ayami stumbled downstairs, hair in similar disarray.
"She smelled pancakes and I couldn't hold her back." Noriko apologized in greeting.
"Well, that's good, because the first batch is for her." He smiled down at the little girl as he set out a few plates.
Ayami frowned suspiciously up at him, resembling Kana with a dash more petulance. Hm, she definitely hadn't forgotten last night then.
"Thank you so much, I'm sure Ayami appreciates a fresh breakfast. Neither I or Kana are very good cooks." Noriko hefted Ayami onto a barstool before joining her, she seemed remarkably at ease for someone in rumpled flannel pajamas in front of a strange man. But then, her eyes were half-lidded and her posture was boneless so perhaps she had yet to fully wake up.
"Pancakes are easy, I'm sure your meals are just as tasty. Right, Ayami?" Harry plopped a plate full of hot blueberry pancakes in front of Ayami with a disarming grin.
Ayami stared down at the plate, big brown eyes that much bigger.
"Auntie Noriko makes the best sandwiches," Ayami muttered to the pancakes, fidgeting with her hands all the while.
Rewardingly, Harry stabbed a fork and knife into the pancakes and allowed Ayami to dig in. He quietly placed the butter and a bottle of syrup nearby and went back to his pan.
"Thank you," Noriko hummed again, she leaned forward to cut Ayami's pancakes and once she leaned back, Ayami didn't hesitate to shove as much pancake into her mouth as the fork allowed.
"Thank you for letting me meddle in your kitchen," Harry shot back as he stirred more batter onto the pan. "You have some very fresh blueberries."
"There's a berry patch in the garden, Ayami helped me pick these a few days ago."
Harry watched a bit of pink smudge onto Ayami's cheeks with a grin, "Wow, Ayami. You have a very good eye, there wasn't a bad berry in the whole lot."
She frowned up at him again, sticky syrup on her chin. "Really?"
So suspicious.
"Yup," Harry flipped two more pancakes onto a plate and handed them to Noriko, "Haven't seen so many nice berries in one bowl before."
Noriko thanked him for a third time, definitely still half asleep, and smeared a generous amount of butter across the stack.
"...Thank you." Ayami echoed grudgingly and then jammed another giant forkful into her mouth.
Harry couldn't keep the happiness off his face, a lightness burrowing into his ribs. She was a cutie, even with the simmering resentment. Rosy-cheeked with big dark eyes and mussed up ringlets of light hair that fell to her shoulders. Like a grouchy little doll, oh but she must have doting adults eating out of the palm of her hand.
And what did that make him? Covered in blooming bruises from her hard kicks and still thinking up ways to catch a smile?
He flipped a few more pancakes onto another plate for whoever woke up next.
"Are those for Minnie?" Ayami asked through a mouthful of food.
"Chew your food before speaking, please." Noriko hopped off the stool to pluck a glass from a cabinet and serve Ayami a cup of orange juice.
"Who's Minnie?" Harry gave Noriko a bemused look when she dropped a cup of orange juice in front of him as well.
"She's my friend." Ayami gestured toward the seat beside her, the empty one opposite Noriko.
Or, Harry startled, it had been empty. He could've sworn last he'd looked up there hadn't been anything there, but now the china doll Ayami had been clutching last night was sitting slumped against the counter, painted smile leering up at him.
"Oh," Harry swallowed, "she's very pretty."
Ayami nodded grimly and then turned her attention back on the plate of pancakes. "Are those for her?"
"Ayami, sweetie, we talked about this. Minnie doesn't eat people food."
Ayami bit her lip, "Minnie says she did, that she's eaten lots of people food." By Noriko's sleepy look of frustration, this seemed to be an ongoing discussion.
"Maybe so, but these are far too big for her," Harry broke in, gazing sadly down at the broad circles of batter bubbling in his pan, "She'd get a stomach ache for sure."
Ayami shrank, looking just as troubled as he did. It was hard not to crack a smile.
"Yeah…"
"But thankfully, I have some that are just her size." Harry had been making pancakes since before he was tall enough to reach the stove, it was one of the first things he had been instructed to cook for the Dursleys. As such, it wasn't a boast to say he was fairly experienced and knew how to make the batter fluffy and the pancakes evenly cooked. He hardly ever dripped batter when pouring new pancakes onto his pan, it caused an undue mess and even a due one often lead to a night without dinner.
But it was inevitable that he would drip onto the pan eventually, and made no effort to combine it with the larger pancake. Instead, he flipped it twice and within the minute had a perfect tiny little circle on its own plate. He presented it to Ayami for scrutiny.
"Do you think she'll like it?"
Ayami studied it for a time, so serious Harry bit down on his chuckle. Noriko watched with unabashed humor, fork twirling in her hand
"She'll like it." Ayami finally decided, and pushed the plate in front of her china doll.
Harry looked at the doll, Minnie. He'd never had one and Dudley broke anything that even resembled one, so perhaps that's why he found it unnerving. The way it's bright yellow locks were perfectly curled even though Ayami hadn't found time to brush her own hair yet. The way its face was so bone white, even for a china doll, no wear or dirt that came with being owned by a child.
Maybe how it was shaped. Like the artist had only heard of what a smile looked like when recreating one, for there was nothing happy about the pull of its lips or staring blankness of its eyes. It could just be the eyes, now that Harry was looking, because, for all that they were inhumanly wide and flat, they were a near perfect match in color to his own.
"I hope she enjoys," Harry mumbled, tearing himself away just in time to save a pancake from getting scorched.
"Minnie was a going away gift from my brother," Noriko said conversationally, halfway through her stack now. "I thought it was a little too fragile but…"
"Ayami does seem to be taking good care of her," Harry smiled as the pink returned to Ayami's cheeks even as she resolutely ignored the both of them in favor of eating the rest of her breakfast.
"I know, she's spotless. I don't even have to wash her dresses." Noriko laughed, "I wasn't nearly as kind to my own dolls."
There was an awkward lull, where Harry was clearly meant to volunteer his own stories. But he didn't have any, nor enough experience with children to effectively make one up. He'd had a handful of crooked toy soldiers that he'd repaired to the best of his abilities before being moved to Dudley's second room, but that was it. He wasn't keen to share that either, not after the face Hermione made when he'd told her about it as children.
"Please tell me I'm smelling what I think I'm smelling?" Monk's baritone rang from the stairs, quickly followed by a thunder of footsteps down to the kitchen.
Harry flipped two more pancakes onto another plate right as Monk took the corner at high speed, almost skidding on the wooden floor.
Unlike Noriko and Ayami, Monk appeared fully dressed and wide awake, eyes immediately fixed upon the plate with the intensity of a ravenous wolf.
"Here you go," Harry didn't even need to hand it to him, as soon as Monk got the okay he yanked it closer in a clatter of porcelain and sat on the barstool next to Minnie.
"These look delicious! Thanks- Harry?" Monk peered at him in bemusement once he'd managed to tear his gaze from the pancakes.
"Huh, you cook?"
"A little bit, pancakes aren't exactly complicated." Harry handed him a knife and fork and whatever attention he'd commanded was lost to breakfast.
The monk was actually worse than Ayami, not only stuffing so much pancake into his mouth that his cheeks bulged like a hamster, but also drowning his plate in butter and syrup in the process. Harry took a sip of his orange juice to hide his smile.
It tasted as though it might be as fresh as the blueberries, a little pulpy and very sweet. He savored the chill of it running down his throat as he hunched over the popping stove and poured more batter onto the pan. It was hot work, but getting a blast of fresh blueberry pancakes with each breath was nice.
He dug at the forming pancakes with his spatula, getting ready to flip.
"Well, I better get Ayami ready for the day." Noriko plucked both her and Ayami's plates up and dropped them into the sink. As she brushed by the stove, she gave Harry a soft pat on the shoulder.
Harry tried not to startle away from the contact, hands dangerously close to bubbling oil.
Noriko was smiling softly at him, "Thanks for breakfast. Leave everything in the sink, I'll wash it later." She turned the corner before he could refuse and Ayami quickly trot after her, Minnie pressed against her chest.
The two shuffled back upstairs in silence and Harry slowly turned his attention back to his pan.
"That was way smoother than I thought you could be, you'll totally get them eating out of your hands if you keep this up." Monk garbled out with a laugh that almost sent a blueberry flying from his full mouth.
Harry flung the finished pancakes onto a new plate, "You think? I don't want Ayami to be uncomfortable around people living in her house."
Monk swallowed, miraculously not choking. "Sure, sure, and I bet Kana and Noriko Morishita appreciate it too."
"I guess," Harry said slowly, frowning faintly at his next pancake. Were the two Morishitas avid pancake eaters?
"Aw, come on. Don't play coy with me." Monk snagged a third and dumped it into the lake of syrup that had become his plate.
"It's just us guys now, after all."
Harry tossed a handful of rinsed blueberries into the batter, a familiar motion to distract himself from his confusion. He had no idea what Monk was talking about now, what did pancakes have to do with them being men? Was he just bad at transitioning topics?
Harry hazarded a glance up to Monk, who was propped up on the bar, chin pressed into his palm with the slightest curl of a smirk peeking behind his fingers.
"Did you want to talk about something?" He guessed.
Monk's smirk slipped and he rolled his eyes dramatically, Harry had guessed wrong.
"Fine, whatever," Monk shoved half a pancake into his mouth, "Geez, how am I the one who was raised on a mountain?"
Or at least that's what Harry thought he said next, it was difficult to tell with how badly he mangled it in his protruding cheeks.
Harry flipped a pancake, "Hmph, see if I make breakfast for you again."
Monk blanched, "Aw, come on! I was just kidding around, don't be mad at me."
"I don't understand the joke," Harry said coolly.
"It's just that you, John, Lin, and Naru all kind of act like you've never been around women before, but in a funny way!" Monk backtracked awkwardly, "Not weird or anything, but kind of awkward. But not unattractive- you saw how much Kuroda liked you, right?"
Harry should probably let him off the hook, he might really choke on his food at this rate.
"And not to say you act like Naru, he's in a category all his own. But-"
Harry dropped another pancake onto Monk's dwindling stack, "Alright, I get it." He allowed mercifully, fighting hard to keep from laughing at Monk's pathetically grateful face.
"I know I can be a little oblivious."
"Crap, don't go agreeing with me," Monk groaned, he even stopped eating to look properly guilty. "I was just being a dolt, okay?"
"Now, I think that's something we can all agree on," Matsuzaki said brightly as she stalked into the room, fully decked out in ancient shrine maiden robes.
"Shut up, I wasn't talking to you," Monk hunched over his plate and began to devour the rest of his pancakes in earnest, as though Matsuzaki might steal them at any moment.
Matsuzaki eyed him with disdain, "What a charmer,"
"Pancakes?" Harry was almost done on his fifth plate of pancakes, so he hoped most of the SPR liked them.
She looked him over expressionlessly, whatever she found didn't soften her straight-backed stance. "No thanks, not really my sty-"
Dropping a good ten years off her face, Matsuzaki lurched to the bar, eyes wide. "Are those blueberries?"
"Fresh blueberries," Monk confirmed over his last mouthful
"Oh, I haven't had blueberry pancakes in years," She placed herself on a bar stool, sandals crossed elegantly, and took a fork and knife from Harry with a small smile. "Thank you."
"You should thank the Morishitas, I'm using all their stuff." He waved away.
Harry turned his attention back to the stove, but it didn't last. He just had to listen in when Monk asked why Matsuzaki was already wearing her robes.
"We already know where the spirit is, I don't see why we shouldn't try cleansing the earth to weaken its hold."
"Because it didn't work yesterday? Harry confirmed it." Monk shrugged.
Matsuzaki pinned Harry with a hard look then, "And you can't read even the slightest change? Can your glyph even measure such a thing?"
Harry ran his magic over his glyphs with a twitch of his hand around his spatula, they rang back faithfully. "Sorry, Matsuzaki, I don't know about the earth but I can read how powerful a spirit is and nothing has changed."
She pursed her lips but didn't push the issue. Instead, pointedly turning her attention back to her plain blueberry pancakes.
After finishing most of it, she put the plate in the sink and then went to start chanting in the living room.
Monk shuffled after her, craning his head out of the kitchen. "Um, didn't Naru declare that room off limits?"
"Then you better stick close in case something comes along, hm?" She shot back
Monk sent Harry a frazzled look, so Harry shooed him off after her. Naru probably wouldn't get mad if they only went to purely for the case, and it would be better if someone could keep an eye out for trouble while she worked.
Besides, Harry checked on his glyphs again, nothing had changed since last night. Monk disappeared after her and left Harry alone in the kitchen with his several plates of pancakes.
Some time passed as he lost himself in the rhythm of cooking, a childhood companion that put a sway in his arms and a tune on his lips. He found the beat of each flip and the tempo of hissing oil. A symphony he could lose track of all else with, if just for a moment.
The heat of the stove on his face was uncomfortable, and a spit or two of oil against his skin bloomed into red irritated freckles, but they were easy to block out as he sank into his task. His pancakes were thick and fluffy, the blueberries a merry blue against the batter, and the smell that was sweet and fresh in the morning air.
Harry could've spent hours dancing to that song, but he didn't. Somewhere in between the shuffle-step from batter bowl to pan and the musical scrape of his spatula against the pain, he was interrupted.
"Oh man, I thought I was dreaming. Are those pancakes?" Taniyama chirped, mere feet away.
Harry shot back, spatula clenched tight and feet finding a surer stance behind the bar, a chill of adrenalin shattered his nostalgic haze. The song was lost on a record screech, giving way to alarm.
Too close, too close, and where was his wand? He couldn't defend himself with only a spatula, where had he put it?
"Um, Harry?"
Taniyama was stock-still, big brown eyes wide in confusion. She was in play shorts and a bright polo, no bone white mask or black cloak in sight.
Harry very nearly smacked himself, but he didn't want to unnerve her any further. He grit his teeth and inhaled sharply, trying his best to knock himself back into a normal space on willpower alone.
"Taniyama," He greeted a little too breathlessly. If he couldn't pretend to be unaffected, he might aim for a joke. "You scared me!"
She smiled apologetically, stepping closer to the bar as Harry forced his limbs into a vaguely relaxed fashion. "Ha, sorry about that. I didn't think you can jump that high."
He laughed, heart thudding hard in his chest and the itching need for a wand on his fingertips. "You'd jump too if someone popped out at you like that when you were alone."
"Yeah, you looked really distracted. You like cooking that much?" She hopped onto a bar stool and let the motion spin her in a little circle.
Harry placed a plate and utensils before her and finished flipping his final pancake. He did so with deliberate slowness in an effort not to look like he was running away. "Yeah, I guess."
"Mmm! These look great!" Taniyama cheered.
While she started on her first pancake, Harry switched off the stove and took the pan to the sink. He carefully rinsed the still bubbling pan, scrubbing the batter away as the cold water shrieked against iron.
"You know," Taniyama mumbled conversationally, "I think you're the only one besides maybe Lin who still calls me Taniyama."
"Isn't it weird to call you by your first name?" Harry shrugged, his back still turned as he let the pan cool under the tap and then carefully placed it besides the sink. He moved on to the other dishes, it would be rude to leave Noriko and Kana to clean up after all of them.
"Well, I guess," Mai said this as though Harry had pointed out some useless semantic, "But come on, it's just Mai. Aren't we friends?"
Harry...didn't consider them friends. They've barely interacted, this was only their second case together. But when Harry turned to look over his shoulder at the teenager, she was staring back with true sincerity, big eyes even bigger, posture confident and open.
Huh, Harry turned back to his dishes. Which one of them was being weird, then? Harry thought it was much too fast, but perhaps he was just being distant?
Maybe it was a youth thing, Harry had made friends during his first few years of Hogwarts rather easily, after all. Well, what was the harm.
"Mai, then." He mumbled, and he didn't have to look back to sense the beaming grin being sent from the bar.
She didn't say anything else and the kitchen was blanketed in distinctly happy silence.
Harry finished the dishes and left the rest of the pancakes evenly plated on the counter. Mai assured him Shibuya had been right after her in the bathroom so the others should begin trickling down soon.
"What are you going to do now?"
Harry paused before leaving the kitchen, "Er, well I was going to go back upstairs to get some things and then I was going to monitor the spirits."
She waved him away cheerily and so Harry took the stairs as quickly as his hip would allow and darted into his bedroom.
His wand, Harry couldn't believe he had forgotten his wand. So stupid, so unsafe.
He snatched it from the trousers he'd discarded to a laundry bin and tucked it into his back pocket, carefully hidden under the hem of his shirt. As soon as it touched his skin, the frenetic, gnawing itch Mai had awakened in the kitchen finally eased.
The last ice clinging to his spine and shoulder melted away with a sigh, he drooped, arms dropping and knees locking. He allowed himself to stop glancing at every corner of the room in wait of a werewolf that had died years ago, he was just frazzled.
With a sigh, Harry turned to leave for downstairs-
Only to freeze, heart crushed in his chest as he stared at the tiny figure standing before his doorway.
Still and utterly quiet, Ayami stared back. She was well groomed now, hair in two shiny pigtails and flowery dress ironed to perfection. In her hands, oddly positioned, was the doll.
Ayami angled Minnie like a lantern, at the center of her chest but just away from it, faced toward Harry. If he didn't know any better, he'd say Ayami was presenting Harry with the doll.
Or perhaps, a strange voice in his head suggested, she was presenting Harry to Minnie.
"What- is something wrong?" Harry asked, licking his lips and avoiding the blank gaze of the doll.
Ayami blinked back, dark eyes a little darker than before. Then she shook her head without a word.
Before Harry could ask why she was looming so eerily in the hallway, Kana's voice pierced the air.
"Ayami! I just finished telling you people were sleeping over here, honestly." She huffed, stepping into view and effectively destroying the tension. She was already straightened out and done up, lipstick perfectly applied and a new pair of expensive earrings dangling about her head.
"Good morning, Mrs. Morishita." Harry bid, and was gratified to see someone else startle for a change.
"Oh! Potter, you're up. Was Ayami bothering you?"
Harry smiled down at the blank-faced girl, steeling his nerves. "No, I think I was making noise and she got curious. Isn't that right?"
Ayami finally reacted, gazing suspiciously up at him, arms tightening around her doll. "Nuh uh, it was Minnie."
"Right, right, Minnie." Kana Morishita sighed, and patted the girl on the head. Ayami endured it stiffly, much to Harry's amusement. What a fussy little girl, really.
"Come on, it's cool enough to spend some time outside just yet." The step-mother began herding Ayami to the stairs and out of sight.
Harry followed after them, "Before you go, I made blueberry pancakes, there should be a plate for you, if you're hungry."
Kana looked back, surprise flitting across her smooth face, "That was you? I was wondering what that smell was." She didn't immediately move, though. Instead, she allowed her eyes to rest on him a moment, speculative.
Harry stood awkwardly, unsure of what she was looking for. She seemed in no hurry to tell him, tracing over the line of his shoulders and the crease of his brow at a leisurely pace.
"I'll consider it, thank you." She decided, and without bothering for another word, stalked down the steps and glided into the kitchen.
Harry watched her go, bemused.
So she was an avid pancake eater, hm? He supposed he knew who had insisted upon blueberry bushes now.
"Are the exorcisms having any effect?"
Harry looked up from the cameras to Shibuya, standing a careful few feet away. He wasn't facing Harry either, peering closely at every glowing monitor in turn. How oddly thoughtful of him, or perhaps he was just accustomed to acting in the most efficient manner possible, even if it meant humoring jumpy wizards.
Harry turned back to the one he had been watching, the sitting room Monk had situated himself in after dinner. Matsuzaki had moved on to Ayami's bedroom by that point, and both had been chanting and praying tirelessly for all that Harry hadn't sensed even a waver in the spirits.
"None that I can tell. The woman spirit is too rooted for a cleansing to work, she might've been buried here." Harry sighed, "And the children are tied to the woman, they won't go until she does."
The grim line of Shibuya's mouth tugged further down.
"Have you figured out where these spirits came from yet?" Harry asked curiously.
Shibuya didn't answer for a drawn-out moment, Harry watched him for a tell. The teenager was a blank space where body language might've colored someone else in unspoken thoughts and concerns, his posture military and his face marble in its pale impassiveness.
But he thought he could spy his answer in the displeased tightening at the edges of his employer's deep blue eyes.
"I have a few leads I'm pursuing." Was what Shibuya finally said.
Harry didn't bother prodding for more, he sedately turned his attention back to the monitors. Briefly, he checked on his glyphs, but nothing yet had changed. Perhaps a few more children circled about the sitting room, but they could just be curious about Monk. It wasn't the sweeping, unified utilitarian transformation of before, so he let it be.
"Have you said something to the little girl?"
Harry glanced back at Shibuya, displeasure pinching at him. So even he had noticed Ayami's suspicion. For all that she seemed to have relaxed over breakfast, the tentative truce had melted in the summer sun by lunch. She kept...watching him, doll clutched tight. She'd appear at random in any room Harry occupied without a word to spare him, it was one of the reasons he had fled to headquarters.
Harry wasn't sure why she did it, what about himself warranted such serious observation when there were literal exorcisms happening in her home?
"Not a clue," He admitted, "She trusted me enough to eat my pancakes but something must've happened afterward."
Shibuya hummed, "Perhaps Noriko or Kana Morishita warned her away from us. Watch her for further odd behavior."
"Look!"
The increasingly familiar pitch of Taniyama- Mai's scream ripped through the air, sending Harry tumbling out of his chair.
Without further prompting both Shibuya and himself raced to where the scream had originated, the kitchen. As they did so, Harry yanked on his glyph, demanding to know what had happened.
The glyph...looked normal. A few more children in the sitting room than last night, but nothing odder than that. There weren't any spirits in the kitchen with Mai, either, she was surrounded only by humans.
"What's wrong?" Shibuya barked as soon as they made it to the kitchen. Mai was ducked behind Monk, white as a sheet.
"Naru, there was someone at the window looking in! A little kid!" She shrieked, pointing wildly at the window just above the sink.
Shibuya opened the window and hopped onto the counter to crane his head out and search in all directions for a trespasser. Several seconds rolled by before he turned back to Mai, eyes sharp.
"Are you sure?"
Mai scowled ferociously, "Of course I'm sure! It was right- There! Naru! Right there!" Now she was pointing at another window, flinching away as though struck by the sight.
Harry threw the window open, looking on the horizon and even at the flower garden just below, there weren't any footprints in the soil, child-sized or otherwise.
"You...you didn't see anything either?" Mai guessed as Harry stared down at the uncrushed grass and peaceful birds a few feet away, no one had walked by.
"Maybe this heat is getting to you, you were outside with Ayami for a while." Monk wondered, backing away from Mai to get a better look at her.
"Maybe it was Ayami? She could've wandered out." Noriko Morishita set off to find her niece with Monk and Mai close behind.
"Did your glyph pick up any activity?" Shibuya asked Harry, they dragged a little behind and out of earshot of the others.
"There were spirits in the garden, but they weren't being controlled," Harry kept checking his glyphs over and over but they remained the same. The woman's ghost was lying dormant, a sinister stain on the house and nothing more. "No one could've been outside, though. Nothing was disturbed."
They fell even further behind as the group took to the stairs, heading for Noriko's bedroom. "Do you think the children's ghosts don't want us here either?"
Shibuya's brows furrowed, "Interaction with the living is not a direct indication of anything except that the spirits wish interaction," He sounded as though he were reciting an old textbook.
"But the woman doesn't want us here, why else would the children act out?" Harry and Shibuya made it up the stairs and started down the right hallway.
"Think for a minute, these children are bound here if your glyph is correct. Why would their motivations coincide with the entity trapping them here?"
Harry stared, realizing what Shibuya was implying. "You think they might be seeking help?"
"Ayami didn't do it!" Ayami's young voice trilled as they continued down the hallway.
"Looks like they found her," Harry muttered.
"Ayami didn't do it!" Oh, and perhaps confronting a sleepy child before bed had been the wrong choice if the brewing tantrum meant anything.
Suddenly, as though a rocking from a harsh earthquake, the entire house jerked. Harry and Shibuya smacked into the wall, Shibuya just barely missed braining himself against a doorknob on his way down.
"Ayami didn't do it!"
Harry reached out for his glyphs and found the children spirits erased, mangled into the dark hand of the woman, their voices silenced. With that hand, she grasped the bedroom in between greedy fingers and let her miasma spread.
The house continued to shake, jerking wildly in the opposite direction now. This time Harry was prepared and crouched for it, arms outstretched. Shibuya knelt on the carpet, he was leaning toward Ayami's door like a hunting dog waiting to be unleashed on a scent.
"Stop it!" Ayami continued to cry as the low murmurs of the others rose into panicked gasps.
Another yank in the opposite direction as the house continued to tremble around them, Harry winced as he still bounced off the wall, however slightly, bruising his shoulder to keep his hip from making contact.
"Noriko!" Mai suddenly called out and it was immediately followed by a deafening slam. Noriko never answered, a thrill of fear struck Harry.
The house went still after that, not groaning or creaking even as it seemed to sag into place, stable once more. The hallway was a mess, portraits thrown from the walls and shelved ornaments in shards across the carpet.
As soon as Harry got to his feet he was off, sprinting the rest of the way and nearly bowling Mai over.
"What happened? Is everyone okay?" He snapped, looking over Monk, Mai, and Ayami all standing in horror around an upturned bookshelf.
It didn't take long for Harry to register their expressions and the distinct lack of Noriko before he connected the dots. Heart in his throat, Harry threw himself to his knees and pushed the bookshelf as hard as he could. Already he could see the crumpled figure beneath, curled with her arms over her head. The bookshelf suddenly became much lighter, and Harry didn't look away from Noriko even as Monk and Shibuya hoisted the shelf and several books off of the woman.
"Noriko, what hurts? Is anything broken?" Harry pulled her straight and brushed her bangs away from her face.
To his immense relief, she was awake. Eyes opened and a little glassy with fear, she shifted upright with a palm pressed against her temple.
"I-I think I'm alright." She whispered, even as Harry pressed his hands across her limbs for any sign of a break or twist. But she seemed fine, purpling bruises aside. Even her fingers, which had cradled her head, appeared unscathed.
"And your head?" Monk leaned in to get a better look at the back of her.
"Just a little sore, no blood or anything." Noriko sounded less stunned now, as she pulled herself into a kneel before the discarded bookshelf.
"Auntie Noriko!" Ayami burst out, and the little girl threw herself into her aunt's lap, tears coursing down her face.
Harry watched Noriko's eyes track the movement easily and relaxed, she probably didn't have a concussion either.
"Shhh...I'm okay, Ayami. There's nothing to be frightened of." She stroked Ayami's hair soothingly, letting her cry a puddle into her skirt.
"Except for the whole house-shaking thing," Monk grumbled under his breath.
"What was that, anyway? It looked like Ayami was causing it." Mai whispered away from the girl's hearing.
Instead of answering, Shibuya pinned Harry with a firm stare, command unspoken but plain as day.
"It was the woman again, she used the other spirits like she did last night to attack the whole room, it was strong enough to affect more than that, though." Harry shuddered, she was far too powerful with the children at her disposal. To make a house quake just targeting a single room like that...and her presence hadn't diminished in the slightest. Harry could sense her still, just as stark in the sitting room as before, just as solid.
Mai let out a strangled squeak just then, and Harry turned his head away from the sitting room's direction to find her clutching onto the sleeve of her employer, eyes fixed upon the window.
"Are you seeing them again?" Shibuya asked in a hushed whisper, drawing them all away from Noriko and Ayami and back into the hallway.
"This is the second floor!" Mai hissed between her teeth, "But I saw another kid looking inside."
"Yeesh, freaky." Monk edged out of sight of the window Mai was still taking swift glances at.
"Its...a different spirit from before, a girl this time. At least I think so." Harry mumbled, letting the detection glyph run over the spirits just outside the house, their details fuzzy and jumbled at best.
Mai nodded miserably, "She had braids."
Shibuya remained silent, the cogs in his head turning so loudly, Harry was surprised he couldn't actually hear the teenager's speculation.
"So...are we sure it's not Ayami? Even a little bit?" Monk cocked his head in a disarming fashion, but his eyes were hard.
"But you heard Harry, it was the woman again." Mai sounded confused.
"Yeah, but what are the odds this stuff keeps involving Ayami? Maybe she's influencing the spirits around her somehow, or commands the woman ghost?"
Harry snorted, "A little girl? I'd be impressed if anyone here could control that spirit for more than a few seconds."
Monk's shoulders rose an inch, making him appear that much larger. "Come on, hear me out. What if you're just sensing a curse or her conduit? Little kids screw around with occult stuff all the time and this is a pretty old house. Maybe she doesn't even know what it was for."
Harry leaned back a little on his heels to keep Monk at the center of his vision, "That's just guessing. Do you see any arcane spellbooks around here? Because I don't. The woman is working on her own, she's a fully fledged spirit my glyphs can tell me that-" A motion behind Monk stole his attention.
Harry craned his head to find Ayami peeking from the doorway, face still puffy from tears. She looked frightened, doll held up and away and facing him dead-on, unblinking paint eyes making perfect eye contact. Harry shivered and looked back to Ayami, avoiding the prickle of the doll's imaginary intent crawl across his face.
"Let's got review the footage." Shibuya decided, clearly unwilling to let Ayami or Noriko listen in on their discussion. He'd suspected Noriko or Kana had turned Ayami against them earlier as well, did he not trust them?
Harry set off after Shibuya, who'd already turned to the stairs with Monk and Mai at his heels when a glimmer caught his eye.
Harry allowed the distraction and found himself looking down at a shard of glass from a portrait that had fallen badly across a space of wooden flooring between rugs.
He couldn't leave the cleanup to just poor Noriko and Kana, straightening out her own bedroom would probably take most of the night and Kana was already turned in. It would be an awful chore come morning as well, the air conditioning wasn't as strong on the second floor and with an old mansion, it would be stuffy no matter what they did.
"Harry?" Monk was standing at the first step of the stairs, concern adding wrinkles to his forehead.
"I'll hang back and start cleaning up the mess. Somebody could get hurt as it is." Harry decided, "Don't mind me, go on."
"I'll get you some trash bags." He offered, and hopped down the steps two at a time as though they hadn't been rattling dangerously mere minutes ago.
Harry sighed and left the shards alone for now, instead he turned his attention to rehanging the other portraits and straightening the ones that hadn't fallen. The side tables were right-ended and the surviving ornaments and vases were returned. He tugged the rugs until they were recentered in the hallways, kicking the shards into a careful circle of glass and porcelain. For anything smaller, he'd need a broom or vacuum.
All the while, the creepy-crawly feeling of Ayami and her doll staring at him from Noriko's bedroom prevailed, though he didn't want to turn around and confirm she hadn't budged an inch since the others left.
"Ayami, could you help me with this?" Came Noriko's faint call from the bedroom, something clacked against the floor.
Harry still didn't turn around, he accepted the trash bag from Monk and delicately placed the shards and clumps of dirt from potted plants into the bag, all the while, the feeling tickling the back of his neck still hadn't wavered.
Finally, Harry couldn't stand it anymore and twisted quickly around to ask Ayami exactly what was so fascinating about himself that she'd ignore her aunt's request, only to find the doorway empty. Ayami had gone to aid Noriko a good five minutes ago.
With an unreasonable dread, Harry lowered his head slowly, further and further down, until he was staring straight into a face that looked more likely to have been carved from bone than china. Minnie was propped against the door, ever a regular, temporarily forgotten toy. Ayami could've left her somewhere easy to spot since whatever Noriko needed help with required two hands, Noriko might have even suggested she leave it outside to avoid getting in the way of clean up or accidentally thrown out with a ruined heirloom.
Harry told himself all this, but it still didn't stop him from leaving the hallway as quickly as he could to escape the doll sitting upright in the doorway, the prickly heaviness on his back didn't leave him until he was at the bottom of the stairs.
The next morning, the temperature in Ayami's room plummeted. It became a true freezer, the cold air wafting underneath the door burned against the contrasting summer heat. Shibuya had banned even exorcisms from happening in that room now, Lin was watching it for any more changes.
All throughout the day, Mai continued to see murky shadows of the ghost children, mostly through the windows, but now she was startling from mirrors as well. Harry watched with concern as she hopped through rooms like a flighty deer, eyes darting.
"Maybe you should go hang out by the pond today," Monk fretted, he'd been hovering over her all morning and now that noon was pulling the sun high in the sky, Mai began to look impatient.
"They're trying to tell me something, I have to figure it out!" She huffed, glaring at the fluttering shadows playing across the floor from a tree outside the largest kitchen window.
Harry had to give it to her, she was dedicated to solving the case and braver than most adults. She had yet to ask after Hara's arrival or hide away in the headquarters, instead, she seemed determined to understand why the children were haunting her steps.
Harry wasn't too worried for her, the children were acting purely on their own and sightings were the most harmless form of supernatural activity there was. But he did have one concern.
"But why are they trying to contact you now? It only started last night and you've been here for days."
Shibuya straightened from his slouch against the counter, pinning Harry with the weight of his wholly concentrated attention. "Have the spirits changed their behavior at all?"
Harry resisted the urge to point out how unnaturally frigid it was in Ayami's bedroom not hours ago, clearly the spirits had already changed. But it wasn't the time to be snarky.
"They used to travel at random around the house," Harry mumbled, pulling at his glyphs. The situation remained the same, unfortunately. "But now, even when the woman isn't using them, the spirits are traveling in groups. That might be why they're powerful enough for Mai to see them."
Harry shifted to glance at the empty sitting room, "They're also staying in there a bit longer than before."
"Where the woman is," Monk hummed, he peered up at the ceiling, "But the activity is upstairs."
"So long as it stays in either room, I don't care. Just get rid of it soon." Kana Morishita strut past them, oven mitts fitted over manicured hands.
"Do you need any help with that?" Harry asked as she pulled her baked cookies out of the oven.
"Yes, if you could get a platter and plate together." She set the pan on the counter and began scooping shortbread cookies up with a spatula.
Harry had spotted her with a mixing bowl earlier and had smelled whatever sweet she was baking in the oven, but he wouldn't have guessed cookies at all. She didn't seem the type to like sweet things, and from the way she'd never strayed far from a brand new cookbook, this was a very recent interest.
"What's the occasion?" Monk got out of her way, but only just, eyes fixed upon the cookies.
Kana didn't look at any of them, stiffly dropping shortbread cookies onto a plate and platter Harry set up beside her. "No occasion, they're just- There's nothing wrong with giving a kid a treat every now and then, is there?"
Monk wisely remained silent as she sorted the cookies like one would legal documents, the razor straight line of her shoulders looking fit to cut.
Harry couldn't leave her there, floundering under a Malfoy-esque mask, "I'm sure Ayami will love them," He declared, "They look delicious."
They looked undercooked and a little lopsided, but what child didn't like a soft cookie dough center? And the white lie was worth watching the tightness in her face drop just the slightest amount.
Harry made to get out of her way so she could carry the platter to whatever room Noriko and Ayami were playing in, when Mai grabbed at his elbow, "Watch out!"
Harry dodged her hand, pulling back and to the right of where he had been walking, arms tucked high and away from her reach.
She wasn't looking though, already reaching down to lift a gleaming white object off the ground. "You almost stepped on her doll, that was a close one."
Harry stared at Minnie, dress immaculate and bows done tightly in her hair, not a speck of dirt on her. "I didn't know Ayami left her anywhere."
"I guess she forgot," Kana Morishita mused, stepping out of the kitchen on perfectly steady heels with the weight of the platter held to her chest.
"I'll go take it to her, I'm sure she'll be worried soon." Mai tucked the doll under one arm and set off after Kana. The way it hung upside down against Mai's hip made the head tip back, golden thread hair a smooth curtain, and its eyes never left Harry.
Harry deliberately didn't watch Mai or the doll leave. He stared down at the floor where Mai had found Minnie, by the bar and almost tucked under a stool. There's no way Ayami could've dropped the doll from that height without it at least making a sound against the floor, had she placed it there while no one was looking? He didn't sense anything coming from the doll, but it sent goosebumps up his arms.
"What's up?" Monk hung over his shoulder to get a peek at under the chair, "There a bug or something?"
Harry hopped out from under him, "No," He admitted, "That doll just really gives me the creeps."
Monk stared at him for a moment, eyebrows raised. "Are you serious? Really?"
Before Harry could say anything else, Monk snorted loudly.
"Aw man, aren't you precious. Dolls freak you out, huh?"
Harry rolled his eyes, "Are you honestly going to tease me after you've been avoiding the outdoors since Mai saw shadows?"
Monk's idiotic grin dropped, "Hey, it's really hot outside! I'm not scared of anything out there, I just gotta look out for my skin!"
"Is that why you were sunbathing yesterday afternoon?" Harry asked innocently, had Monk really thought no one had noticed him pass out on the lawn for an hour with sunscreen smeared haphazardly across his face? They might be in a mansion, but it wasn't that big. He'd been plain to see for anyone walking by the office windows.
Monk drew himself up haughtily, "You're just jealous that I can actually tan. Guys like you and Naru look like you're half albino."
"And how can one be half albino?" Shibuya asked silkily, Monk and Harry flinched, they'd forgotten the teenager was still with them. "I didn't think it was possible, so please explain it to me."
Harry watched Monk flounder gleefully, but it was cut tragically short.
"Kazuya," Lin's clear, sharp voice sliced effortlessly through the lighthearted atmosphere of the kitchen. "You need to look at this, the temperature in Takigawa, Taniyama, and Matsuzaki's rooms are sinking incredibly fast."
"Ayako was in her bedroom! Is she still there?" Monk surged forward, ready to race up the stairs.
"She's already left, now come on."
Shibuya kept his attention on Monk as he followed after Lin, "What were you all doing today, anything together?"
Harry leaned against the stove, frowning thoughtfully. As far as he knew, those three hadn't done anything together. Matsuzaki and Monk had continued their exorcisms in different rooms trying to find a weakness, and Mai had been sniffing out children spirits whenever she wasn't playing with Ayami. Only Matsuzaki even spent much time in her room, what an odd focus.
Could it be only the children again? Harry ran his magic over his glyph.
He had only seconds to comprehend what he was sensing. The children were gone again, nothing but the dark, poisonous will of the woman, strung to her so tightly it was almost impossible to tell they had once been their own souls.
But she wasn't attacking those bedrooms, she was right in front of him.
He could almost feel the shadow fall over his head as her miasmic hand raised for the blow he was only noticing just then, huge and heavy and directly above him. He had been as blind as a bird before a patiently stalking cat.
He didn't even have time to react, he knew, there was no way he'd reach the hallway.
So quick, he nearly snapped it on the seam of his trousers, Harry tugged his wand out. Going with the momentum, not slowing down or pausing for a second, he slashed it through the air before him with only the tiniest of twists.
"Protego!"
With the glow of a shield bursting to life, he almost didn't notice the orange tinge until it was too late. He spun around as the stove burst into huge plumes of searing, bright red flames. They lapped at his shield, singing his shirt and scorching the hair on his arms.
It didn't actually burn him, he'd thrown up the shield just as the stove sparked, but the massive burst of unnatural power feeding those flames nearly tossed him to the ground. He crashed against the bar with a wheeze, marble digging into his spine.
The woman wasn't finished, her outstretched hand was curling into a fist, urging those flames higher and hotter, swaying menacingly toward him. Black smoke stung Harry's eyes and instantly dried his mouth when he managed, "Fire again…?"
"Holy shit!" Someone shrieked faintly over the roar, Harry didn't dare look away to find out who. He couldn't lose his grip on his runes, to lose track of the woman now wasn't an option. He watched anxiously as the woman's fist tightened and tightened, twisting the fire ever closer. She was determined to reach him.
A cold, thin hand wrapped itself around his shoulder with an unreasonably bruising strength. Harry found himself been reeled around the bar so quickly he nearly tripped over his own two feet before colliding with a bony wall. He tried to step back but only made it an inch or two before the hold constricted further.
"Cancel the spell while the smoke is still hiding it." Shibuya's voice hissed into his ear.
Harry blinked a little dazedly, pulling his head up from where he had been gazing at nothing to look up into Shibuya's sooty face. His eyes were flinty, his mouth fully downturned as he stared back.
"Takigawa!" Shibuya shouted directly into his face.
Before Harry could ask what he meant, a blur of motion flitted through his peripheral and the blasting of a fire extinguisher soon grew louder than the crackling fire itself.
"Now, you idiot!" Shibuya grit out, fingers still digging into the flesh of his shoulder.
Right. Right! Merlin, what was he doing gaping like a moron?
Harry hastily canceled the spell, the barely-there shimmer of it fading away under the protection of the billowing clouds of smoke.
He pocketed his wand in the next moment, and none too soon as Shibuya finally dropped his grip and Mai came blazing into the kitchen.
"Harry! What happened?" She cried.
Harry turned to the oven again, safely placed behind Shibuya and at the opposite side of the kitchen. Monk was extinguishing the paranormal fire, sweat pouring down his face as he coating all the counters in foam.
The flames were dimming, straightening into a much more natural shape, no longer curving into a bizarre spiral of ill intent. After a few seconds, it began to resemble a normal kitchen fire rather than a ghostly attack.
Harry pulled on his glyphs and gave an abject sigh of relief to find the children returned to their sentience and the female spirit a touch faded for her efforts.
"Harry? Are you okay?"
Oh, he had ignored Mai.
Harry smiled reassuringly at the girl, "I'm fine, it didn't burn me."
"What happened? How did that fire start?" Kana and Noriko Morishita were at the mouth of the kitchen, terror plain on their faces. "The stove wasn't even on when I left!"
"Come on, let him breathe." Monk dropped the extinguisher, smeared inky with soot as he gave them all a stern look. Coupled with his strained panting and the residual heat and smoke from the now dripping oven right behind him, he made for an impressive figure. Both the Morishitas and Mai went quiet.
Once the room was silenced, Monk turned on Harry, "Harry, are you sure you're okay?"
He shouldn't forget this side of the man. For all that he was immature, Monk truly did care.
"I'm sure. And you?"
Monk let that sentence hang in the air for a minute, clearly trying to deduce whether or not Harry was lying. But he hadn't been burned, he wasn't even as blackened as Monk. Harry let him search his form without comment.
Satisfied, Monk dropped to the floor next to his fire extinguisher with a gusty sigh. "Yeah, I'm fine. But fires around here? In the summer? That was a bit more dangerous than usual."
"Was it...ghosts?" Noriko Morishita asked tentatively.
"It was the woman again, she started the fire." Harry nodded, "If you want, the cameras should've captured it starting completely on its own and getting far bigger than a stove is capable of."
"I'll say," Monk groaned.
Kana bunched her silky pencil skirt in her fists, "Oh my god," She said hoarsely, "Oh my god, why is this still happening?"
Harry approached her carefully, she seemed unusually ruffled, her eyes a bit too shiny. "It's going to be fine," He assured, trying to catch her eye and keep her from staring at the stained kitchen stove. "It's not as bad as it seems."
Kana tried to scoff, but it was more watery than derisive. "How is this not as bad as it seems? My kitchen tried to ki-ill someone today. A shelf almost crushed Noriko yesterday. And Ayami doesn't-..." The wrinkles in her skirt deepened.
Noriko smoothed a few stray hairs from Kana's forehead, "It's just a phase, you know that. She doesn't mean-"
"That's easy for you to say!" Kana tore herself from her sister-in-law, swinging to Harry's side. "She doesn't think you poison her food. A phase...I didn't buy that tripe from Keijiro and I'm not buying it from you."
Harry winced, perhaps she wasn't near tears over kitchen remodelling. From the pity on Mai's face, Kana's cookies hadn't gone over well with Ayami, who was conspicuously still in the playroom.
"This isn't as bad as it seems," Harry asserted, shuffling in front of Kana as boldly as he dared. "For two reasons,"
Loudly enough that he had everyone's attention, he brought his readings to light. "First reason, we're getting somewhere. The woman is working incredibly hard to make us leave, she's desperate to keep us off of something and we're closing in. This is way too much activity for just a normal reactionary haunting."
Kana's eyes were beginning to dim, so Harry rushed to provide his second ray of hope.
"Second reason, she's weak. This is the weakest I've sensed her, she's pushed herself too far trying to burn me and freeze Matsuzaki at the same time, especially right after the shelf stunt. If we need a big breakthrough," Shibuya straightened, "this is our opening."
Like Harry had flipped a switch, Shibuya stepped forward with purpose, silver gleaming in his eyes, "Takagawa, Matsuzaki, I want you to cleanse the entire house."
Monk nodded and left with Matsuzaki, looking a bit like soldiers in their element.
"Ms. Morishita, I'll need Ayami's doll. I want to keep surveillance on it." Noriko nodded hesitantly.
"Do you mind if I wait until Ayami is asleep?"
"Whatever gets me the doll with the least amount of fuss," Was Shibuya's blunt answer.
"Mai, I want you to stick close to Ayami. Find out all you can about her relationship with Minnie and her guardians." Mai exchanged a look with Noriko before leaving the room as well.
"I want a good report by 10 AM sharp tomorrow," He called after her.
"Geez, do you even hear yourself? She's a little girl, I'm not going to interrogate her," Mai protested.
Shibuya visibly clenched his jaw, "Mai, for the past twenty-four hours you have been seeing dead children in this house. Do I honestly need to impress upon you how important your task is?"
Kana made a noise in the back of her throat, maybe a protest or maybe a whimper. Either way, Mai paled and didn't say another word.
"And Harry," Harry swallowed as Shibuya rounded on him next.
"I want everyone but you to be well rested for tomorrow. I'll call Miss Hara tonight and get her on a flight that will arrive by tomorrow, preferably with John Brown as well. They'll take over from there. In the meantime, you monitor the situation constantly and into the night. Set an alarm for yourself if you have to, but I need to know if and when the situation changes immediately."
"Right," Harry greatly approved of how seriously Shibuya was taking his assessment. This was their opening, if not to exorcise, then at least to get a great deal further into the case than before.
"All night after he was just attacked? And what exactly will you be doing?" Kana made a valiant effort to sound aloof, but the color had yet to return to her face.
"Working. I'll be looking into another lead I had." Shibuya turned to disappear down the hallway, "Spend your afternoon how you normally would, but keep close attention to the glyphs."
The children were cluttered in groups, most in the sitting room, but quite a few in the kitchen as well. The woman spirit was a weak thread of poison, atrophying the air around it but no further than that. If she didn't want to risk being dislodged by Monk or Matsuzaki, she would remain dormant.
"Seems like a pleasant boss," Kana Morishita grumbled,
Harry chuckled, "Tell me about it, I feel bad for Mai,"
She inhaled deeply, shutting her eyes for a moment. "Well, with a boss like that feel free to kill yourself with my poisoned cookies."
"Kana, she didn't mean it," Noriko looked like she wanted to try going in for a hug next.
Harry could recognize don't-touch-me vibes from a mile away though, and slapped a wide grin on his face. "Yes please, they looked like a very tasty way to go."
"Harry!"
Ignoring Noriko's frightened glances, Kana very nearly smiled. "Well, unless Ayami threw them away to save her precious aunt, they should still be in the playroom if you want to follow me."
"Lead the way, I'll return the favor and make dinner."
Kana actually did smile then, very briefly, he could see it crack her foundation. "Only if it will kill me too, I don't want to be left behind in a place like this."
"It's a deal."
"That's not funny!" Noriko huffed behind them, pink with the effort it took to keep from laughing.
The beat of humor was a peaceful respite, a much different kind of warmth from before touched his skin. His grin became truer as they left the sitting room behind in search of undercooked shortbread cookies.
The woman's spirit was strong, but he thought the Morishitas might be stronger.
Now he just needed to worry about Ayami.
I kind of just decided Mr. Morishita's name was Keijiro, I figured it would never come up again so please humor me.
What did you guys think? Unpredictable enough? What is this rising tension? I've never been good at maintaining those but I'm gonna give it my all here.
Also this is like shelf number five that should've definitely killed someone. What is Noriko made out of, cement? She didn't even try to dodge, that shelf hit her square in the face!
I'm actually trying to make Monk and Harry bond a bit in this case too, but it's kind of hard. I always end up writing Monk as being obnoxiously brotherly and Harry just isn't equipped to deal with that and they end up low-key fighting. Also Harry's very subconsciously intimidated by him, but that won't come up for a while. I think it might work out with a little bit of plotting…
And is this the return of number one cinnamon roll John Brown? Stay tuned!
And for all those sweet readers who asked about my bathroom, it's redone and looks very nice now. Thank you for asking. I even put in tile, so fancy.
Okay, there weren't any questions so that's all. I will DEFINITELY update sooner than last time so please bear with me!
I love you guys and your reviews so much, please leave one for this chapter if you'd like. They feed my soul.