Takao Kazunari used to be a kid who liked magic.

Who didn't? He might've been born into it, but he watched the same shows, the same movies and superheroes, read the same books as every other kid. Even though it dimmed with time when slowly, some of his sorcerer friends just... didn't come home. When he saw ghosts weeping by the sidewalk. He still liked having it, to some degree.

Untill the night he saw his first, and only ghoul.

He was only 12, with his little sister right behind him, and they were alone. He thought he was going to die that night. But he didn't. In a decision he now knows to be stupid, he killed it instead.

"Sighting report

Witness: Kazunari Takao (report written by proxy, H. Takao, relation: father and son)
Type: Paranormal
Species: Ghoul (dysfunctional)
Location: Shinobazuno Park
Casualties: none

Description: Emancipated. Traits include enlarged head, elongated neck and limbs, multiple eyes all around the head, expanded ribcage and lungs, frog-like tongue, webbed feet. Loose skin akin to that of a drowned victim.
Matched source: Kujiraii Satoshi, 9. Drowned beneath the ice in Shinobazuno. Manifested desires- to see the opening in the ice; to breath, to stay afloat."

Excerpt from a witness report filed by H. Takao, for Kazunari Takao, regarding a drowned ghoul.

"I waited for hours that day, you know, at the willow house." Tetsuya watches with bewilderment as his aunt pulls away from the kitsune, and cranes her neck to look up at him the fox smiles back down at her, and pats her head affectionately, playing with her hair as she continued, "I thought something happened- if you-" she briefly glances back at them, and whatever she says next, Tetsuya couldn't catch quite as well, "... or if you miscalculated-"

At that, the fox rolls his eyes, "oh sister," he shakes his head, "do you really think I'd-"

"Yes." His aunt cut him off with a glare, and the fox shuts up, suddenly looking more serious than Tetsuya has ever seen him be. "I thought I might've lost you too." She admits, her head dips, and the fox looks away, looking guilty. "Call me selfish, but I've lost two brothers already, I can't," she falters, "not after Sensei." She sighs.

The fox drops back down onto the couch, sitting so he could better look at Hotaru-san's face, he makes a wry smile, "I mean," he placates, "I could send my greetings to them for-"

His aunt shoots him a glare, "Kei." She chastises. And the fox looks away.

"...Sorry."

An awkward silence fills the room, Kise-kun is shifting on his feet next to him, looking between the three of them like some strange three-way ping-pong match. The silence is broken by a clatter, and Tetsuya startles, whirling back to see that Mafuyu-san has returned, and the clatter had came from him kicking his boots off. "Sasaki," he greets the Kitsune, who waves.

"Mafu-kun!" He cheers, bouncing onto his feet and sing-songing the pet name whatever weight on his shoulders flying straight off as he greets the man, opening his arms in a welcoming gesture. Mafuyu-san just sighs, rounding the two of them before walking up to the fox to greet him. "Your hair got longer." The kitsune notes, then turns towards Hotaru-san again, "and you chopped that ponytail off. I'm surprised."

Hotaru-san grumbles, "I didn't chop it off, it burned, and I figured I'd just leave it like this for a change." She pulls at the strands. "And Aniki, in case you forgot, we're not alone." She glances back towards Tetsuya and Kise-kun, and makes an apologetic face at their twin looks of bewilderment. "Sorry, you two must be terribly confused," she clears her throat, "this is my swo- blood brother, Sasaki Kei, he's... a bit peculiar."

Then it clicks. Tetsuya recalls the collection of book sitting in the library gathering dust, "ah," he says, realising, "you're the irresponsible old fart."

There is a brief moment of silence, then Hotaru-san bursts out laughing, and Mafuyu-san turns away to snort into his fist. The Kistune makes a dramatic, false-offended gasp, placing a hand on his chest, "Hotaru-chan!" He despairs, "is this how you talked about me? To your own nephew?" He then retaliates via ruffling his aunt's hair, and Tetsuya looks away as his aunt shouts with indignation, surely about to murder the fox.

The commotion dies down when Kise-kun laughs awkwardly, looking a little uncomfortable with the situation he has been dragged into, "um," he says, hesitant, before taking a breath and steadying himself, "Kurokocchi said you were stalking him." He meets Sasaki Kei's eyes, and the man smiles, and its all teeth again.

"Nice, nice, a protective friend," he hums, nodding approvingly, "yes, I can hardly help it, its been so long." He sighs, and under Tetsuya's slowly widening eyes, his tails fan out behind him, flicking just as the fox ears, too, pop out above, a deep reddish brown decorated with cream-coloured fluff. "Us kitsune tends to be the mischievous sort."

Silence, Hotaru-san and Mafuyu-san both stares at the yokai with mouths agape and frozen in place, meanwhile Tetsuya glances up towards Kise-kun, whose eyes went so wide it almost look like they're about to pop out of his head, his hand slowly raising upwards to point towards the yokai. Sasaki Kei seems to realise there's something wrong. "What?" He raises a brow, frowning, "never seen a Kistune before? Or did you just recognise me?"

"Aniki, he's not-" Hotaru-san hisses, glances at Kise-kun again, hangs her head and sighs heavily. Tetsuya glances between his ex teammate and the fox, at a complete loss of what to do. Mafuyu-san just facepalms, and groans.

"Oh, shit. He's not in on it, is he."

Unless the kitsune is stupid, the ear-piercing scream that follows should answer his question.

"HE HAS FOUR TAILS!"

"Oi, Takao," Kazunari peeks out from behind his locker, only to be greeted in the face by a package, he hastily catches it, just in time, and peeks inside to see a batch of armillary coins, "got those for you, I'll put in a claim for those in my reimbursement forms." His teammate shoots him a half-hearted glare, "don't waste them this time."

Kazunari snorts at the jab, "hey you can't blame me for almost getting mauled!" Kazunari complains, "and I was in a hurry!"

"Right, he had basketball practice, he gotta go see his 'Shin-chan'," someone- the deputy, Haibara, chirps in from the other side of the room, and Kazunari just laughs, "'s not often to see someone still into sports after joining, what, is patrol not enough for you?"

"Nah," Kazunari waves it off, "nothing happens on patrol lately. Two Nanakasas joined the night shift like, 4 months ago? They probably murdered literally everything a mile radius of their districts." He nods right back at him. "Didn't Haibara run into one of them? When he got that temporary transfer to Saitama."

"Geez, Haibara? Why didn't you tell us? What happened there? Poltergeist? Or was it a shade?" The kid next to him asked, eyes bugging out, "that's a Nanakasa! You don't run into big names every day, ya know? Com'on, which one was it? Spill."

Haibara makes a face at him, and Kazunari just sticks his tongue out. He only found out because he overheard him talking about his report. Haibara sighs, and shuts his locker.

"I ran into a functional ghoul."

The locker room falls quiet. A few guys of the other teams that overhead also looked over. Kazunari just stared. A functioning ghoul, one violent enough for a Nanakasa to take on, so close to Tokyo is almost unheard of not a lot of people die violently enough and often enough for that to happen. Kazunari has only ever seen one ghoul, it wasn't even a functional one, and it haunts him to this day.

He remembers what his father taught him, ghouls are crystallizations of what they, as sorcerers, are supposed to face and understand. A... non-living proof of how violently a life can be snuffed out, the final wish of someone in so much pain, so desperate their desires gets twisted and turned into something monsterous that feeds on flesh. And to kill it, you rip out its core from its chest, in the shape of the person this emotion came from, and you burn it.

The cruelty of a death.

Kazunari recalls the bulging, rotting eyes and elongated neck of the... thing. The sound of it weeping, the cries made out of the screech of nails on blackboard and glass on glass, both still appears in his nightmares sometimes. He recalls how it saw him, and attempted to scramble towards him and his little sister he was only 12 at the time, and there was no one near by. Kazunari froze, and his sister screamed.

He thought he was going to die that day, only to see that the ghoul had managed to trap itself, tangled in it's own limbs and frog like tongue. Bulging eyes darting around in their sockets before they fell out of them, dangling but still spinning. There was no hate in them, only desperation. He didn't have a phone, and his sister was right behind him. Kazunari decided he had to do something about it, so he reached into his pocket, and grabbed his armillary coins. It's a stupid decision. He could've dislodged the ghoul, and then his sister and him would've died that night.

He should've just left.

It took almost all of the coins he had on him to tear the ghoul apart which was a lot, since his dad used to be a part of the manufacture line, and with each hit, it wept. It bled black, but Kazunari didn't stop, untill it's ribcage fell open, and the core, a boy- no older than his own sister, slipped out and fell. It didn't breathe, and it looked off and Kazunari swallowed his sick, then tossed a coin at it, burning it into nothing but ashes.

Kazunari tried to boast about it, but got so violently sick afterwards. He also earned the scolding of a lifetime for how stupid he was at trying to kill a ghoul, of all things, without telling anyone. He doesn't often cry, but he cried the night he read the follow up report they sent to his parents, about that ghoul.

He had never thought of magic as a blessing since then.

"Wasn't there just a GD case? Two days ago, in Saitama." Someone murmurs, breaking the silence. "A single mom. They found half a shoulder... and a lung. Her kid's alive, but... that's it."

"Two ghouls in the same place... I mean, the ghoul you ran into didn't get away, right?"

"They're different ones," Haibara nods, "they've cleared all regular patrol from Saitama now, last I heard a duo of specialists took over. Code-named one." He sighs. "Let's, leave that be."

No one likes talking about Ghoul devoured victims. Kazunari goes back to packing his stuff. Saitama, huh, his parents probably got the heads up already. He takes a breath, and shifts the topic, "com'on, Haibara, don't think you can just get out of this," he jokes, trying to lighten the air, "who's the Nanakasa? Ey? Wanna spill?"

The air in the room loosens, as Haibara rolls his eyes and smacks the back of Kazunari's head, "who else?" He snarks. "Didn't you hear? The Nanakasas' youngest just died recently, turns out she ran away with some non sorcerer and had a son. Hyoshin and Esmeray came back to take custody of the kid," He tosses his coat on, then smiles with a bit of smugness, "guess what? I ran into Esmeray."

"Esmeray?!" Someone exclaimed, "as in, Shinsha's disciple? That one?"

"Yep, Nanakasa Lysandra."

Kazunari frowns, "wasn't it Thornfield, though? Esmeray is the one that invented armillary coins, right? I think they're called Thornfield coins somewhere, Orion maybe?"

"I haven't heard from her since she married Hyoshin, really." Someone mutters. "I mean, there's the suspended promotion to rank Lunar, a few years back, but. What about you?"

"Dunno? She's Lady Nanakasa, right? Did she keep her name?" Someone muttered, "honestly a bit of a waste of she didn't. They're only keeping her in Sirius because of the whole Constella-Nanakasa rivalry, I think? And the Nanakasa Mercenaries' closed now, aren't they? There ain't much to them outside of that. She's still Shinsha's heir, though. The Thornfield name is probably more well known."

"Oi! Shut up!" Haibara hisses, and Kazunari just looks away. He's not interested in the local family politics, anyways. "The Mercenaries didn't close, they just work here now! What if someone hears you? Our patrol manager knows them you know! What if he heard you?"

"Shit, right."

"Damn, so that's why my brother said it's getting harder to get higher up, that's some serious competition."

"Welp, I'm off now," Kazunari announces, shutting his locker, which locked automatically, he tosses his teammates a smile, "see ya'll Tuesday."

"See you!"

"Mm, have a nice weekend."

There is a fox on the couch in Kurokocchi's living room, and it used to be a person. Ryota thinks faintly, staring at the now comfortably lounging canine, still vaguely believing this to be a dream, because there is a fox, on the couch, and 30 seconds ago that was a person.

He vaguely remembers being guided to sit down, and Kurokocchi is sitting right next to him sipping on a milkshake right now, both of them staring intently at the fox, who innocently looks back before scratching its- his- own chin, then curls up comfortably on top of a laptop.

"Sorry about this," he looks up towards the voice, and Lysandra-san's apologetic and awkward face greets him, "you're not supposed to know about this."

"I, um." Ryota looks back towards the fox, "he turned into a fox." He states, staring at the said fox.

"I did," The fox chirps, "aren't I the cutest?"

"THE FOX JUST SPOKE!" He screeches, quieting down when he realised he'd just screamed in Lysandra-san's ear when she winces and flinches away. The fox's ears, too, flicks backwards, flattening against his head. "Sorry," he murmurs. But honestly Ryota thinks he's being remarkably calm.

"No, it's fine," Lysandra-san rubs at her ears, shaking her head, "I've seen more dramatic reactions, yours... Isn't the tamest, but you're far from the worst." She sets down a mug in front of him. "Anyways, I just called this in, someone will make a note on your file to mark you down as 'in the know', but it wouldn't affect you much."

"In the know of what?" Ryota asks blankly. "Kitsunes?"

The woman glances towards her husband, the now yawning fox, and sighs. "Thank god I'm both qualified and authorised to do this," she grumbles, "you've probably heard of the SSRA, correct?"

Ryota nods faintly, "yes, you work there, right?" He asks, and the woman blinks in surprise, "Midorimacchi recognised your uniform, he's weirdly cagey about it."

"Ah," Mafuyu-san looks up in realisation, "I remember now. Midorima- that's the name of the doctor who worked on Haruka."

Ryota flinches a little, though no one else in the room does, and suddenly he feels self conscious- what right does he have to react that way? He didn't even know Haruka-baa-san all that well. "I thought that name was familiar," Lysandra-san mumbles, "no wonder. But, back to SSRA." She announces, pulling the topic at hand back towards Ryota, startling him a little. "You've likely heard of the urban legends about us and ghosts, right?"

"I have," Ryota nods, "kids like to say you're Area 51 but with ghosts, or just, ghost busters."

"Ghost busters-" the woman snorts, "well, the image is quite different, but," she pauses, "well, that's true. They're true."

Ryota slowly processes the words, blinking, "what?"

"SSRA does deal with the paranormal." She says again, so he didn't just hear wrong. "Not only, well, putting it simply, magic exists as an open secret." She puts it slowly, explaining everything to him, and Ryota listens as she vaguely outlines the existence of a whole community- just... Not well know, and how SSRA is basically their government system and intermediary to the regular government. "We're... larger, than most think, and more involved than you'd expect. Most technology now adays have our involvement- well, and we're security nightmares so boarder security hires a lot of us." She pauses. "And, well, Yokai is a thing."

"And... if you work for SSRA," Ryota processes, "then, you're magical government agents?" That's so cool. Ryota thinks faintly. But it still doesn't ease his other worry. "But, um, what does that have to do with him stalking Kurokocchi?" He points out, and the fox just snorts and looks away.

"I wasn't exactly stalking him," he grumbles, "I was stalking his stalkers, there's a difference."

"His-" Ryota sits up in alarm, he recalls the day he found out Haruka-baa-san died, "Kurokocchi, is this about the... Family issue thing? You talked about?" He asks faintly, "you said he threatened your grandma."

"Oh, Nadeshiko-chan!" The fox chimes in cheerfully, and Ryota stares- how old is this fox? Meanwhile, both of Kurokocchi's guardians straighten with alarm, " we had a nice chat, and I borrowed her umbrella. Did you get home safe afterwards?" He looks towards Kurokocchi, at which the blue-haired boy frowns.

"You used something on me." He accuses. Ryota's eyes widen, and at this point, Lysandra-san looks rather serious, and probably a little pissed. She turns towards her brother, and barks.

"Sasaki Kei," her eyes blaze, and Ryota almost thought it was his imagination, as electricity arcs off one of her shoulders, but then he remembers that magic is real now and his life is a lie, "you didn't."

The fox remains silent, then turns around, and buries his face into his paws. "Sorry."

"Kei!"

"Sasaki!"

The couple exclaim, one in incredulity and the other with fury. Mafuyu-san slammed a fist down onto the arm of the chair he's in, and Ryota catches that the fabric is starting to frost over.

"That is-" Lysandra-san splutters, then presses her lips thin, her eyes lighting up with something like another realisation, "Tetsuya didn't say anything when he got back." There's something like dawning horror in her voice. "Kei, tell me you didn't use secret keeper."

There is a short silence, and the fox doesn't answer.

The woman breaths in deeply, and turns to face Ryota properly. He looks up vaguely confused but also quite sure this isn't anything good. "Kise-kun, I'm very sorry, but we'll have to continue another day." She bows a little to him, using keigo. Ryota shifts, uncomfortable with the sudden official tone in her voice. "We have a lot to talk about, and it's late, and... There are somethings I would like to speak to my brother about in private."

"Oh, um," Ryota glances at the clock, it is a little late. Before he could say any more, however, the woman stands up, prompting him to follow, and half pushes, half ushers him out towards the doorway.

"Are you free tomorrow, then? I would like to continue to brief you myself instead of leaving it to my colleagues, it's only fair." Ryota finds himself shoes on and being chased out the door, stumbling a little as he turns back, entirely bewildered and still with too many questions in his head.

"Um, sure?"

"Good." She smiles, and the passive agressiveness- which he's pretty sure isn't for him but the fox instead, fades a little "you have my number, feel free to call me or Tetsuya tomorrow, we'll let you know when to come over and we'll talk to you then."

"Uh-"

"Have a nice evening, Kise-kun."

The door slams shut, and Ryota stares at the closed door, a million questions in his head- yet when he tries to think what questions they are or what should he be asking, he can't for the life of him think up any. He doesn't know how to approach this situation, or how to help Kurokocchi, or even what's going on at all. But Ryota knows that he has never felt this helpless before.

The door slams shut, and Lysnadra marches back into the living room, her expression stony. Without another ward, she grabs Kei by the scuff of his neck and starts her march upstairs. Kei makes a startled whine- using the more animalistic sound to appeal to her, and when it doesn't work, he squawks. "Hotaru!"

"Shut up." Lysandra hisses, glaring down towards her brother, Kei's mouth snaps shut. Behind her, Tetsuya and Mafuyu follows, the latter a little panicked and Tetsuya reasonably concerned. As she reach the top of the stairs, rounding into the library, she was very, very close to flinging the fox into the library, instead she just let go, letting him fall onto the ground with a squeak, skidding across the wooden floor.

She whirls around, just in time to catch Tetsuya and Mafuyu both rushing up the stairs right behind her, and sends them both a look. She isn't about to let Tetsuya see her like this, and someone needs to explain to him what Kei did. Lysandra shuts the door behind her with a little too more force than necessary. Secret keeper- and either charm or some kind of coercion technique, memory manipulation, probably. Tetsuya must've been terrified. Gods know she was when she first got hit by one of those. She presses her forehead to the door to calm herself, still trembling from a myriad of emotions.

Today was a rollercoaster of those. Not just today, these few months really. First the stress of the situation in Saitama, then she thought her nephew is about to get murdered by her in laws, only to find out that Kei is back and he used secret keeper on Tetsuya. She takes a deep, sheddering breath, and closes her eyes. Her heart can't handle this- so many things have been happening lately, stress from work- and taking care of a kid, not wanting to disappoint him- she adores Tetsuya, but the situation is just...

Not ideal.

She squeezes her eyes shut, sounds of a conversation ongoing on the other side of the door leaks through- though she couldn't catch any of it. Both of them are cracking at the seams- the past seems to haunt lately, Saitama's ghoul problem and, the research hospital- nails dig into her palms. And now Kei is back- which is good, it is good, so why is she so- so- she can't even put a name to what she's feeling right now. A hand closes around her shoulder, comforting and warm and familiar- she glances back to meet Kei's eyes, dimmed and solemn. His ears are drooping. He purses his lips, "sorry," he says, "Hotaru."

Lysandra's lips tremble, and she averts her eyes, moving his hand away. "I'm not the one you need to say this to, Aniki." She takes a deep breath. "You can tell that to Tetsuya, later."

"It's just a secret keeper, I thought it would be a harmless joke-"

"Kei." Lysandra says, steadying herself, with more force than before, and the fox shuts up. "I'm not going to argue with you. I know that yokai and humans think differently, and that in your eyes, you're just having some harmless fun. But that's just me." She turns around, properly facing the fox. "Tetsuya isn't me, he doesn't know about you, or how yokais thinks. He doesn't even know about secret keepers and hypnosis and he is certainly not prepared nor okay with your pranks."

At this, Kei's ears flatten against his head, and he looks away. "You're awfully protective of him," he notes, murmuring, and Lysandra squeezes her eyes shut, pained. He's jealous, she can tell, he's always been a little attached, "are you taking his side?"

"There are no- sides- in this." Lysandra stresses, anger leaking into her voice, Kei's only just gotten back, and the first thing she does is fight with him. The worst part is that she understands- why he's acting like this, he's scared. Guilt rises in her, and her voice shakes, but this doesn't make it right, and she needs to do something, "I know you didn't mean harm, but you did. So you need, to apologise." Her glare looses heat, however, watching his flattened ears and averted eyes, "I missed you," she says again, "I really did, and you're still my Aniki. Tetsuya isn't your replacement, but he's my nephew, and you hurt him."

Kei turns back towards her, and stares into her eyes, something defiant in them, and Lysandra just stares back. It takes a few long seconds, and he finally caves. "Alright," he sighs, and the room seems to sigh with him, he looks away, and despite the relief something in Lysandra aches, "I'll think about it."

Lysandra smiles, half-forced, and her shoulders drop. Kei has always been like this. He's old, even though he doesn't look a day over his early twenties. And even with millennia behind him, he's childish, and stubborn, and he's as possessive as any yokai out there. Her eyes crinkle as she reaches up, gently petting his head, ruffling at the space between his ears. He frowns, but the way his ears perk up betrays him, and he makes a pleased noise, leaning into the touch. "I missed you, Aniki," she murmurs, with relief comes the joy of meeting her brother, catching up, her eyes burn, "I missed you."

"Hotaru," Lysandra squeezes her eyes shut, and her throat closes with it, her voice chokes up, "Hotaru, don't cry."

Red fluttered in the wind, and golden eyes gazed back towards her, serene. 'Sandra, don't cry.'

Today really was too much, she wipes at her eyes, retracting her hands as she takes a deep breath, Kei catches it, and gently, rubs a thumb over her own. Just like how he used to, when she was little. "Don't cry," he says again, hushed and at a loss, "you know I never know what to do when you cry."

"Then come back on time, you- idiot-" her voice fails her, and her breath makes a high noise as it goes in, like half a sob, half a whine, her fingers grip, and almost rip through her brother's shirt, she'd stood in the rain all day that day, just waiting, "I thought- I thought-" she can't continue, and behind her, the door opens- she almost doesn't notices. As old memories surface, Kei's face overlaps where he appears. Tetsuya drifts in from the edge of her vision, and Lysandra, catching his eyes, slips just a little more.

There are blood on her hands now. Her cousin's, her brother's, her father's, her friends'. They clot, and her fingers itch. Haruka's blood, leaking onto the floor as Lysandra pressed at her wounds, Anthea and the doctors right by her side, dulling blue eyes and caved in skull, a broken body, begging that please, please her blood has to take- please work-

And if Tetsuya, if Tetsuya and Kei, too

Lysandra feels her legs slip beneath her, and she belatedly realises that she's already crying. A sob shakes her, and her knees buckle- only to realise someone is holding her from the side. Mafuyu, and Lysandra hangs off him, hands gripping his shirt like a lifeline. Sobs wreak her, and each shakes her entire body, hysterical. "Hotaru-baa-san," Tetsuya seems to say, worried, but she didn't hear it more than she did read his lips. Half a laugh escape her, she was so determined to not bring him in on any of this, she feels like a hypocrite now. She starts sobbing again, she'd just thought that she didn't want Tetsuya to see her like this.

How embarrassing.

She can't recall the last time she cried like this. Was it after Haruka died? Was it even further before? Where did all of these emotions came from? She still doesn't understand. This feels like its long time coming but she could never quite tell since when.

"I can't, not you too. Not you too."

Red comes to a stop.

Basketball practice drags late, these days, and Seijurou is asleep, as he almost always is. The boy's memories of when he is or isn't awake are inconsistent, he seems to not realise that the gaps between his appearance have been widening ever since Red first woke, but since they haven't changed since they'd left Teikou, Red decided to not say anything to him- they share memories, the information is useless.

They're not stupid, both Red and Seijurou knows that theirs is not a case of multiple personality disorder- something is different. Too different. A person split off should not have memories that the body never experienced, or knowledge they never learned- and their eye certainly shouldn't change colour depending on who is in charge. The original also shouldn't loose memories.

Red turns to properly face the glass. it's clear- since it's getting dark, and the inside is brighter than the streets, his reflection is faint. A single golden eye gazes back, translucent. The only hint of his identity, and existence. How ironic, to call himself red but be recognised by gold. But that's not what he's looking at.

He stares into the guitar shop, a sleek acoustic guitar hangs inside the glass, and he couldn't quite help the familiarity. It seeps, and Red narrows his eyes at it, and slowly, approaches it.

The door is glass, framed with metal painted to look like gold, a cheerful chime announces his presence, there's a wind chime overhead, made with shells. He looks away and observes the shop- modestly decorated, with mostly darker colours. Woods and metal frames. Not particularly creative of a design, but aesthetically pleasant enough to cater towards the artistics. Rather bland, to be honest.

"Sei-chan?" Red blinks, glancing up. Reo walks out from the door behind the counter, fixing their shirt, there's a tag pinned to the breast pocket, reading his name. "I didn't expect to see you here."

"I used to play," he states, "untill my father deemed it unnecessary, that is. And you?"

"Ehh, so Sei-chan is getting nostalgic, hm?" Reo hums, "I work here, part time. Are you looking for anything in particular?"

"No," he politely declines, "I'll just be taking a look around."

His eyes pause as they sweep over a few of the wooden acoustics, as well as the black electric guitars- neither appeal to him in particular, but something about them just seem... familiar. A sign he's taken to be connected to those mysterious nightmares, and rarely, dreams. Seijurou is unaware of them, but those dreams are memories, and he's been steadily gaining more and more. The boy never seems to be aware of them, thus why Red is investigating.

"Mibuchi-kun? Someone you know?"

"Hm? Yes, my basketball team captain. Akashi Seijurou, he's a first year- pretty amazing, no?" Red glances towards the ongoing conversation- a man in a band t-shirt with longer hair is now speaking to his vice captain, he must be the owner. The man glances up towards him, and seems to pause. He then looks away towards the guitar he's browsed, and nods.

"He has good tastes." He notes as he approaches him, Red glances down towards his name tag- Isomatsu Hayase, "hey, kid, you here to play?"

"I walked by and was struck by nostalgia." Red states. "Your shop is very pleasing to the eye."

The man laughs, "thank you," he then turns towards the acoustic guitar he's in front of, and reaches up, carefully lifting it off the display and handing it to him, "you can try it out if you want." He offers.

Red raises a brow, so he's one of those people who are easily pleased and swayed, he takes the instrument, and observes it, "thank you," he says, before adjusting his grip again. He is hesitant at first. His fingers rest over the strings- trying to remember something he's never done. Grasping at those memories forcefully has never worked- but perhaps...

Before long, a simple notes turns into chords, and begin to flow from his fingertips. And under the show owner's widened eyes, he plays a melody he doesn't know- those faint concepts seems to clear, and again he begins to recall- a red coat, white hair, and this time, a guitar. He frowns, when they blur again, unable to extract more information- the notes from his fingers stop.

Reo claps, a pleasant smile on his face. Red nods politely, "thank you very much," he says towards the shop keeper, handing him the instrument back- but the man seems almost dumbfounded as he takes it from his hand, "Isomatsu-san?" Red asks, as he feels Seijurou stirr from within, "are you well?"

"Ah- it's, nothing." The man shakes his head, "I've just... well, I'm not expecting that song."

"Hm," Red acknowledges, this could be a lead, "do you know it, by any chance?"

He shakes his head. "It doesn't have a name, i think. Someone I knew used to play it, they're gone now." He looks out towards the display, at the guitar that originally captured Red's attention.

"My condolences," Red says, politely, "could you by any chance, give me their name?"

"...Almássy. Jemisha Almássy."

Very well, a lead. Red nods, satisfied. Unwilling to humour the man any further, he nods his goodbye, "well, this is a nice shop," he looks around one last time, catching Reo's eyes, "Thank you for taking care of Reo. I'll visit again in the future if possible," he gives a quick bow, and the man flashes a cheerful smile as he hangs the guitar back onto the display. "Have a pleasant evening."

"See you next week, Sei-chan!"

"Come again!"

The wind chimes jingles as Red walks out, where quietly, Seijurou speaks.

'We never played guitar.' He states.

They never did.

Glancing at his nephew's sleeping form, Mafuyu closes the door behind him. He makes his way downstairs to the living area, and meets Lysandra's and Sasaki's eyes. "He's asleep." He says, and Sasaki makes an impressed noise.

"That's quick." He notes, "kid's got a strong heart if he can sleep after that. You sure he's not sorcery material?"

Lysandra shakes his head. "He just wants to play basketball." Sasaki raises a brow, surprised.

"Sports, that's rare." He nods, "most sorcerers quit."

"Basketball's the kid's life," Mafuyu shrugs, glancing to the side. "he loves it. Why not let him do what he loves?" Just because most of them have been robbed the chance to doesn't mean Tetsuya should live the way they do. If it lets Tetsuya live as he likes another day, then why not.

"Hm, how protective."

"It's what Haruka would've wanted for him." Lysandra glances up, "if she'd wanted Tetsuya to survive, she would've sent him to Nadeshiko, not us."

Sasaki falls silent. His eyes lowering. The fox has always had a bit of a soft spot for Haruka, he's likely more shaken than he appears. Sensing the sudden silence, Lysandra sits up to change the topic. "Should we talk about you, now?" She asks. "Why exactly are you late?" At that, Mafuyu glances towards the fox's tails. Last he remembers, he had five, and now he's down another. "And how are you down to four again?" Lysandra asks, leaning forwards towards her brother, "this defeats the whole purpose of going into seclusion. You were supposed to be back up full."

"That's a part of what I need to say actually," Sasaki hums, "originally it was supposed to be 4 year's time in exchange for regaining the rest of my tails, not a bad deal, considering how long it took me to get them at first." The typical Kitsune gains a tail for every century, since Sasaki is a primordial, he has been around for much longer than 900 years- but 9 tails is where most foxes stop- him included. Mafuyu isn't sure about the specifics, but Sasaki lost a lot when someone stole his name- Lysandra likely knows more, but, "but as you can see, I'm clearly not 9 tailed right now that's because my seclusion was breached."

Mafuyu glances up in surprise, "breached?" His wife frowns, equally and rightfully surprised, "your wards are some of the strongest I've ever seen. It shouldn't be able to-"

"It shouldn't, but fact of the matter is someone did." The Kitsune glances away, "my seclusion was breached by a sudden bridge that linked to to a poltergeist domain- an old one, quite violent. It started leeching off my latent magic, and since I was in a more vulnerable position and half conscious the magic went the opposite way it was supposed to go- away from me." He shrugs, "so I'm down to 4 again."

Down to 4 tails was one thing, Mafuyu thought incredulously, but bridges? "Bridges are artificial," he says in alarm, this has more implications than what he's comfortable with fathoming, "someone breached your seclusion intentionally. That's-"

"Extremely difficult and nigh impossible." Sasaki deadpans, he almost sounds like he's used to this, which, wouldn't be surprising to Mafuyu, but judging by the look on Lysandra's face, he shouldn't be. "First they'd have to know my location, second they'd have to breach my wards. Not even you knew my location- but blood tracing would've done the trick."

Ah, Mafuyu straightens, glancing towards Lysandra, but then pauses, no that doesn't sound right. He frowns, trying to dig deeper along that line of thought, only to be interrupted by her, "but how? Your sister's been dead for centries." Lysandra shakes her head, and Sasaki and Mafuyu could only stare, she paused for a second, then realises. 'I count?" She asks, like it's a surprise. Mafuyu could face palm, "we're not related."

"Blood siblings." Sasaki shrugged, "they would've needed a lot of it, but since magic recognises us as siblings it would work." He frowns, "problem is, where did they get that much, and so recently? Last I remember you haven't been injured to that degree for almost a full decade, unless you went and did that while I was out-" they both shake their heads. "Then blood tracing is unlikely. Which means those people found me by luck, and was also simultaneously someone powerful enough and bored enough they wanted to breach my wards. Which is almost equally unlikely." He takes a deep breath.

"Getting away took a while- I didn't even get out myself." He grumbles, "someone busted the poltergeist early April and bought ward stones in, my magic overloaded them and I got blasted halfway across Tokyo."

Mafuyu slowly looks up, and judging by his wife's reaction, she came to the same conclusions as well. "Was it a war ghost?" She asks, something like dread in her voice, and Mafuyu can feel it too, in his veins. Everything feels like too much of a coincidence. "The poltergeist."

"Hm? Yeah. What about it?"

Teikou. Their eyes meet, equally alarmed. The poltergeist leeching off Kei is... Teikou's.