Ghost's Reign Chapter 44: Faults and Fears, a How to Train Your Dragon + Big Hero 6 Crossover fanfic

Chapter 44, everybody! This one may or may not be the last one for a bit—partially inspiration is more for later chapters right now and partially we're finally getting warm weather so planting season.

Let's be real here if Obake's last scenes in "Countdown to Catastrophe" are any indication our boi has terrible self-esteem and honestly his background in this AU just makes that worse. He's working on it.

As for the dragon he runs into in the tunnel...so there's four types of background dragons in HTTYD2 that never get names so "Rubblerouser" is what I'm calling the chonk boi that looks like a Boulder type. And Violet is a species we've seen before in a HTTYD movie...Also yeah I remember the early discussions around HTTYD3 when we thought that the Light Fury was the whole sexual dimorphism thing. Meantime Tadashi does some chatting; he's also working on it.

Obake woke that morning feeling warm and rested and totally wrung out, not sure at what point his tent had gained company and then why.

Slowly pieced everything together as his mind regained its usual speeds—right. Abigail Callaghan was alive. She had been snatched by dragons and brought here and if he had known this was the end result he would have stood outside and waited for the dragons to take him…oh good grief almost as early as he could remember.

Maybe then this next impossibility wouldn't have been so surprising, that of waking up against Gogo with her wing tented over him and her tail curled up around, Hiro curled up against him and sleeping soundly. Granted, that was still more believable than Momakase sleeping against him and drooling a little on his shoulder (although the latter would be wonderful blackmail).

Sigh—no thinking like that, he was wanting away from all of that, from other people—

You can't kill a ghost.

I'm nothing to these people—nothing changed, nothing—

You're not nothing.

Those three words—those three words that were probably Momakase mumbling nonsense as she fell asleep—they sent a cold prickle up his skin, because he wanted that to be true. He wanted to believe that he had done something with his life, made it so that he meant something, in the end…was more than just some fell ghost.

Except he couldn't.

Couldn't stand where he was anymore, had to get up, had to move—worm free of the tangle of limbs and bodies, managed to worm out from under Gogo's wing and trip over her tail, hissing slightly when that jostled his ribs—

Gogo lifted her head and eyed him—wave her off, shaking his head. Don't get up, don't wake her up, I need some time to myself to sort things out—

If I can ever get any of this figured out.

Gogo watched him a moment, did eventually put her head back down, still keeping an eye on him. He figured that was the best he'd get, carefully wandered towards the lighter patch that might have been the way out, keeping his hands out and shuffling to avoid tripping over dragon tails or rocks—twitched back when one of the rocks moved and blinked blearily at him.

"Hi," he managed, plastered against the opposite wall as the Rubblerouser yawned—Boulder type meant that its sturdy body had been easy to mistake for rocks, and now that he was right on top of it he wanted to be away from those heavy jaws. Managed to retrace his steps back to the larger main cavern, look it all over in the gloom of early morning. Quiet, calm, peaceful—would be easy to forget that the place was crawling with dragons.

Check the nearest boulder for eyeballs, lean against it and close his eyes…allow himself a moment to entertain Momakase's teasing what-if. Say he had been snatched instead of Abigail…what then? Well no Yokai, that was a given, no one would have cared enough to go hunting for him.

I think you're something.

You're not nothing.

Open his eyes, look the cavern over again. How had she managed all these years? Man could not live on fish alone, she needed other supplements and he didn't think any of these plants were edible. Did she fly around on dragonback? Could she control where they went? Obviously not or she would have tried to go home by now.

Or perhaps she had tried, and thought her home taken over by ravenous Yokai.

Sigh, started to sag—stopped when that hurt his ribs. Maybe, if Callaghan had swallowed his rage, his daughter would have returned to him. Maybe the Yokai could have totally avoided being formed. Maybe, maybe, maybe, so many maybes—

Maybe he was mad at her for being the reason the Yokai were around, maybe he was mad because this could have been his—

Maybe he was mad because he hadn't wanted saving.

The nagging guilt that Abigail being dead and gone was his fault, the knowledge that he'd have to take that to his grave—if Callaghan ever found out, his own position as his precocious planner was forfeit, nothing would save him from his wrath, nothing, nothing, you're nothing—

You're not nothing.

Huff, push himself up to pace—there had to be something he could do to outrun his own mind—

Felt eyes on him, froze—look around cautiously, methodically—

"I can see you," he decided to announce, amused despite himself at the massive dragon ducking down in her hot spring. "Still can see you."

She huffed at that, apparently deciding there was nothing else for it—tugged herself out of the pool that better approximated a lake in size, padding over to him with Hiro's sort of ease but a bulk that rivaled a Goregutter. Judging by the size of her eyes and paws, Abigail was right, this one was going to get much bigger.

Now that she was out of the pool, he could better see the build—big heavy head with coral-like horns sweeping out in a crest, sharp nose horn, six eyes, all things he had confirmed yesterday. But the rest followed the trend of big, bulky, and dangerous, thin-membraned wings fluttering slightly as she padded over on big bear paws, ridges starting to grow coral shapes going down her back, long heavy tail ending in a mace, basically.

And yet? He didn't feel threatened by her, when she came up close and sniffed at him again. Maybe it was that he had no more cares to give. Or maybe, more likely, it was because she had Hiro's energy, once he got used to Obake: curious, maybe playful.

"It occurs to me that I'm just taking her word that you're female," he pointed out, leaning away from the big nostrils sniffing at him. "We're still trying to figure out if dragons exhibit sexual dimorphism." He knew Nadders had some differences, like the nose horns and spines, and it was still a question if Night and Light Furies were separate types or just different sexes, but most dragons they hadn't been able to tell until after they spilled their guts open. And yes, he had spent many a stinking day comparing dragon corpses.

The big dragon huffed, amused, dancing a little on her paws before cantering away, coming back with a rope toy that had seen better days. Looked like it had been taken from a shipwreck, that might explain how Abigail survived.

Arched an eyebrow when she deposited the toy in front of him, wiggling happily and shifting her weight.

"I'm not really in a position to be bending over, let alone playing," he said—flinched back a little when she scooped the toy up and offered it to him, making encouraging noises. Gingerly take it, resolving to let go immediately if she started acting like she was going to play tug-of-war—

She let go and bounced back, head low and back wiggling like Hiro would do when he wanted to play. Consider….

Okay so most of his usual pitches were limited by broken ribs, but he was able to chunk it away enough that she apparently found it satisfactory, was able to thunder around him and retrieve the toy before prancing back to him like she had done something amazing. Take the toy, do it again—a few more rounds of fetch before he had to take a moment, this was still pulling on his ribs despite his attempts at limiting his movements…looked up when she came back and looked at him.

There was something different about this one, something he couldn't put his finger on—he had noticed it yesterday, when she was looking at him, felt like a buzzing at the back of his head and along the side of his face where he knew that was, not enough to trigger it, but there and making his skin prickle. He wasn't sure what it was, couldn't really describe it any better than that, just knew that this dragon was somehow the source.

"There aren't telepathic dragons, are there?" he asked. "Dragons that can communicate via the power of the mind?" How would that work, he wondered, seeing as how there was a language barrier.

The dragon seemed amused again, licked him—ugh, gross no matter who did it, and the flinch pulled on his ribs and made him wince further. Dragon made a concerned noise—

And then it was his turn, when the dragon picked him up by the scruff of his coat and carted him over to the hot spring like some recalcitrant hatchling.

Tadashi's sleep had been fitful to the point that he had finally given up on trying to sleep an hour before dawn. Flew out again, circled around until he felt awake enough to go fishing, swoop back in and land next to one of the sentries keeping a sleepy eye on the nest's interior.

"I brought this in since I was out fishing," he said when he deposited the fish. "Is there anyone who can't really go out fishing right now? They might appreciate it."

The Nadder looked it over, snorted a bit to shake themselves awake, pointed their head down to a lower cave. "Down there—there's some dragons down there from our latest raid, they're not healed up enough yet so we've been fishing for them."

Tadashi nodded, almost grabbed the fish when what the Nadder said caught up to him. "Do what?"

"Sometimes we go out hunting dragon-hunters," the Nadder explained. "And sometimes they've got dragons locked up, or we find them in traps. Well, we've got our own not-dragon, so she undoes the trap for us so we can free the dragons, and a lot of times we bring them here so they can recover first."

"That's…nice, thank you," Tadashi said, scooping the fish up and flying down, ducking into the cave and seeing over a dozen dragons sleeping fitfully inside. Chatted with the Raincutter on duty for a while as she sliced up the fish for Terrors to distribute, clawed-out hollows full of water that another Raincutter was refreshing. On the surface this was a good thing, and the Raincutter was both clinical but happy to discuss the benefits of keeping a not-dragon around, especially once it was properly trained.

Tadashi excused himself then, followed some of the well-worn paths tracing circuits around the main chamber of the nest, occasionally looking down at the sea of hot springs beneath him, up at the ones that were higher and trickling down, around at the greenery…beautiful, but he couldn't get rid of the crawling feeling beneath his scales. Circle back down, still trying to untangle his thoughts—

Slowed when he saw Obake out, leaning against a boulder and looking like he was still broken on the inside.

Watch him, worried—what was he doing, why was he like this, what had he left behind that kept causing him to lash out like he did? Try to shake those concerns off, Obake was a Yokai and Yokai were dangerous—

They can be good, Older-Brother.

And then the knowledge of what was going on in this nest….

Blink when he realized that the youngling queen, Violet, had come out of her hot spring—muscles tensed, claws dug in as she approached Obake—

Obake didn't seem bothered, and she seemed to only want to play. Watch, claws slowly loosening, tipping his head in something approaching amusement at the sight of Obake for once calm and somewhat loose—hadn't seen him like this since…well since he had stumbled upon him and Hiro playing in the woods.

Incensed at the time because this Yokai kept stealing his brother away, opting to snare his mind instead of his body, but Older-Brother had sworn that no one in his flight would ever suffer that indignity again—

Evaluate Violet, curious—Mountain-King had been a Bewilderbeast, but he had heard of another species of dragon that also controlled its nest via imposing their will and erasing personal choice. Was that what she was? Was imposing such control beyond her right now because she was a hatchling? Was this nest hoping that they could raise her to be a good alpha instead of the controlling monsters so many of her species became? So many questions, and him unable to claw out some good answers. Scan the cavern, hoping to see someone that he could maybe ask—

Tipped his head when he spotted the not-dragon the dragons had kidnapped so long ago, Abigail.

Circled down to her, curious and cautious, watching her watch Obake and Violet play—crooned a little when he was close enough, so he didn't startle her, ended up startling her a little anyway.

"Sorry—didn't hear you come up," she said at his abashed motions—gentle pat of the rocks next to where she was sitting, went back to watching the Yokai and hatchling play. Tadashi minced up, sat down next to her, gave another gentle croon that hopefully sounded questioning enough to her ears that she'd start talking.

She looked up at him, smile fading as her attention settled on the saddle he hadn't bothered to take off, sharing Gogo's distrust of the nest too much. Gently reach out, stroke the leather a bit. "You shouldn't be caged like that."

"Neither should you," he told her. Consider his saddle—yes he had resented the implications, the concept that some Yokai could ride him like he was some tame pet—

I give up—I'm never breaking this dragon.

Get me out of here. Anywhere but here. Please.

Obake had viewed him as a challenge, not a conquest, and he had given Tadashi the means to be freely rid of him should he wish—tap his claws against the gold disc—flip an ear up when she gently reached for one of the straps, evidently wanting to take it off…gently pushed her back with a wing, firmly shaking his head no.

"Why though?" she asked him. "Don't you want to be free?" Indicate the other dragons.

"Don't you?" he asked, wishing he could fully communicate with her—dangit maybe Hiro had a point about the scribble language. Point at her, at Obake, back at her—

She looked sad as she considered Obake. "How did this happen," she sighed. "Maybe…I should have been there, I should have done more…but he only ever seemed to care for Granville." Tadashi nudged her, indicated one of the larger openings in the ceiling, lofting his wings a little. "Do you want to take me for a flight?"

"I want to know if you want to go home—I want to know that you're here because you want to be, not because you're made to stay." Think—wait he did know a few scribbles and this was dirt beneath them—pat her gently before carefully, arduously, carving out the scribbles for Tadashi.

Pat himself when she looked from the scribble to him.

"You…how do you know how to do that?" she asked, something worried in her tone—looked when he indicated Obake. "How did he…what sort of trick is this?"

"It's not a trick," he said firmly. "If you want to know more, you're going to have to talk to Obake without snarling at him." Glance over in time to see Violet cart Obake over and deposit him in her hot spring. "Dangit hold on I gotta stop this." Bound down, across to where Obake was spluttering and struggling to swim out with injured ribs—sweep his tail in, give Obake something to cling too, dragged him out that way.

"Hi," Tadashi said to Violet. "My name's Tadashi and I'm really going to have to ask you to check to see if Obake wants a swim before tossing him in."

"But he's hurt," Violet said. "And the hurt dragons always go into the hot springs to make themselves feel better!"

"Yeah but I bet they also know what they're getting into." Look at Obake, busy sputtering and coughing and grimacing with every cough. "Obake didn't know what you were doing."

"Sorry," Violet said, shuffling her paws together and looking apologetic.

Tadashi nodded, looked at her. "So I hear from the other dragons that you're going to be alpha someday," he said. "You want some pointers? I have some experience."

"Sure!" Violet said brightly. "Everyone says I can learn a little bit from everybody."

"Good advice. So we start with 'don't just dunk not-dragons into water.' They can't handle temperatures like we can, that water could have been way too hot for him."

"Sorry," she said—looked horrified when Obake tried shucking some of his clothes. "Oh no he's falling apart!"

Tadashi watched him struggle a minute, not entirely sure how he could help. "Only a little—no, those are clothes, not-dragons wear them and they come off."

"So that's supposed to happen?"

"Last I checked."

"Oh good," she sighed. "I was worried I hurt him—I like him, he's nice."

Nice was not an adjective that Tadashi would readily assign to Obake, to be fair, but he had also willingly attempted to keep a hatchling entertained even when the act of doing so would cause him some discomfort at minimum. "Kind of. Don't tell anyone though, it's a secret."

"Why is that a secret?"

"I'm not sure, but that's how he acts." Sit next to Obake, who had given up on getting his wet clothes off after struggling out of his shoes, coat and vest and was now laying on the stones, grumbling to himself. "I don't think his egg got rolled into a hatching-pool when he was hatched, if you catch my drift."

"No I don't."

Yeah probably too young for euphemisms. Look up at Abigail working her way down, back at Violet. "What about that one? Abigail?"

Violet perked at that. "Oh she told you her name too?"

"Y—too?" Violet nodded, making him have to take a moment. "I—how'd you figure it out? The other dragons have been acting like they had no clue what her name is."

"I listened to her," Violet said brightly. "It's really hard, though, but mother was hard to hear too." Indicate Obake. "I like him though, he's much easier to hear."

Tadashi tipped his head—he hadn't really noticed a difference in volume between the two outside of the angry yelling yesterday. "Can you explain that to me?"

"I don't know, I have a hard time explaining it to the others," Violet mused, laying down loaf-style as she pondered this. "It's like…I can hear everyone in here. Sometimes it gets so loud I have to keep my head underwater with just my nose sticking out. And I can hear Abby, but not well. I'm not sure she can hear me either." Look at Obake. "I can hear him really good, though, and I think he can hear me—I'm worried about him, though, inside is like…this big tangle of eels or something, all of it's knotted together and he seems sad."

Tadashi felt his ears lift up at that—was she saying…was she saying that she could read his mind?

"Can you do this with everybody you meet?" he asked her. "Listen to them, I mean—listen to them without them talking."

Violet nodded, squinted at him. "You're like him," she said. "Inside is all knotted up and squirming too."

"It's an alpha thing," he told her. "You have to be careful with that—when you have a lot of power like that, you have a responsibility to use it well. Like, if you're going to be a good alpha, then you have to pay attention to what makes dragons upset and fix those things."

"Like how the dragons in that cave over there are sad because not-dragons hurt them?" Violet asked, indicating the healing-cave. "I ask sometimes but no one wants to tell me."

"I…yes, like that," he told her. "So as alpha, how would you fix that?"

She made a pensive noise. "Can't I just show them why they don't have to be sad anymore?"

"Sorry, it doesn't work like that. Or maybe it does—this is where the tangly part comes in," he admitted to her. "Because see…when you get hurt like that, it doesn't just go away. You have to show that life here is good, and you do that by being a good alpha and tending to your flight, hunting for them and keeping bad things away."

"I'm not allowed to do those things yet."

"But someday you will. And something you can do right now is listen. Not like you've been doing—I mean going to the dragons, telling them you're here for them, and letting them talk to you. Sometimes…sometimes what untangles the mess is talking," he said, looking away to the cave Gogo was in—maybe she knew that. Maybe that's why she wanted him to talk to her about these things.

"Like now?" Violet asked.

Tadashi lifted an ear flap at her, amused. "Why, is it looking less tangled in there?"

"A little bit—the eels aren't squirming so bad anymore."

"By the way, I'm going to need you to have a different analogy, the idea of eels in my head makes my scales crawl a little."

"Sorry—I don't know how else to describe it," Violet said, fidgeting with her claws a little—perked up a little, same as Tadashi when Hiro came bounding over. "Hi!"

"Hi WHY is my Yokai wet?" Hiro asked, padding up to Obake and sniffing at him. "Why are you wet?"

"I don't want to talk about it," Obake muttered, eyes closed.

Tadashi looked up at Violet, pondering. "Did he actually understand Little-Brother?"

"I don't know," Violet said. "Abby doesn't understand us, even though that'd be nice."

"Well not-dragons don't speak Dragonese," Hiro pointed out.

"True," Tadashi said—lifted his ear flaps a little. "Actually," Tadashi said, considering Hiro. "Hiro, I need you to do me a favor: start teaching some of the dragons here the Yokai-scribbles."

"Come again?" Hiro asked.

"Teach some of the dragons the Yokai-scribbles. So they can talk with their not-dragon."

"You can do that?" Violet asked, wide-eyed.

"Yeah. And—it's important that you take care of every member of your flight." Look at Obake, then at Abigail. "And…she's your flight now. I don't think she's got a nest to go back to. Not anymore."

Hiro looked at him with ear flaps up, like he was surprised to hear this coming from Tadashi—Violet looked pensive.

"Why doesn't she have a nest anymore?" Violet asked.

"Because…." Look at Not-Sensitive looking over at them. "Because of her father. Because his grief at losing her became too much. Because you can't just rip someone out of their nest and expect them to not leave a gaping hole behind."

Violet looked concerned. "She seems sad sometimes—is it because she misses her dad? Do we…." Look at Abigail. "I don't want her to go."

"And what does she want?" Tadashi asked. "Sometimes…sometimes being alpha means you do what your flight wants, what's best for them, over any personal wants," he said, not looking at Hiro, knowing he'd be smug about it for ages.

Violet looked upset, and Tadashi felt a little bad for doing this to a hatchling but if she was going to be an alpha—

"That's enough," the Nightmare Not-Sensitive said, stalking over. "You. Stop agitating everyone. Violet, get back in your spring."

"But what about Abby?" Violet asked. "If she's not happy then—"

"She's fine," Not-Sensitive said, indicating Abigail with a point of his snout—Abigail twitched a little, currently hovering on the outside of the conversation and debating about circling closer, the lead Gronkle following and nudging her a little, prumming slightly and prompting Abigail to step closer to her. "See? Hale and hearty."

"How do you know that?" Tadashi demanded. "Did you ask her? Did you figure out a way to talk to her? Or are you keeping her like some—some pet?"

"Like you have any room to talk," Not-Sensitive growled. "Look at you, you tame-pet! What, upset because we took one of your masters and put them in their place?"

"Will you shut up!?" the Gronkle demanded of the Nightmare, offended.

"Hey!" Hiro barked. "Obake and Momakase are our FRIENDS—nobody's a pet here!"

Tadashi merely glowered at them, knowing that all they really saw was the saddle on his back. Sit, sit up, slap a paw to the gold disc—

Slip out of the saddle and circle around, to the Nightmare's surprise.

"I serve no Yokai," Tadashi said evenly. "And no Yokai serve me. We're together because we want to be." Look at Obake, at Hiro, back at the other dragons. "What would we get from turning the tables on them, or crushing them beneath our claws, or treating them as less? We all live under the same sky, we're all part of the same Creation." Pick up the saddle, put it in front of Obake, circle around behind him to look at the dragons. "We're together in the same flight because we want to be—did you give her the same choice?"

The Gronkle was frowning at Not-Sensitive now, who looked chagrined and abashed because they both knew the answer to that question.

Violet's head was bowed now—Abigail reached up, gently patting it, prompting her to lean into the affection, butting her head gently against the not-dragon.

"I want Abby to be happy," Violet said finally. "And…if that means she's not with us anymore…."

"Hiro will teach you how to ask," Tadashi said, keeping an eye on Obake, who had spotted Abigail and was now picking up his things. Ignored her, circling wide around the gathered dragons before heading back to the cave Gogo had exited, stretching and twitching her spines—spotted Tadashi looking, pointed out Momakase up on a high perch and watching everything with interest. Tadashi nodded, shot one last warning glare at Not-Sensitive before scooping up his saddle and steaming for the cavern.

"Do I dare ask?" Gogo asked.

Tadashi dropped the saddle to look at her. "Do me a favor, keep an eye on Hiro for me? I…I have to help a different member of our flight," he said, looking away.

Gogo chuffed, nudged him. "Told you you'd figure it out."

Tadashi watched her pad over to where Hiro was excitedly teaching an interested Violet and Gronkle (and a baffled Abigail) about Yokai-scribbles, not sure he understood what she meant. Or maybe he did—maybe she had figured it out well before he did, was willing to go with it long before he even sniffed at the concept because….

Because yes, at the end of the day they weren't so different after all.

Momakase had watched a chunk of the morning's events with interest, was putting Obake getting dunked on her list of favorite memories, was now watching the little Night Fury busy teaching other dragons about runes. She wondered if Obake had any inkling of what he had started—better yet, how did miss lives with dragons take the notion that she could have been talking with them all this time?

She had to take a moment at that—dragons communicating through runes. Only Obake would have come up with a scheme that baffling and hairbrained.

Speaking of—debate on going in that cavern…maybe she'd get something better approximating the truth out of him. Maybe not—his default was honestly slippery. Took note of Gogo watching her—saw her pointedly indicate the cave. Okay, fine, she didn't have anything better to do.

Drop down, slip in with no trouble, Rubblerouser still dozing where she had left it—found a better-lit cave further in that Obake had opted for, Tadashi apparently obliging on helping him steam his clothes dry via torching several rocks with his white-hot breath. Obake, meanwhile, had raided his pack for spare clothes and looked like he regretted every single action involving changing his sweater and pulling his vest on.

"You going to button that?" she asked, indicating his vest.

"I needed a moment," he groaned, leaning back against a boulder—she checked, was mildly disappointed it didn't have eyeballs.

"Right," she said. "So when are we leaving?"

"I've told you, you are free to leave whenever you want."

"Great! Get packing," she said, picking up his pack and tossing it over to him. Tip her head at him looking at it listlessly…walk over so she was looking down at him. "Listen: I have followed you on some stupid schemes before, and while I've questioned your logic, I've almost always trusted your judgement. Now seriously, what has been eating you? Why are you like—" Gestured fruitlessly at him. "This?"

"You just gestured to all of me," he said drily.

"Yeah. You going to answer the question, or do I have to start stabbing?"

He looked at her, exhausted, like he was debating on giving yet another smart-aleck answer…seemed to see that she wasn't having it and was serious about the knives, because he looked away, strings cut.

"I don't know," he sighed, sagging back. "Have you ever gone through a chunk of your life feeling as though, if you were to just stab yourself in the heart repeatedly, that it would be better than what your life had become?"

She blinked at him, feeling floored—whatever answer she had been looking for, it definitely wasn't that. "Since when?"

"Well if we're being honest...Oh, I think I was five—at what age do you become aware of other people's opinions of you?"

"So I take it you haven't been having a very enjoyable life."

"It's been a continuous downward spiral occasionally peppered with hopeful moments for the greater delusion," he said, staring listlessly at the ceiling. "And in evaluating it, I'm no better off than I was when I started."

"I wouldn't say that," she said, sitting down next to him. "You're not working for Callaghan anymore, that's an improvement."

"You're not going to try to make me feel better, are you? Because you're not good at it."

"Of course I'm not—my strengths are stabbing people and cooking, not necessarily in that order."

A twitch at the corners of his mouth, like he was debating about finding that funny—looked up at Tadashi looking sharply at the cave entrance, prompting them both to look, see Abigail Callaghan standing there and not looking sure of her welcome.

"I'm not going to pretend to understand what you've been doing," she started—cut off like she was thinking twice about continuing that statement, looked away, back at them. "There's been hunter activity a few islands over. If you're really…do you want to come?"

She had the feeling Abigail had been wanting to say something else, maybe questioning their motives—or maybe she just hadn't been around people for forever. Look at Obake, who was pointedly not looking at either of them now, frowning at nothing. "I don't know, I'm game—it's not like I'm doing anything else right now."

Obake looked like he was doing his best to ignore them both, at least until Tadashi leaned over and gave him a pointed look. "Fine," he grumbled. "Anything to get moving again."

Good—especially because Momakase translated that as pack up, as soon as we can we're ditching this place.

Hopefully they'd leave those weird snarling feelings behind as well.