Chapter 304: Two Hundred And Thirty-Two

“So, care to explain why you aren’t dead?” Detective Kato asked. “We have your severed hand, although thinking about it…” he touched his stomach, remembering when he was shot and nearly died, and the healing I did to keep him from bleeding out and hasten his recovery. “… our Oshiro-san here has quite the healing hands, doesn’t he? If you can regrow lost body parts, you could make a fortune. Anyway, Kondou Kazuo confessed to your murder. Even without you being dead, he’d still be due the death penalty for the others, but even so…”

“No, I am dead.” Haru-san said sadly, and the Detective blinked at that.

“Sorry, could you repeat that?” he asked, perturbed.

“I am dead. That man… he killed me. But Kiku brought me back as a slave to her, with her nails.” She shuddered. “But I’m dead. Definitely. A ghost.”“A ghost? Sure, that makes sense… did you think I’d believe that? I’ve seen a lot of strange things and mysterious powers, but raising the dead isn’t something I’ll easily swallow.”

“Akio-kun…” Haru-san called me, surprising me, as she didn’t seem that close to me before. “I want to show the Detective. Is everyone here trustworthy?”

“Of course. We are indebted to Akio-kun, just as you seem to be.” Karen-chan grinned. “We have been taken into his confidence, and if we blab, well, that Hinata-chan is quite the scary girl, I doubt she’d let us get away with it.”

“Fine then. Can someone bring me a knife?” Haru-san asked, and after some rummaging a sharp knife used for cutting vegetables was found, the edge gleaming and tapered. Haru-san took it gingerly, and reversed her grip on it, the blade pointing towards her neck.

“Hey, wait…” the Detective said, panicked, but Haru-san paid him no mind. She thrust, and the blade slid into her cloth-covered throat. Everyone except Shaeula and I panicked (well, Hyacinth didn’t either as she was busy in her element cleaning, humming to herself) but Haru-san merely sighed, sweeping the knife through her flesh repeatedly.

“See? I’m dead. An Onryo, a vengeful ghost killed by a man. Even this borrowed form Akio bestowed on me still retains the properties of a ghost.” Under her veil she smiled weakly.

“So, how can you hold an object them? Can you be touched?” the Detective held out his hand to grab hers, but Haru-san flinched away, causing Officer Usui to sigh loudly, chiding him.

“Seriously, Detective. Calm down! You know Suzuki-san was a victim of assault, being touched by strange men is the last thing she’d want now.” She turned to Haru, speaking with a kind tone. “But just to verify, can I take your hand?”

Haru-san nodded, pulling off one glove and offering her own pale hand for a shake. Officer Usui took it, and gripped it firmly. “Feels normal to me. Can I?” She took the knife and after a brief moment of hesitation, her common sense warring with what she had seen, she stabbed it down through Haru-san’s palm, wincing in advance of the expected feeling of cut flesh and pierced bone, only to gasp in shock as the blade passed clean through, falling to the floor, making everyone jump, her expectations shattered.

“See?” Haru-san said sadly. “I’m definitely dead. Only thanks to Akio-kun can I come home, see daddy again, breathe the air, eat and drink, watch TV…” she started to cry, her emotions getting the better of her, and Officer Usui and Shaeula consoled her while she wept, leaving us guys sharing an uncomfortable silence, until Karen-chan broke it.

“So, uh… you can bring back the dead then? Are you… a god?” she asked, half-serious, and I shook my head in denial, but before I could answer, Shaeula spoke up from where she was hugging the sobbing Haru-san.

“Hardly a god, no. Akio is rather powerful though. But Haru, her circumstances were quite-quite special. Her soul yet remains, as does several other victims of Kondou Kazuo, though many have gone to their eternal rest. So please do not-not die, Karen, for Akio would not-not be able to save you. It was the vile arts of Kiku, coupled with his power, that created this-this miracle.” That’s a bit rich, considering your Kin Bonding, but you are right. Returning from death is a rare and precious gift indeed.

“I see.” Karen-chan said weakly, and Detective Kato spoke up. “So, where is this Kiku now? I believe she is the accomplice Kondou spoke of who betrayed him?”

“Yeah. But she’s dead and gone too. She was beyond help, so sending that vengeful ghost back to her rest was the only way.”

“I slew her myself.” Shaeula affirmed. “It is quite-quite the shame, as she would have made a good-good ally for Akio, but I would rather have Haru now-now.”

“I see. Well, if she was a ghost too, I expect it is technically not illegal to kill her… or is it even killing what is already dead? Damn.” Detective Kato scratched his head. “You weren’t lying when you said we needed new laws and a new police force to deal with the changing world.”

“Yeah, anyway…” I turned to Noboru-san. “Can you nip out and get Haru-san a phone and a few other essentials, and draw her out some money? She needs to experience being back to shake off her gloom.” As he nodded, I turned to Taku-san. “As for you, can you get the camera set up, we need to take photographs of everyone for their new documents.”

“And me?” Karen-chan asked.

“As for you…” my grin was wicked, causing Karen-chan to look nervous. “… I need you to make a couple of phone calls. The first, is to this guy here…” I showed her my phone.

“That says… personal secretary to the Prime Minister?” Karen-chan gasped. “That’s a nickname, right?”

“I doubt it.” Detective Kato said, knowing who I was acquainted with, and I echoed him.

“Yeah, I’m afraid it’s legit. Tell the secretary that I need to speak to the Prime Minster regarding Suzuki Haru and her father. He should make time, especially if Fujiwara-san has spoken to him, if you tell him it’s a go, ahead of schedule.”

At that Haru-san winced, but I reassured her. “Don’t worry. Take today to get your thoughts in order. Go out, go shopping, eat some parfait, do girly stuff. I’ll be there with you when you see your father again, it’ll be all right.”

“Well, I still remember when we met your father, Suzuki-san.” Officer Usui said. “He was so devastated at your death. I hate that part of the job. But I never thought I’d have this part of it, where we could reunite a father with his dead daughter. Makes you think, huh?”

It sure does. Again, I’ve had a lot of good from the gift Ortlinde and Tyr gave me. This is one of them. One sad story that otherwise would have been commonplace evil has now been overturned. I can’t save everyone, but those within my reach… those I can.

Karen-chan was on the phone, sweat on her brow. “Yes, you don’t know me, no. How did I get this number? Uh, well, my boss, Oshiro Akio… oh yes, you know of him? Great. Well… uh, how to say this. He needs to speak to the Prime Minister urgently. Yes, yes, I know he’s busy, he’s the leader of the country, I get that. But… well, it’s about Suzuki Haru. It’s a go, apparently ahead of schedule. Please pass it on. Yes, of course I’ll hold…” She put the phone down with a wince as cheery hold-music began to play on her speakers. “Damn, that was nerve-wracking… anyway, it’s been a day for it, hasn’t it?”

Yeah, that reminds me… “So, what brings you here., Detective? You didn’t know about Haru-san, so it seems an odd coincidence.”

“I don’t believe in coincidence.” He declared. “Though this time it was one. I was actually here to see your secretary, here.”

“Karen-chan, why?” I asked, and she grimaced sourly, still on hold.

“Turns out my ex-boss and his firm was involved in some dodgy shit. Well, I knew that, but… oh wait a minute...” The hold music stopped and she began talking to the secretary again.

“I can take over.” Detective Kato declared. “Well, when we went over the details with the illegal loan sharks, it turned out they had contact and dealings with a  number of companies in the greyer sector of finance and yakuza-adjacent industries such as pachinko, soaplands and hostess bars, as well as actually illegal matters such as underground gambling. Most of them we can’t do much more than keep an eye on, though we have managed to shut down a few gambling rings. However their finance company is one your secretary used to work for. Small world, huh? Anyway, we pulled the boss and his high-ranking staff in, and when we saw the books, it seems Watanabe-san used to work for them, so we needed to question her. It was a shock when we found out she now works for you.”

“Her boss was bribing our dirty cops too.” Officer Usui chuckled. “So he’s going down, his company too. From what Karen-san was saying before you arrived, it seems he was a true scumbag, so he’s no loss. I hear you promised her you’d crush him. Looks like you did it by accident.” Her smile was vicious and satisfied.

Yeah, even hearing about her abusive employer pissed me off. Well, I guess if you do good deeds, you get rewarded. I’ll have to thank Ichika-san too, or get Shaeula to do it. “Well, I’m sure Karen-chan will cooperate with you if…” I was cut off as she handed me the phone, mouthing it was the Prime Minister, her face incredulous.

“I need a pay rise to deal with this stress…” she whispered as I took it, and I grinned, knowing she was joking. Hopefully, anyway. “Hello, this is Oshiro Moonstone Akio speaking.”

“Yes, I know.” The Prime Minister said, and I recognised his voice from our meeting at Fujiwara-san’s party. “I’ve been keeping appraised of your exploits. Tsumura-san tells me you officially got engaged to his granddaughter, yet strangely enough I hear you already were engaged to the heiress to Nichibotsu technology. Bigamy is a crime you know.” He said chidingly.

“Well, please turn a blind eye, or change the law.” I joked. “Seriously, I’ll sort something out. I’ve had enough of being arrested.”

“You’d better. Fujiwara-san was on the phone earlier, complaining you had been toying with his granddaughter too, taking her for your own. You are a brave man, people who piss off that old geezer don’t tend to meet good ends. Although with all your women, I’d imagine you are getting stabbed long before that.”

Seriously, that’s technically accurate, as she’s a vassal now, but that phrasing is hellishly misleading. “Don’t worry, I’ll do anything to avoid a nice boat scenario.” There was silent confusion at the end of the phone on that, so I continued. “As for Miyu, she’s helping me with my work. It turns out she has talent so… well, she reached out to a schoolfriend, who happened to be Fukumoto Hinata, so I ended up taking her under my wing, which I think is for the best. That’s all.”

“I see. Miyu huh? That sounds awfully intimate to me. But I’ll take your word for it. Oh, before we get down to business, there is some news. We have continued to pressure the Americans over your incident. Those mercenaries you captured gave us some useful information, nothing major, but enough to embarrass the Americans. So they’ve agreed some further compensation and concessions if we give up on some other grievances. We can discuss it when we meet.” He paused. “So… seriously. Suzuki Haru? She’s alive? If this is some sort of trick you’ll kill her father. He’s barely been functioning since the news of her death. Poor bastard. I’m a father too, so I know just how he feels.”

We’ve had this conversation. She’s still dead… but that will only confuse matters. “Well, it’s more complicated than that, but she’s here now. She’s a bit shaken by everything, as you can imagine, so I thought she could spend today remembering what it is to be alive. Could we set up a meeting tomorrow with her father? I believe Fujiwara-san wants to attend as well.”

“Right, right. Well I am extremely busy as you can imagine, but a good chunk of that are problems you and your fellow superhumans are causing. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs are tearing their hair out trying to stay calm handling this mess. The military too, though Tsumura-san is doing good work there. He’ll probably need more help from you in due course.”

Foreign Affairs? The Americans? “Really? You’ve found more Candidates then? I’ve not heard anything about it.”

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“You wouldn’t. Luckily incidents have been small in scale and we’ve been able to cover them up, and every country we’ve spoken to, from the US on down, has been in agreement to keep knowledge of you all sealed for as long as possible. But if you liken secrecy to a dam, then you bastards are the lake behind it, and the dam is straining, starting to crack with every ill-advised thing one of you does. It’ll burst soon, so we have to be ready.”

Well, it has been nearly three months. Yeah, those Candidates who are successful in the Boundary should be accumulating decent amounts of strength by now. I can see some of them causing trouble, though hopefully most of them will draw less attention than I did. I still felt ashamed of how happy-go-lucky I had been with information sharing, putting everyone at risk. “Well, I have some ideas on how we can proceed on that. I’d be more than happy to help, as a consultant.”

“So, you want fees, huh?”

“Not monetary ones, merely some harmless concessions.” I need to run it past Hinata, but I think I can use this. “But those are matters for another time. Suzuki Haru.” I reminded him, and he coughed.

“Oh, yes. Well, tomorrow should be fine. My secretary will text you a time. Bring her along then. Damn, I’m happy for Suzuki-san, but… how are you going to explain it?”

“Well, it’s obviously her, so I thought… the truth?”

“Novel. Well, I do like an honest man.” We made a little more small-talk, before I could hear his secretary shouting about a meeting with the Minister for Foreign Affairs. “Well, I must go, Oshiro-san. More international troubles.”

“Good luck with that!” I laughed, as he hung up. I turned to realise everyone was looking at me. “What? Why the surprise?”

“It’s just you seem rather comfortable chatting with the leader of this entire country.” Karen-chan said, and Officer Usui agreed.

”Yeah, no kidding. You are a weird one, Oshiro-san. You switch from bumbling idiot to calm and collected, seemingly at will.”

That hurts my feelings a little! “Well, why should I be worried? I’m delivering good news. Anyway, that’s settled now, Haru-san. You can stay in that room tonight, and we’ll meet your father tomorrow. When Noboru-san returns with a phone and money, feel free to enjoy yourself. It’ll be a tough day tomorrow, emotionally.”

“Right.” She nodded, drying her eyes. “But… after I meet daddy, what will I do? What do you want me to do?”

“I don’t know yet. Your abilities are great, so we’ll have to work out where they fit. But worry about that after tomorrow. Hey, Hyacinth, are you done?” I called, and she scurried over, dirty cleaning rag in hand.

“Yes, I am. All clean, all clean!”

“Great. Then it’s time to head to Shirohebizumi shrine and introduce Shirohebi to his loyal adherents.”

“Much as I’d love to see that, we have work to do.” Detective Kato turned to Haru-san. “I apologise for my earlier hastiness. I was rather shocked to see the dead walk. No offense.”

“None taken.” She replied slowly. “I am dead, after all.”

“At least you’ve kept a sense of humour.” Officer Usui smiled. “Well, we’ve established Watanabe-san had nothing to do with the crimes her old firm committed, so I guess we are done. I daresay we’ll see you again.”

I nodded. “Yeah, I think so too.” After all, the need for police who can deal with Candidates and creatures from the Boundary is growing, especially after what the Prime Minister said…

 

********

 

“This beggars belief…” Izumi-san said, slumping down in his chair, eyes wide with shock. “I know my granddaughter met him in the spiritual realm, but even so, to see our kami…” tears were forming in his eyes. “Son, did you ever dream this day would come? It is like the tales of our ancestors, when they detailed the kami, yokai and spirits walking the earth, before science and secular times took over.”

“Yes, father.” Daichi-san agreed, also incredibly emotional, as he looked at the androgynous Shirohebi, who was sitting cross-legged at the table, sipping elegantly on some tea, serpentine eyes narrowed in pleasure. “It is a miracle. No, it is what Oshiro-san promised us. Though you did say it would take until Christmas, did you not?”

“Yeah well, the situation changed. Everyone has worked hard, so I managed to gather the relevant spiritual resources faster than anticipated. And Shirohebi here graciously agreed to work with me, so here we are. It’s all thanks to your foresight in allowing me ownership of the shrine.”

“I am mossst pleasssed at your ssstewardssship of thisss sssacred ssshrine.” Shirohebi hissed sibilantly, and at his praise the two older men looked as if they were children receiving the birthday present they wanted. “Akio here hasss been a fair neighbour and a good massster. You have done well to trussst him.”

Its praise pleased them, though one part of it caught the attention of Masaji-san. “Master?” he raised one greying eyebrow. “A kami would serve a mortal man?”

“Ssserve? In mattersss not of the ssspiritual, yesss.” Shirohebi said slowly. “Asss for hisss mortality, isss he? I think not, and Thisss powerful ssspirit ssservesss at his ssside, no?” It nodded at Shaeula, who was also enjoying tea, as well as some delicious homemade cream cakes Nagi-san was serving.

“Indeed.” She muttered, when she hastily swallowed the cream in her mouth. “Your kami is wise. The Shrine in the Boundary is rather-rather impressive now. We have made many improvements. There is no-no shame in serving Akio. I am his lover, so it is quite-quite different for me, but even was I not-not, I would allow him to lead me to victory.”

The two priests still looked troubled, but Nagi-san sighed, speaking conspiratorially to Shaeula, though her whispers were comically loud, clearly meant to be heard. “Shaeula dear, Kana was very impressed by what she saw. She came back all pink and trembling. She told us ‘Akio is incredible, Shaeula too, there was this huge tree, and a shiny building with golden snakes, and so much more…’, she couldn’t stop gushing. What was it she said after that? Oh yes, it was ‘Akio, we can’t let him get away! If larger shrines get their claws in him he might be lured away. He’s ours, I found him first!’.” She giggled charmingly, not looking her age. “Kana seems determined to hold onto you, Akio. It makes sense. After all, we are a shrine family. I may have married in, but I know how important it is to my husband and father-in-law.” She turned to them then. “Kana never used to like the shrine, she was ashamed of it and our poverty. Now she is genuinely invested. And who do we have to thank for that, and this miracle? Besides shouldn’t you trust that your god knows best?”

As Nagi-san expressed her thoughts as somewhat of an outsider, Shaeula nodding approvingly, not forgetting to gluttonously devour more snacks, I grinned, happy. Hyacinth was cleaning up some of the unused storage rooms that hadn’t been converted into Marika-san’s bedroom, the mess intolerable to her, and she had also been a shock for the shrine, seeing another spiritual being like Shaeula. Oh well, this is well in hand. Time to do another matter I’ve put off long enough. I pulled out my phone and dialled a number. Putting it to my ear, I waited for an answer. And waited. And waited. No answer huh? And as usual her answerphone is switched off, as she says she never needs it. I checked the time, and it was still early afternoon. She could be in class, maybe? Though to be honest she skips half of them. Her grades are good enough to get away with it, and she can always pull the health card…

I hung up and fired Shiro a text, asking her to call me when she was free, before turning my attention back to the conversation, which was reaching a conclusion.

“… so, this is a good thing for us, our shrine, our good kami here…” Nagi-san smiled brightly at Shirohebi. “… and our daughter. The other shrines have good fortune too, but it’s only ours that can see their kami in the flesh right now, no?”

“Others may join us in time.” Shaeula nodded. “But the resources required now are significant, if we wish-wish for more. And we have many demands on our time and powers. Shirohebi is here-here as Akio believes in fulfilling Oaths, as all should, and he would not-not wish to disappoint Kana.”

“Oh my!” Nagi-san covered her mouth in mock-surprise and I rolled my eyes at that. I’m pretty sure that impressing Kana was not exactly a priority for me. But Shaeula would see it like that, I guess…

“Putting that aside.” I drew everyone’s attention. “I think it’s time that we expanded the training to you as well, Masaji-san, Nagi-san. After all, the shrine is likely to become the centre of Tokyo faith, and I’d feel better if we had the insurance of you all having some extra power.”

“Me as well?” Nagi-san asked, surprised, and I nodded.

“Yeah, you as well. I don’t want to see any repeat of the yakuza attack, but wouldn’t you feel some peace of mind being a bit stronger? It might just be enough to prevent future problems, although with Hyacinth, Grulgor, Ixitt and Haru-san able to traverse both worlds now, we have less issues with security, although I expect they’ll all be pushed for time. Besides…” I asked her seriously. “… won’t you feel left out if your husband, father-in-law and daughter are all involved, and you aren’t? My mother and mother-in-law are both training too, so I believe it’s for the best.”

“Fine.” Nagi-san said, smiling shyly. “I can’t say I’m not curious about what has my daughter so excited. It was quite the day she came running back to the shrine, with news of you. My husband was chewing her out, accusing her of skipping chores to play around with her friends, and…”

As Nagi-san reminisced, I found myself smiling at her exaggerated tales of Kana. This is nice. It’s been a tough week, and I had little time to relax yesterday, what with the situation with Miyu. Tomorrow will be stressful as well, meeting Haru-san’s father, so I might as well enjoy today…

 

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