Chapter 11 of BatB! This is a slightly shorter chapter, and a hard one to write, but I hope you enjoy it! Masterpost link

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Michiru had never courted a woman. She had been courted, she had extended invitations to meet in dark corners, she had taken pleasure without giving any of herself away. Haruka was not someone you took into a dark corner and had your way with. Or at least, you did not only do that. If Michiru was going to open herself to Haruka, she had to do it properly.

She went out to the garden with paper and string. For once, her claws could be useful. Mako and Usagi, she knew, looked on from high windows. She could feel their gaze and was grateful they could not leave the house, even for the walled garden. Part of her— a very large part— felt deeply embarrassed by her actions. The great Lady Kaioh, harvesting flowers like some common gardener! The great Lady Kaioh, not only deigning to give a gift, but making a gift with her own hands.

She was above this.

She was above the dirt and bugs and the sun beating upon her back. She was above every marred petal and wilting bud she sifted through. She was above working for anyone’s affections.

And yet, when she found the first perfect rose and plucked it from the bush, a wave of happiness crashed through her chest. She was not above Haruka’s smile. Perhaps she was not above anything that might bring it around.

The longer she took and the more flowers she found, the better she felt. She tried to remember what Haruka had been drawn to when they walked together. Roses, of course, and, peonies. She’d even liked the little cornflowers, common as they were. Michiru used them for a spray of color, dark blue punctuating the soft pinks. She arranged them best she could, wrapping the paper gently so as to not rip it, and tying the string into the prettiest bow she could manage.

She held it out to examine her work, and every good feeling forsook her. It looked like a child’s work, something a young boy of common taste might pick for his mother. It was not worthy of Michiru and it certainly was not worthy of Haruka.

Her grip tightened, she tensed to throw it away. But that impulse made her sadder still. Haruka deserved beautiful things, and perhaps this was not a beautiful thing but it was the closest Michiru had to offer. It felt wrong to put her shame before Haruka’s joy, however small it might be at such a garish offering.

She reentered the house as quietly as she could, checking around every corner before she emerged. She could compromise— she would leave the flowers at Haruka’s bedside, and she could think it was merely the magic of the house that brought them rather than Michiru’s own hand. Perhaps they would make her smile anyway.

Luck brought Michiru to Haruka’s room unspotted. The bed was half-made, covers thrown over the mattress but untucked and unsmoothed. Michiru remembered the state of her own chamber, as Haruka had seen it, and felt shame. She propped her bouquet up on the pillows and turned to go.

“Oh, you can come in my room but I can’t go in yours?”

Michiru froze. Haruka leaned against the doorway. “I apologize, I—“

Haruka smiled. She was teasing. Michiru could not think of anyway to respond.

“I will go.”

“Wait.” Haruka stepped up to the bed. “Are those… for me?”

“Yes,” Michiru said, feeling warm. “They’re not…. I would have liked to have done better, for you.”

Haruka lifted them to look, her cheeks very red. Michiru worried she might be angry, but she turned the bouquet in her hands in a way that Michiru could only call reverent. “Did you pick them? For me?”

Michiru wished she had been turned into something very small, that she might have the ability to turn an hide beneath a chair or a blanket. “I did, I tried to remember what you liked and I did not do well, forgive me.”

“They’re beautiful.” Haruka buried in nose within the paper and stayed there. “This might sound silly,” she said, her voice muffled and thick, “but no one’s ever given me flowers.”

“Well, you need not count this, if you’d like your first time to be better.”

“Michi.” Haruka laughed, but then she stiffened. “I mean, Michiru. I love them, thank you.”

“I wanted to leave them so you wouldn’t know it was me.” Michiru ran her claws along the back of her knuckles.

Haruka shook her head and smiled. “You are incomprehensible sometimes.”

“I only wanted to do something nice.”

“Thank you.”

The bedroom was very small, Michiru noticed now, though it had seemed spacious before. The walls were so close, and so was Haruka. There was nowhere for either of them to look but each other. And Haruka was looking, and Michiru could not read her. She was no longer teasing. Her smile was soft and her eyes were too.  Michiru could not fathom the softness. It felt to her like falling through clouds, there was nothing to grasp onto and nothing to break momentum.

“Your hands are still dirty,” Haruka said. She reached out but stopped short of touching her.

“I should have washed before coming in, I—“

“No, it’s just… It’s nice that someone like you would get dirty, especially just to bring me flowers.”

Michiru leaned towards Haruka, thinking of letting her take her dirty hand, thinking of how this moment would go if she were not a monster. Their eyes met, and for a moment Michiru felt the moment would go that way despite everything she was.

But it could not. She straightened her posture. “I should wash now, though. It is hardly becoming of a lady to go about with soiled hands.”

“Okay.”

Michiru hurried from the room, but in a glance back she saw Haruka sit on her bed, still admiring the flowers. Still smiling. For an instant Michiru forgot the curse, forgot every selfish reason she had for courting Haruka, and all she could think of was finding more ways to get that smile.

It’s Friday yet again, and that means it’s time for Chapter 10 of HaruMichi BatB! See the Masterpost for previous chapters, and thank you all for reading and commenting!

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Haruka found a perch in the dining room hours before she expected Michiru to come. She did not want any surprise encounters. Situated on an oversized windowsill, she played with the tassels on the end of the big velvet curtain and tried to sort herself out.

She kept coming up against the same things– she was stupid for wanting to try, but she had to. Not just for Usagi and Mako, but because there was something in her that had to know what and who Michiru could be. She took out her phone. She pressed power just in case, by magic or luck, it might suddenly turn on and let her make a call. The screen stayed black. Haruka cradled it against her stomach and leaned into the window. She needed Mina as much as she ever had, maybe more. Mina was sometimes her only gage of how stupid she was being. Mina let her know the difference between the stupid she had to be to find things out on her own– “You? Wanna try having a one night stand? Oh, man. Oh Haruka.”– and the sort of stupid that was dangerous– “You can’t keep doing this, I refuse to get a call that you wrapped your car around a telephone poll because some douche revved his engine at you.”

Haruka was not always great at seeing the difference alone.

Haruka also suspected Mina would not say what she wanted to hear.

Sometimes, being afraid made her more stupid. She ran towards a scary thing instead of away, until someone pulled her back. Just this time, someone was pulling her in.

She heard Michiru outside the door before she saw her, pacing yet again. She was early too, judging by the light in the window.

A thought struck Haruka. She pulled the curtain back in place and watched the room through the small gap between it and the wall.

Michiru came in slowly, peeking through the door side to side to see if anyone was there. Her whole body loosened when she saw no one. She slid over to the table to survey Haruka’s food choice of the day– pizza, though Haruka had picked the weird, apparently authentic kind a girlfriend had showed her once, where instead of full cheesy goodness there were just little circles. Haruka had been appalled, but it seemed like it might be more to Michiru’s taste.

Haruka watched that tiny smile cross her face, and wondered– was it how she looked or what she could do that made her frightening? Haruka did not feel scared watching from afar. She made herself look at Michiru, not averting her eyes from any part. Her hair was still done up in a limp but tight bun, braided and wrapped around itself. From the shoulders up, she might have been an ordinary, sickly person. And her arms were no different, until you got to her fingers and they morphed to claws at the last knuckle. Her body bore no curves, only straight lines beneath scales until it tapered into the end of her tail.

The more Haruka looked, the more at ease she felt. If Michiru did not lash out again, Haruka might be able to get comfortable. Michiru only looked monstrous if you didn’t look at her, if you let details surprise and shock you. Looking at her now, Haruka saw a person. Maybe still a frightening person, given what she could do and had done, but a person.

Michiru began pacing again. She gestured with her claws, reached up to her hair before thinking better of it and shaking her head. Haruka wondered what she was thinking.

And without thinking it through, she asked.

Michiru gave a start and knocked over a chair. She looked to Haruka’s window with furry and, Haruka recognized for the first time, fear. “What are you doing?”

“I came here to think a bit, and then you came in.” Haruka’s muscles tensed, prepared to run.

For a moment Michiru looked ready to attack, but then she shrunk into herself. “Am I such a spectacle to you?”

“No.” Haruka took a chance and slid down. “It’s just that, if I look at you, you don’t seem so scary. So that seems like my part of things, you know. I gotta try and meet you halfway.”

“You don’t.” Michiru turned away. “It’s not your job to try and do whatever you think will help.”

“Well, I’m going to anyway. I want to be your friend.”

A nearly inaudible laugh came from Michiru. “That’s very admirable. I will try and do my part as well.”

“You did good, just now.”

She barked a real laugh now. “Oh, I have set the bar low, haven’t I?”

“We’ll raise it as we go.” Haruka braved a step closer. She did not look away from the scales and claws. “I’ve done a lot of bad stuff too. I had to learn a lot.”

“I’ve had a lot more time than you to learn.”

“Hey, remember what I said?” Another step. “We gotta believe we can do better, and make the choice to follow through.”

Michiru looked back at her over her shoulder. “Believing is easier said than done.”

“You’ve got someone already believing in you, though.” Without thinking, Haruka reached out and touched Michiru’s elbow.

If MIchiru had looked afraid before, she now appeared filled with terror. Haruka may as well have been holding her beating heart in her hand, rather than resting her fingertips on her bony arm. Her own heart rammed hard against her ribs. For a long moment, the whole world was frozen in their locked eyes.

And then Michiru pulled away, gliding halfway across the room. “I don’t…” She cradled her elbow with her other hand.  “I…”

“I’m sorry.”

“Please don’t be.” Michiru straightened and stiffened her posture. “Your choice for dinner tonight intrigues me. Perhaps taste has not been entirely abandoned this century.”

Haruka smiled and followed her tone shift. “I felt bad, making you try so much junk. This seemed to have a chance of you at least not hating it.”

“We will have to see.” She took a seat, and when Haruka sat just one chair away, she did not move.

It was progress, Haruka was sure. As they began to eat, she felt a warmth spread inside her from something more than the food.

BatB Chapter 9! As always, here’s the Masterpost, and I hope you enjoy!

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Mina jerked awake as the engine cut out. Rei shook Hotaru awake. Mina did not remember when they’d switched drivers. Mina did not remember how long they’d been driving.

Hotaru grumbled and shoved away Rei’s hand. Her door opened from the other side. “Hoooootaruuuu!”

Nothing but another mumble. Mina craned her neck to see who stood outside– a woman so tiny she had to be Teenie. She had a shock of pink hair and big combat boots that Mina somehow suspected were stolen from Hotaru.

Teenie leaned in. “If you don’t wake up you won’t get any of gran’s french toast.”

“I’m not a child, you can’t bribe me with food.”

“And yet it got actual words out of you.” She leaned in to kiss Hotaru’s cheek, then looked past her to Mina in the back seat. “I’m Usagi by the way. Most people call me Teenie. Avoids confusion.”

Mina climbed out of the car and went around to shake her hand properly. “Avoids what confusion?”

“Well, gran liked the story of her gran so much, she named my mom after her. And my mom liked the idea of a legacy of women so…” She shrugged. “It’s better than being called Junior.”

Hotaru emerged from the car and slumped against Teenie’s back. She patted her arms. “We’ve got coffee, too, don’t worry.”

“And your grandmother is here?” Rei asked.

Teenie waved her off. “Yeah yeah, she invited a friend to help you guys, too. Food before business though, Rei. You drove all night.”

“Because we are in a hurry.”

“You can’t hurry anywhere if you collapse from exhaustion.” She pulled Hotaru onto a piggy back with surprising ease for someone her size. “You know gran will say the same thing!”

Rei huffed and Teenie carried Hotaru inside. “Someday, I’m going to meet someone who can take things seriously.” She stomped after them, and Mina followed, amusement battling with worry for Haruka.

The whole house smelled of cinnamon and coffee, warm and rich and inviting. The kitchen was right off the foyer. Mina saw Teenie serving a still half-sleeping Hotaru toast from the stove.

“Please don’t hesitate to help yourselves,” came a voice, deep a stately, from the next room. Mina turned to see a dining room, with two women at the table. One was a handful of decades the other’s junior, with short blue hair and wiry glasses. The other was clearly the one who spoke, and, if Mina had to guess, Teenie’s grandmother, though she would do so only by age. She had a statuesque build, broad shoulders and high cheek bones, even as age had brought lines across her skin. Her dark hair was done up in a bun, and a heavy scarlet blanket was draped across her legs.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” she said with a slight incline of her head. “You may call me Gran or Setsuna, whichever makes you more comfortable.”

“Thanks, I–”

“I’m Rei, and I have some questions.”

The old woman smiled. “Then please, take a seat. Should I have Teenie bring us coffee?”

“No, I–”

She held up a hand. “Please let your friend speak.”

Mina could not help but feel smug. “I would love some coffee, thank you. I’m Mina, and we’re here because my friend is in trouble.”

“I’m very sorry to hear that, Mina.” She paused a moment. “It is my understanding your friend has been taken by the creature that stole away my grandmother.”

Teenie came in with Hotaru and mugs of coffee in tow. “Overheard,” she said as she sat them down. “And they saw her, Gran. They saw the monster.”

“Did you?” The other woman asked. She pulled out a small tablet with a keyboard. “What did it look like?”

“Scaly,” Mina said at the same time as Rei said “Gaunt.”

“It was a snake and a woman, with claws and great strength,” Hotaru said, head resting on the table. “It threw Mina’s friend like a doll.”

The woman’s brow knotted as she typed. “How close did you see it?”

“Few stories down.” Hotaru yawned. “We were on the ground, they were on a balcony.”

Her blue eyes flashed up. “Was there a mirror?”

“A mirror?”

Setsuna put a hand on the woman’s back. “Pardon my rudeness. This is Professor Ami Mizuno. A former student of mine. She’s been helping me with research into my family history.”

“If you know what to look for, there have been a handful of people gone missing around that forest, dating back to shortly after Setsuna’s grandmother was supposedly taken. A smaller handful of injured people have emerged unwilling to detail how they were hurt.” Ami looked up, serious. “And one survivor has a diary, archived by the university she came to work at after. It sat in the library for nearly a century before they digitized their collection.”

Setsuna smiled. “Professor Mizuno understands computers more than an old lady like me can comprehend.”

“All I had to do was perform a simple database keyword search using…” Ami trailed, catching Setsuna’s blank smile. “Anyways, one Taiki Kou was taken as your friend has been, and barely escaped with her life.”

“How did she do it?” Mina leaned forward, hoping to glimpse whatever was on Ami’s screen.

“Her two sisters scaled the walls and entered through the very balcony you saw, attacking the monster as it slept. One was apparently a very talented gunslinger.”

Rei crossed her arms. “If that’s true how is it still alive?”

Ami cleared her throat and began to read. “I ran into the beast’s chambers at the sound of gunshots. Seiya stood at point-blank range,  the monster crumpled in her bed. Yaten proclaimed her dead, but I knew better. Her eyes met mine. She was vindicated by the violence, I am sure. There is a woman inside the monster, but I am just as certain that there was always a monster inside the woman. She will tell the next girl to wander in that she acts upon the world as the world acts upon her. The same ghost that healed me upon my arrival will heal her, and this cycle will continue unto eternity.”

Ami pressed her lips together. “In previous entries, she expressed a hope that the monster could be tamed. She was not successful.”

“God knows Haruka is dumb enough to try the same thing.”

“That may very well keep her alive long enough for you to rescue her.” Ami shut her tablet. “The Kou sister’s approach was clever, but it is unlikely to work twice. The monster is likely to suspect intrusion through the balcony.”

“So we try a window,” Rei said.

“Hmmm.” Hotaru sat up and took a long drink of coffee. “We’ll have better luck with a distraction.” She met Mina’s eyes with a smile.

“You know, I have always wanted to be an actress.”

“Absolutely not.”

“We won’t be able to sneak up on the monster otherwise.”

“She’s a civilian.”

“So, may I say, are you,” Setsuna cut in gently. “A few business cards and a secretarial job does not an official member of the police force make.”

Rei scowled at Hotaru. “How does she know that?”

“I talk to my future in-laws.”

“We deal with classified information.”

“And I keep that a secret just fine.” Hotaru yawned. “Sending Minako in is our best shot. She has a genuine motive to go looking, and I’m sure she can come across quite harmless.”

“You’ll need supplies,” Ami said. “Weapons. The beast cannot be wounded to incapacitation easily.”

“I know a guy.”

“I haven’t agreed to any of this!”

The whole table turned to face Rei.

She paused, but then rose from her seat. “You know what, I said I’d find your friend, and I did. I’ll send you an invoice for my services, which I hope you will survive long enough to pay. I will not participate in sending you on a suicide mission.”

“Aw, Rei, have you come to care—“

“Fuck off.”

She exited, and soon after they heard the car start and drive off.

Teenie shrugged. “Guess I’ll give you guys a ride.”

Hotaru sighed. “She has trouble with this stuff. Can’t admit when she’s scared.”

“It’s a hard thing,” Setsuna said gently. She turned to Minako. “Are you afraid?”

“Well, yeah. But Haruka being trapped with that thing scares me even more.”

“You are very brave.” Setsuna smiled. “Do not let me keep you, I believe you all have work to do.”

Hotaru and Teenie gave her a kiss on each cheek and headed to Teenie’s suitably tiny car. Minako climbed into the back seat, fighting down the worry that, brave as she may be, Rei might have had more sense than any of them.

Part seven of HaruMichi BatB! This takes place concurrently with part six. (Masterpost)

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Hotaru kept the radio low, humming along to the heavy metal melodies like they were love songs. Rei sat in the passenger seat next to her. She fiddled with a cigarette lighter, despite not seeming the type to smoke, occasionally flicking on the flame with a click!

Mina sat in the back, listening to the two of them and feeling like a child.

“Question,” she said when she could take it no longer. “The map doesn’t show a road through the woods you pointed, so which one do you think Haruka took?”

“The road that’s not on the map,” Hotaru said.

Rei flicked on the lighter again. “It’s not supposed to be there, but it will be.” She stared at the tiny flame. “Turn off here, Hotaru.”

Hotaru swung the black car onto the exit. Uneasiness rose in Mina’s stomach. “You’re not just PI’s, are you?”

Hotaru laughed. “What, because Rei’s psychic we can’t be real investigators?” She glanced at Minako in the rearview mirror. “That’s why she didn’t want you along, and why I did. It’s always fun when people figure it out.”

“Hotaru’s hardly normal either,” Rei said, crossing her arms.

“Rei is a precision hitter. I’ve got broader, vague senses.”

“And that drew you to the forest.”

“And that drew me to the forest!” Hotaru nudged Rei. “She picks up quick, you should get on that.”

While Rei insisted she was not getting on anything, Mina sat back and processed. There had always been stories about people like this, but she’d written them off as old wives tales. Perhaps that hadn’t been wise. She prided herself on knowing the world, being street-smart enough to make it through any situation. And she’d missed something huge. She pressed her hands into the vinyl seat and willed herself to absorb. To recontextualize. Rei used the flame to sense things, probably a form of scrying. Hotaru didn’t need a flame or a mirror, but didn’t get details. There must have been other people in Mina’s life like them. Maybe even who had entirely different sorts of powers.

She sprang forward as far and fast as her seatbelt would allow. “So the witch…”

“Is not real.”

“Might be real,” Hotaru said. “Curses are real, certainly. I threaten Rei with them all the time.”

“You are not a witch.”

“Only because I’ve never tried to be.”

Mina leaned over the center council and craned her neck to look Rei in the eye. “How certain are you the witch isn’t real?”

Rei frowned, huffed, knotted her brow. “… Fifty fifty.”

“Fifty fifty. Really.”

“If she was real, she shouldn’t have lived anywhere near this long. Usagi’s grandma says it was nearing on two hundred years, and–”

“And Teenie’s gran says it wasn’t like anything seen before or after. So we can’t know.”

“Longevity magic is rare.”

“So is magic that could raze a town, but that’s the story.”

It grew dark and the car made its way into a wooded lane. It was only as the trees got thicker and thicker around them that Mina realized they were somewhere they weren’t supposed to be. “This is it?”

“Yes.” Rei flicked the flame.

“I thought it would be harder to find.”

“The key is not to be looking. Places like this like to draw people unawares.” Hotaru brought the car to a slow coast. “Keep an eye out for anything unusual.”

The forest grew darker and darker as they crept along. Mina peered out into the trees, willing Haruka to be camping along the road. She was handy, she’d be fine. God knew she kept enough snacks in her truck to last her a few days. They’d find her sick from living on marshmallows and jerky, but alive and otherwise fine.

But then Mina saw the truck, dark and empty and to all appearances, abandoned.

“That’s hers!”

Hotaru stopped the car and Rei followed Mina out. She looked at the tires, all intact, and observed no clear damage. Mina pulled at the handle, then reached for her spare key. “It’s a good sign she locked it, right?”

Rei did not confirm.

Mina hopped in and tried the engine. “Out of gas.”

“She probably went to find help.”

“There’s nothing behind us for a long ways,” Mina said. “So she would have pressed ahead.”

Hotaru nodded and locked her car. “We should go on foot, like she would have.”

“You think we’ll find her that way?”

Hotaru shrugged. “It’s either intuition leading me, or my commitment to having the right atmosphere. They’re hard to tell apart sometimes.” She smiled. “You know, when I convinced Rei to lend me money to fill the bar with lamps, I had the same feeling. Thought they might be useful to my powers. Turns out, I just think they’re cool.”

“I don’t think that was a surprise to you at all.”

“Mm, who can say?” Hotaru clicked on a flashlight. “The universe works in mysterious ways.”

Rei grabbed her own flashlight out of her bag. “She always does this.” She glared at Minako. “You don’t help at all.”

Minako smiled to hide her uneasiness. “Hey, there are ways to get me on your side, if you want—-“

“Ugh!” Rei threw up her hands and stormed ahead past a laughing Hotaru, who turned to give Mina a thumbs up.

“She’s too serious. With the work we do, we gotta—“

Rei stopped and held up a hand. She clicked off her flashlight and motioned for them to come close.

“There’s a house.”

It was, to Mina, a wild understatement. It was a veritable mansion, only short of a castle by a few towers and battlements.

“The witch’s house.”

Rei smacked Hotaru’s arm. “There is no witch and this is not her house.”

“It just happens to be a big creepy mansion in the middle of nowhere.. Nothing witchy at all about that.” Mina crossed her arms. “Sorry firecracker, I’m with Hotaru on this one.”

“Ooo, firecracker, I like it. We should put that on the business cards.”

“Shut up, both of you.” Rei started towards the house. “We should scope the outside before anything else.”

They followed her around the trees at the perimeter until they came to the back. A balcony jutted out from a high floor. Mina could just make out a lanky figure with blonde hair in the moonlight.

“Haruka!” She was okay, she looked fine, she—

“Shhh!”

They stayed still and watched. Haruka held something delicately in her hands and stared at it intently, then jerked her head up and set it aside. She spoke, but Mina could not make out the words.

And then something frightening emerged from the shadows.

It looked like a great snake, scales glinting in the moonlight all up its body, but then it twisted into something resembling a human, though not quite there. It lifted Haruka by the shoulders, threw her to the side, and then Minako couldn’t see anything beyond the balcony edge.

“We have to get up there!”

Rei grabbed her shoulder. “If we go in unprepared, it might kill her.”

“And if we don’t go in, it might still kill her!”

“If it hasn’t yet,” Hotaru whispered solemnly, “it has other plans.”

Mina knew Hotaru was right, and she didn’t like it. “So we’re leaving her to be abused?”

“We’re leaving her so we can find what we need to rescue her.” Rei sighed. “Hotaru, we’re going to pay Usagi’s grandma a visit.”

Hotaru held up her phone. “She’s already expecting us.”