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.”

Part six of HaruMichi Beauty and the Beast! See the Masterpost for previous chapters

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Haruka lie awake in bed. Michiru was… weird. She was a weird strange monster with a weird strange aversion to telling Haruka anything that could help.

Haruka thought about what it would have been like, walking in the garden with her when she was normal. Human. Haruka might want to… well, if she wasn’t afraid to touch her, she might have held her hand. There was something Haruka felt fondness for, under the claws and scales. If only…

Mina would interject there, Haruka knew. If there’s a big exception in the ‘everything’ you like about her, buddy, you don’t really like her.

But this was different, surely. This wasn’t someone who talked down to her or was a vegan or any of the other things that Mina had correctly predicted as dealbreakers. This was a bad situation, that Michiru clearly wanted out of. Maybe she didn’t say it, but Haruka knew.

She jumped up from bed and began to pace. There had to be something she could do. Haruka was handy. Haruka fixed all sorts of things. And maybe those things were inanimate, engines and toilets and the occasional bike chain, but really, she’d had to learn to do all those things, mostly through sheer stubbornness, so she could surely figure out a curse.

Usually, things weren’t really broken, they were just stuck or off track and needed guidance. Haruka looked out the window in the starry night and pondered. Michiru couldn’t tell her what was wrong, but neither could an engine. You had to take what signs you could and follow them to the problem.

What did she know? Michiru was cursed long ago, having once been beautiful. Beautiful and high class. She became something monstrous, and seemed to feel it was appropriate.

That was it! Haruka smacked the side of her head for not realizing sooner. She dashed from her room.

When Haruka had realized who she was, a lesbian and a butch one at that, she’d been afraid. She’d felt, well, monstrous. Inhuman. If there had been any magic in her small town world, it might have made her feelings real. And for Michiru, it had. It was so simple. No wonder Usagi and Makoto wanted them to spend time together. Michiru just needed to see it was okay!

She paused at the stairs that led to Michiru’s chambers. Part of her recognized the boundary, that there was one thing she was told not to do and therefore she should not do it. But surely– Surely!– Michiru would not mind if it turned her back to normal. She bounded up the stairs two at a time.

“Michiru!” She called at the top. Nothing. Haruka followed the hall to the first open door.

Unease crept over her. It was a bedroom, and for all she joked that she’d never see a room in worse shape than Minako’s, this one took the cake. Claw marks marred the stone walls, the bed clothes were strewn across the floor, which was also littered with glass. The vanity against one wall had a shattered mirror, and the items that likely belonged on its surface were knocked aside, half broken.

Haruka’s every instinct told her to run. But her every instinct told her to run every time she saw Michiru, and it was crucial to not give in to that impulse. So she pressed on through the next door, to a small room with a balcony.

Curiously, the only decor here was upright and in tact— just a small table, bearing a hand mirror. Haruka picked it up. It did not show her face in the glass, but Mina’s. She was in their apartment, reaching into their fridge. She handed someone— no, Haruka recognized the outreaching hand as her own— a beer. The mirror made no sound, but Haruka could read Mina’s expression well enough. Don’t you ever scare me like that again.

“Do you show the future?”

The mirror did not change. Haruka chose to take that as a good sign.

“Can you show me breaking the curse?”

The image blurred. It showed Haruka’s hand again, this time reaching for Michiru’s claw. She gave a start at the contact, looked afraid, but then light washed over her. As it faded Haruka saw she’d changed to what she must have looked like before, soft and gentle where she had been angular and cold.

“What are you doing?” Came a hiss from the shadows.

“It showed me breaking the curse!” Haruka set the mirror aside, ready to embrace Michiru. “I came to try, see, I thought maybe you needed to know it’s okay if you like women, and I don’t know if that’s right, but I’m going to do it!” Michiru still did not come forward into the moonlight. “I saw it, I just have to—“

“The mirror only shows you what you want to see.” Michiru’s voice was low. Fear shocked through Haruka’s bones, but she fought it down. “The events it shows will never come to pass.”

“I don’t think that’s true.” Haruka approached her slowly. She just had to take her claw in hand, and then… Her whole arm shook. “I just have to—“

Michiru rushed her as she had the first night, slamming her against the wall, one claw at her neck. “Do you think you know better than me? Do you think you are the first fool to think I could be something else?” Her claw wrapped around Haruka’s throat. “What, you saw a beautiful woman in the mirror,  and now you want her? You think I am something good, if only I did not scare you?”

She tossed Haruka to the floor.

“I will always scare you. It does not matter if I look like this or what you saw. I am not gentle and I am not kind. Those below me live on my mercy and I will not submit to anyone.” Michiru threw the mirror against the wall. It fell to the ground with a clatter, but did not so much as chip. “You will run, when you realize. I am not grateful for your efforts. I have loved and been loved and it does not matter.”

“But—“

“No.” Michiru struck the table aside. Haruka’s heart raced in her chest. “The people of the town turned against me because they knew what I was. I would not change for them or for love or for anything else. And I will not change for you.” She slithered back towards the door. “I have quite enjoyed your company, but I don’t wish to see you any longer. Keep out of my sight until you friend comes for you.”

Haruka lie on the floor, listening as she retreated. Panic gripped her too much to move. Panic, and pain.

“Oh Haruka,” came Usagi’s voice after a long while. “I told you not to come here.” She lifted Haruka gently, her cool touch easing the tender bruises before they fully formed.

“Have there been others like me?”

“Not many.” She pulled Haruka to lean against her body. It felt like a cloud. “You’ve done more than she expected. I don’t think any girl has tried this hard since she was human.”

“Can’t you tell me what you know?”

Usagi made a small, mournful hum. “Michiru thinks I’m stupid, and Mako tries not to, but she does too. But I can put things together pretty okay, so I know more than I’m supposed to.” She stroked Haruka’s hair with her fingers. “We were all pawns for her, to an extent. She’s genuinely fond of Mako and I, but we’re an anomaly. The townspeople, her suitors, everyone, she cared about only so far as what they could offer her. She wanted more than just a big house in a small town. And her family was so rich, she probably could have gotten it. But the town started to suspect she didn’t care about them, and times were changing. They elected a mayor, and he thought it would be strategic for Michiru to make a sign of goodwill. A marriage.” Usagi chuckled a little. “It’s strange the townspeople liked him, he was just as entitled as our lady. But she rejected him, very publically, and it was not wise to do so.”

“So he cursed her?’

“Oh no,” Usagi shook her head vigorously. “Don’t you know, curses are women’s work.”

“So then…” Haruka puzzled over it for a moment. “Who?”

“I pieced together the rest, so I’m missing details. But like I told you, I know all the places one might have a foray with a suitor in this house. And Michiru hand a small handful, all women.” Usagi tapped her fingers again the floor. “One had a brother, around Michiru’s age. I imagine she offered a marriage to him, to appease the town and so that they might stay together, lest MIchiru be driven out.”

“And Michiru turned her down?”

“Our lady would not think any common girl worth that sort of bargain, and she likely said as much.” Usagi sighed. “I want her to think you’re worth it. I don’t know if you can love her, but if she can love you… maybe it would be enough.”

“Will you be free, if she is?”

“I don’t know.” She became solid for a moment. Haruka felt comfort in the warmth of her skin. “I know, sometimes, that time has passed. I don’t know what’s left in the world for us. But I don’t want to stay here.” She faded again. “You can run away, if you want. I would, if I could.”

“I don’t think I could.” Haruka caught Usagi’s translucent hand in hers. “I don’t love her. I don’t know if I can. But sometimes, I kind of like her. And I like you. Someone should fight for you.”

Usagi squeezed her shoulders. “If anyone can fight for us, I think it’s you.”

Part five of HaruMichi BatB!! Masterpost link This chapter is a little weak, I think, but it’s here and I hope you enjoy it!

The gardens needed no tending. Whether by design or cruel coincidence, they bloomed in beauty with no mind to time or curses.

If not your hand in marriage, mayhaps I may have but a flower in your garden.

Michiru no longer belonged here, atrocity that she was. But Haruka could not have looked more perfect had she been painted into the scene. She had finally changed, donning a simple white tunic and navy trousers. The sunlight caught her hair in a golden halo. She leaned into a rose bush, strong hands delicate around the thrones as she smelled the petals.

Doubt bloomed in Michiru’s heart. A beautiful woman in a beautiful garden should not be intruded upon. She should enjoy it, without—

And then she looked up, the shyest of tiny smiles creeping up one side of her mouth. “I like flowers,” she said, tone inexplicably apologetic.

“Well then I hope you will like it here.”

Haruka made a show of looking around. “It’s very nice.” She looked back to Michiru. “I like your hat.”

Michiru reached up to the rim. “Oh, thank you.” It was a lady’s hat, wide brimmed to keep the sun off delicate skin, trimmed with ribbon and lace. A farce on one such as herself, but she could not but try to dress for the occasion.

“Do you spend a lot of time here?” Haruka asked as they began to walk the winding path.

“I have not walked the gardens for a very long time.”

“Do you not want to? We could—“

“No, no, it’s quite alright. I merely haven’t had a reason.”

Lies upon lies. She would rather be hidden away, where the sunlight did not glint on her scales, where she did not feel brush and moss along the length of her tail, where she did not ache to have the warm arms of a human woman to link into the crook of Haruk’s elbow as they strolled. It was one thing to be a monster in a dark haunted house, and quite another to be one in the light of day.

And yet again… she was not sure she would trade seeing Haruka’s sheepish excitement at the flowers, the way joy burst out of her in the sun before she could think to reign it back in.

“I just haven’t seen so many flowers in one place before,” Haruka said after a while. “There are some gardens back home, kids take pictures there for prom, but I never feel… and they’re not so grand as this anyway.”

MIchiru could not be sure if asking more would be prying. She chose a sideway question to be safe. “What is prom?”

Haruka laughed, warm and bright and Michiru’s heart ached for more. “Prom is… well, like one of your balls, I suppose, did you have balls? But it’s with schools, when you’re a teen. And all the girls are supposed to go with boys, and all the boys are supposed to try and get lucky. And you’ve got to wear a horrible dress, usually with sparkles on it, so I never went.” She smiled, scratching at the back of her neck. “Mina went to like, five though. Dated boys just to go to their proms. She loves that sort of thing.”

“Mina is…”

“My roommate. And best friend. She’s much more glamorous than me.”

“There are things much more valuable than glamour.”

Haruka chuckled again. “Tell her that next time she buys me a tie with sequins on it.”

“I don’t expect to have the chance,” Michiru said, too candidly. Haruka looked to her with knotted brows.

“What…” she started, but then shook her head and looked forward. “There are probably things you can’t tell me, right? But if there are things that could help, I can do them. I’m here anyway, and I mean…” She shrugged. “I’d like to do what I can.”

“Thank you, but there’s nothing to be done.” Michiru adjusted her hat to shield her face from Haruka’s questioning frown. “I am what I am, and I must stay here.”

———-

The problem, she mused later, back in the safety of solitude, where shards of her vanity mirror still littered the floor, is that there had always been stories, and the stories were always spectacular and dramatic.

She had been cruel, certainly. She had wanted to be left alone, and that was what she got. And maybe it wouldn’t have come to this, had she done even one thing different.

“I do not want the towns people to attend,” she’d said when planning her coming-of-age. She saw them every day, and their absence meant more invitations could go out. She craved more than what their small population had to offer.

“I do not wish to see anyone,” she had said when her parents passed. She was expected to grieve publicly, to consol everyone else who know the lord and lady of the house, and she wanted no part in it.

“I would not marry you or anyone else here were you the last men on earth.”

And that was all there was. She inflicted cruelty and cruelty was inflicted upon her. She could not tell Haruka there was nothing more to it than that. She had never even found the courage to tell the shades the nature of the curse. They deserved to believe there was a way out.

She slid from her bedroom to the room off its side, where one wall opened to a balcony. At its center she kept a small round table, and the table she kept a hand mirror.

When she’d first changed, she thought it showed her the future. In the glass she saw herself, beautiful and smiling, and she saw Makoto and Usagi regain life and leave. She’d seen travelers come and romance her back to humanity. She’d seen herself change back a hundred times over, and slowly realized it was but a reflection of her desires, not a premonition of anything that would come to pass.

Michiru knew better than to look now, but still her claws wrapped around its handle and brought it to her face. There she was in the gardens, long dress fluttering against her legs. Her hand rested at Haruka’s elbow. Haruka bore no trace of fear. They walked and talked and smiled. Michiru leaned against the wall. She sighed, heart heavy, and watched the scene change.

Haruka was dressed as she was when she came, and Michiru sat next to her in a strange sort of carriage. Her hair and the ribbons of her hat streamed back in the air from the open windows. Haruka laughed and took her hand, placing it on a lever that stuck out between them. The carriage gave a small jerk as they moved it together, and then the Michiru in the glass was laughing too.

“Show me something real,” she whispered.

The image in the glass blurred. She saw the world through her own eyes, through a window at the front of the house. One claw rested against the pane. On the other side, a woman with long blonde hair ushered Haruka into a different carriage,  where another woman waited to take them away. Haruka looked back once, and then was gone.

Michiru set the mirror down. There was some small part of her heart that wanted the right thing. She would not fight it when it came to pass.

Chapter four of BatB! I’ve been excited for this one, but then it proved hard to write. I hope you enjoy it! See the master post for previous parts.

“Hey, it’s Haruka… Tennoh. It’s Haruka Tennoh. You know. Leave a message.”

Minako grabbed a handful of her hair as it beeped. “Listen, you complete and utter fucktruck, stop making me worry, call me the fuck back and change your stupid voicemail.”

She chucked her phone onto the bed. Then, for good measure, she threw herself after it. Fear was not a feeling she liked much. At first, she’s figured Haruka had been seduced by some woman and had decided to stay a night, forgetting to charge her phone because she was too much of a lesbian to think of anything when a pretty woman got involved. But she would have called the next day, and come home, and it had been over forty eight hours since she should have been back and her phone went straight to voicemail every damn time she called.

Minako was afraid, the way mothers that weren’t either of theirs were always afraid. You might have been dead in a ditch!

She shook her head. She was Minako Aino, and Minako Aino did not sit around and worry. Minako Aino took action.

And every action started with the right outfit.

She sprung from the bed and rummaged through her tiny closet. The key would be to look young and modest, play up the practically sisters angle, but show just enough cleavage to give men that little push to help her. Haruka would be offended at that, but Mina had always said she’d stop doing it when it stopped working.

There were only two other things she needed– a photo of Haruka, carefully chosen so that she also looked young and sweet, and one of her dirty gym socks. Mina did not know how they would track her down, but she wanted to be prepared.

She drove– obeying the speed limits, for once– over to the police precinct. It wasn’t one she’d ever been too, thankfully. It looked painfully ordinary. A simple workplace. Inside, simple people were doing their simple jobs. Minako strode up to the front desk. “I’m here to report a missing person.”

The secretary looked up. She was striking, dark hair and eyes that suggested a ferocity that lied in wait while she tap-tap-tapped her fingers on her keyboard. “Someone will be with you shortly.”

Her eyes stayed on Minako while she waited in one of the stupid plastic chairs along the wall. Someone was not with her shortly. Someone took their sweet time to wander over, and then had the gall to eye her with suspicion.

“You’re reporting a missing person?” The movement of his mouth was barely visible under his scrub brush of a mustache.

“I am. Haruka Tennoh, age 26, she went to the car show out in—“

He held up his meaty hand. “Not a kid?”

“No.”

“Hino,” he said to the secretary. “Give her the paperwork.” He turned back to Mina. “You’ll be contacted if she turns up in any hospitals.”

“I’d like to find her before that point!” Mina took a deep breath. “It’s your job to look for her.”

“Sweetheart, she probably doesn’t want to be found.” He glanced to the picture in Mina’s hand. “Girlfriends run away all the time, you’d best—“

“That’s not what happened, we’re not—“

But he was already halfway back to his office.

Mina turned to the secretary. “I don’t want your stupid paperwork.”

“Take it,” she said, voice low and intense. “You might find something helpful.”

There was something intriguing about the secretary— Ms. Hino. Something Mina would have found attractive, if it were a less dire time. She took the papers, and sure enough, there was something ussseful. A business card, bearing a logo for “Red Planet Private Investigations.” On the back, printed in absurdly neat script: “9 o’clock, PM. The Firefly.”

Mianko knew better than to look back towards Ms. Hino. She had to get ready for a night on the town.

————

The Firefly was hardly a bar Minako would frequent, though she understood why Ms. Hino would choose it for a meeting like this. It was dim, lit only by lamps littered across the floors and tables, and loud, despite a conspicuous lack of dancing. Every patron gave off a cultivated disinterest in everything around them, particularly each other. Mina sat at the bar and ordered a beer. The bartender eyed her up and down. “You’re one of Hino’s?”

“Do I stand out that much?”

The bartender smiled, sweeter than her dark clothes and patronage would make Mina expect. “She’s got a thing for the colorful ones. Can’t blame her.”

“And here I’d hoped I was special.” Mina leaned forward. “What can you tell me about her?”

The bartender laughed. “If you’ve gotta ask, you’re in over your head.” She slid Mina’s beer to her. “We went to college together, and were into some of the same activism scenes.” She offered her hand. “I’m Hotaru.”

“Mina.”

“You don’t need to be friendly, Hotaru, it’s business.”

Minako stood to attention, but Hotaru shrugged. “It’s always business. I have more fun pretending otherwise.”

“Hotaru turns off the security cameras for me.” Ms. Hino said, sitting down. “So we can talk freely.”

“Rei wanted the bar to be nothing but a cover, but I quite like running it.”

Ms. Hino rolled her eyes. “It makes money, at least.”

“And I’ve still got the daytime hours to help run intel.”

“She’s got a missing person.” Rei tossed a file onto the bar. “Haruka Tennoh, last record about three days ago. Her truck was clocked on a traffic cam at 5:42, and then nothing.”

“Map?”

Rei pulled one from the file. Hotaru traced her fingers over it. “Mina, is your friend given to taking backroads?”

“Sometimes, yeah.”

“Hmm…” Hotaru’s voice went low and gravely. “There’s an old legend about this forest here. It was once a town, big and prosperous, cared for by a wealthy family who lived in a mansion at the town’s center.” She indicated a spot among the roadless green. “They and the townspeople lived harmoniously, until the lord and lady of the house passed and their callous and cruel daughter took over. She did not care for the townspeople, wanted nothing to do with them.” Hotaru motioned for Mina and Rei to lean in. They did. “She so hated the hard working townsfolk, that when they would not leave her alone… she cursed herself and razed the town, driving everyone from the homes they loved. Those that would not leave were cursed, their souls never finding rest.” A light below the bar clicked on, casting Hotaru’s face in shadow. “And if you go looking for your friend there, you must beware of facing the same fate.”

Rei huffed and leaned over to turn off the light. “This is serious.”

“It might be true. Teenie’s gran said her gran was trapped by the witch.”

“Your girlfriend’s superstitious family aside, if she may gone through there, it’s as good a place as any to check out.” Rei marked the map. “Minako, we’ll let you know what we find, it will probably take a few days—“

“Oh ho ho ho, hold it right there. If you think I’m not coming with you, you’ve got another thing coming.”

“That’s not how this works. You’ll get in the way.”

“I know Haruka better than anyone on this earth, I know what she would do and where she would go. You’ll find her faster if I help.”

“She’s not exactly wrong.”

“You hush.” Rei pinched the bridge of her nose. “If I say no, I’m going to go out there and find you already looking, aren’t I?”

“Read me like a book. Maybe you’re good at this PI thing.”

“I’ll charge you more for it.”

Mina frowned. “Charge what you want. Just find Haruka.”

So we like HaruMichi BatB, huh? Here’s part two! Part one is here

Also, reminder that comments keep stories alive 🙂

It had been a very long time since the curse had brought her something more than wariness. Michiru had stopped counting the days and years, resigning herself to be as she was until the world turned to dust.

“Michiru, do you think she might be the one?” The shade of her lady in waiting asked as she combed what passed for Michiru’s hair. The time would come soon when she would not be able to, Michiru was certain. Makoto was barely a shadow now. Michiru’s closest attendants had been casualties of the curse, and now they had faded into ghosts.

“Do you think she knows my daughter?” Her handmaid Usagi twiddled with the vanity mirror, tilting Michiru’s reflection in and out of focus. “She must be at least… two and twenty by now!”

Time no longer tethered the shades. The came in and of consciousness, sometimes worn down by the decades— perhaps the centuries— sometimes feeling they’d all been human but a day ago.

“There is no one.” Michiru stood. “It is only in stories that curses break.” And yet… It was not that she felt hope, exactly. It was something more like fear. You shall be made to feel as low as you make others feel, and then a hundred-fold more. If the curse were to be broken, it would be because she fulfilled its terms.

“She is rather handsome,” Makoto said, her voice soft enough that Usagi would not hear. “You fancy her.”

Michiru curled her long tail around herself. It was more than the girl’s looks that called to her. “She sat on the floor.” She had not recognized it in the moment, but as she had turned the night over and over in her mind, it had struck her.

Makoto did not have face enough to smile, but her warmth came through all the same. “She is the opposite of what he was.”

“You have always been to blunt.”

“Forgive me, my lady.”

Michiru stared into the mirror. She had been a beautiful lady once, the envy of near every court woman and the desire of every man. And now… she was a diamond, crumbled into coal. “I cannot look presentable for dinner, can I?”

“Oh, my lady,” Usagi cried, having lost none of the bounce her physical form had. “Beauty comes from inside, she’ll surely see that.”

It was an easy belief for someone like Usagi, low of birth with no great beauty, who’d had her pick of the townsmen anyway. She could not see that Michiru had never had that sort of light inside her. If the saying were true, Haruka would recoil from her all the same.

She took her leave and wound her way towards the dining hall slowly. She had forgotten what it was to want. The perversity of her form felt new again, the way it bent along the stairs, the way she could feel bones and muscle and scales in places they shouldn’t be, the way her fingers were jointed to accommodate claws. It was easy to not feel like a monster when there was no one to see her but her shades.

Michiru took a breath outside the doors. She was a well-bred lady, whatever she looked like. She would carry herself with decorum worthy of her blood, and come what may.

Haruka looked small, sitting at the grand table, surrounded by empty chairs. She had not touched the small pile of food before her, nor had she changed out of the clothes she arrived in.

“Have you found nothing to your liking?”

“What?”

Michiru gestured to her garb.

“Oh… I… I haven’t looked.” She stood. “I can go change, if you want, I didn’t mean—“

“There is no need. I merely want you to be comfortable.”

Haruka sat back down, but Michiru saw in her eyes that she was never going to be comfortable here. She took a seat at the far end of the table, to give her space. Haruka took food in silence. Michiru stared at her place setting.

She had not bothered with proper silverware for what felt like ages. Her hands shook. She could not hold them right, with the claws. They clattered against each other as she tried, every movement of her fingers left deep scores in the tabletop. The whole table shook each time she attempted to pick up her fork. She let her arms fall to the side and resigned herself to a dinnerless night.

Haruka looked at her from the corner of her eye, but quickly turned back to her food.

This had been a terrible idea. All Michiru had done was make her monsterousness all the clearer.

“I do apologize,” she said, rising. “I do not seek to burden you.” Perhaps it would be better to let her go, rather than face further humiliation. She made for the door.

“You don’t  have to go.” Haruka’s voice shook. “If I’m going to be stuck here, I might as well have company.”

Michiru let her claws sink into the wood around the door handle. “If you fear loneliness, I can send others to keep you company.”

“There are others?”

“Ghosts, or something like them. But I assure you, you will enjoy their company much more than mine.” She propelled herself from the room, grateful and repulsed at how fast her body could move. Shame stung at her eyes. The once great Lady Kaioh was now nothing but an ugly fool. She retreated to her room, her one small piece of luck being that her ladies had gone elsewhere for the night.

The vanity mirror taunted her. Look at the monster, see how it cries. She how it dares now to act like it has a human heart, when inside it has always been this. See how—

She swung her scraggy, boney fist, and it shattered. It did not matter how the shards cut into her knuckles, nor how the pieces on the floor sliced her tail as she moved. It did not matter when a monster bled or cried. And a monster was what she was, only that and nothing more.