Chapter Text
As Ryunosuke stands behind the defense desk, as he sees the contradiction that Jezaille Brett has left in her testimony, as he feels the sudden rush of adrenaline, like a predator about to catch its prey, he hears Him speak for the first time.
“We’ve got you now!” He says, with triumph and excitement and passion that reflects exactly what Ryunosuke feels in that moment. Ryunosuke knows better than to look over at Hi m, but He is standing so close to Kazuma that it isn’t hard to find a moment.
The man is a little taller than Kazuma, though this is a fact Ryunosuke has noticed long ago. He stands with his arms folded. His hair and the white tie around it billows like Kazuma’s ribbons. There’s a fierceness, a conviction, and strength in his eyes like Ryunosuke has never seen before. He’s never looked more alive than he does in this moment.
But Ryunosuke knows better than to look for too long, and he has a trial to win.
It is, after all, rude to stare at the dead.
oOo
The world’s a lot more haunted than you think.
This is a fact that Ryunosuke is very familiar with. The streets are so much more crowded when you can see all of these hauntings, all the spirits that are sticking around. Oddly enough, it doesn’t make the world much louder. Over the years, Ryunosuke has learned some undeniable facts about ghosts, and rules about interacting with them.
Spirits are tame, for the most part. They quietly haunt someone or something or someplace. If Ryunosuke was to hazard a guess, he’d say they were created by strong emotions. Hate sometimes, or fear, or sadness. Mostly, though, Ryunosuke thinks it’s love. That’s what it looks like to him. Family members haunting those still living. A lover, relationships cut off too quick leaving messy ends, who follows his love even after she has found another. Children trying to cling to the legs of parents who can’t see them anymore. A mother who stays next her son, watching with warm and soft eyes. It’s heartbreaking in a lot of ways, but the sadness of it has also become somewhat dulled after so many years - his entire life - of seeing this. Ryunosuke tells himself, over and over, that there’s nothing to be done about the matter. The ghosts will only leave once they’re satisfied.
Kazuma has a ghost who follows him everywhere. This isn’t a surpring fact. They have a resemblance, and Ryunosuke figures the man is probably Kazuma’s father, although he has the sense not to ask about it. There’s a lot of ‘rules’ about spirits, and one of the main things about that is not to let people know you can see them. It makes it very hard to ask about them without giving yourself away.
The Asogi Ghost has good manners for a spirit. A lot of ghosts stay very close to whoever they’re haunting, but whenever Kazuma talks to people, the ghost steps a respectful distance away. It makes it easier to talk to Kazuma in that regard. He’s also a quiet ghost, like most are, and Ryunosuke pretends he can’t see him staring at Ryunosuke with intelligent and focused eyes. Despite the fact that there’s nothing much the Asogi Ghost could do if he decided there was something about Ryunosuke he didn’t like, it still makes Ryunosuke straighten his back and put on his best appearance - at last until he became too wrapped up in whatever he is saying or doing with Kazuma and would relax. The Ghost seemed fine to just watch.
With Kazuma’s death on the S.S. Burya, his Ghost goes with him.
oOo
Ryunosuke has no ghosts. No matter how often he looks over his shoulders, there is nobody who sticks around him. Maybe it’s because his parents thought him safe, and their work done, and left him.
He tries not to think that it’s because they don’t love him.
oOo
That first night after Kazuma dies, Susato actually ends up sleeping in Kazuma-now-Ryunosuke’s cabin. She sleeps in the bed and Ryunsouke intends to sleep on the floor, but he doesn’t get any sleep that night. Instead, he spends most of his time staring around the room, as if if he looks carefully enough, long enough, Kazuma will appear.
Kazuma was both Susato and Ryunosuke’s friend. Surely he would be here, surely he loved them enough to stick around. Didn’t he?
He doesn’t show up.
It’s just Ryunosuke and Susato in the room the entire night, with Kazuma’s body somewhere below deck. His ghost is nowhere to be found.
Ryunosuke keeps looking.
oOo
When he is younger, at the perfect age where he is no longer shy, is so inexperienced in the world, and old enough that some things about him can’t be brushed off as him just being an odd child, Ryunosuke makes the mistake of talking to ghosts.
Usually, the ghosts are just surprised and a little uncomfortable at the fact that they are being seen by a living human. There’s two ghosts, however, who speak of things like ‘unfinished business’, who jumped at the fact that Ryunosuke could see them. The first had been an old woman who followed her daughter around.
“Little boy,” She’d said, kneeling down after Ryunosuke had asked her why she was so sad and confirmed it was indeed her he was asking, “My daughter refuses to visit my grave.”
“Does she not love you?” Ryunosuke asked in the way that only a wreckless child could, zero malicious intent behind the otherwise rude words. The old woman had actually laughed and moved as if to ruffle Ryunosuke’s hair, a gesture like the smallest of breezes.
“She does not visit because she loves me so much. She doesn’t like crying, and she knows that’s exactly what she’ll do at my grave. So instead she tries to stay away. She cries at night over it, though. I just want her to get it all out at once,” The old woman explained. Then seemingly struck with an idea, she canted her head forward and asked, “Little boy, will you help me? Will you get my daughter to visit my grave?”
Ryunosuke considered it for a moment and then nodded, because he didn’t have anything else he needed to do or anywhere he needed to be for a little while.
He then went up to the daughter, hands in front of him politely, and asked,
“Excuse me, ma’am, can you help me?”
The daughter seemed surprised by Ryunosuke’s sudden interest in her but otherwise nodded.
“Whatever with?” She asked, kindly and softly. Yes, Ryunosuke could see the saddness the old woman had talked about.
“I need to go to a cemetary, and I don’t want to go alone.” He said, the old woman next to him and whispering in his ear what to say.
“A cemetary?” The daughter repeated and Ryunosuke nodded.
“My parents are dead.” He said, an explanation and a lie at the same time. The daughter put a hand to her heart.
The old woman gently directed Ryunosuke to take the daughter’s hand and start leading her away. The daughter was a kind woman, and despite her initial surprise, she did let herself be lead to the cemetary, not knowing that Ryunosuke was folloing her own mother. The daughter paused at the threshold of the cemetary, feet glued to the ground, and Ryunosuke gave her hand a little tug.
“I-I’m sorry, but this is as far as I can go with you.” The daughter apologized. Ryunosuke shook his head.
“But the next part is the hard part, and that’s what I wanted you help with.” He repeated the words as the old woman said them again.
For a moment, it seemed the daughter would continue to refuse. But then, little by little, she went forward again, hand still held tightly in Ryunosuke’s, but she’s holding onto him now, not the other way around. Ryunosuke continued forward, not saying another word, following the old woman to a headstone, a stone taller than Ryunosuke’s not very impressive stature. The old woman had set herself like she’s leaning on it, and then the daughter put a hand to her mouth.
“Ma’am?” Ryunosuke asked and the daughter shook her head, falling to her knees, sobbing.
“There there, it’s alright.” The old woman mimed rubbing circles into the daughter’s back. She waved Ryunosuke over and then, hand laid on top of his own, had him take up in the action in the physical world.
“It’s okay.” Ryunosuke told the daughter.
“I-I…” The daugther tried to get words out but the sobs were too much of a blockade for that.
“Crying is alright,” The old woman and Ryunosuke said, “It’s alright, it’s going to be alright.”
And then, like fireflies had been clumped together and now fly away, the old woman fades into bits of fading lights. The daughter continued to cry, she did for a very long time, and by the time she was done and stood back up, moping the tears off her face, she looked just as sad. Ryunosuke hoped she’d get better and then left.
oOo
If Ryunosuke thought that Japan had a lot of ghosts, it doesn’t prepare him at all for Britain.
Spirits walk the streets almost as much as living people. Most of them follow someone, but there’s a few who seem to go without any aim, phantoms that the cold winter sun shines right through. He doesn’t let it bother him, of course. There’s more people in Britain than in Japan, so it makes sense that there’d also be more ghosts.
When he and Susato arrive at the Old Bailey and go through their first trial, however, there's a ghost that sticks out to him, that he has to stop himself for looking at too openly. The distance between him and them had made that task fairly easy, as the ghost stuck close to his person.
It's a man, proud and tall, next to Barok van Zieks behind the prosecutor’s bench. He looks so similar to him, they’re unmistakable as family, and for a moment Ryunosuke thinks the man is Barok’s co-council. It isn't until Barok casts his cape aside and it goes right through the other man that it’s clear the man isn’t alive. He stands, quietly, next to Barok, only nodding or shaking his head. He has sad eyes, a common feature of ghosts, and if nothing else he always shakes his head when Barok says something derogatory towards Ryunosuke and Susato.
He isn't surprised, or pleased, or dismayed by the results of the trial. They simply are what they are to the van Zieks Ghost, it would seem.
In the Defense antechamber, after the trial, the ghost is there. He’s strayed far enough from Barok to stand off to the side, staring at them, and then draws closer. And he speaks words that he intends for no one to hear, said softly, mumbled in the way of a ghost who hasn’t had to speak to another in a while. They never forget how to speak, but his words and tone have the cadence of someone still a little unsure if they’re doing it right.
“So it’s true,” The van Zieks Ghost whispers, “He died on the trip here. Naruhodo and Mikotoba… I pray the past does not repeat itself.”
It’s ominous when Ryunosuke hears it the first time. In retrospect, he will know it as the gentle and fervent wish he had tried and perhaps failed to bestow upon them.
oOo
The second ghost Ryunosuke tried to help was a ghost who had stuck around for hate, not that he’d known it at the time.
“I need to talk to my son again.” The man, not old but not young, had implored upon Ryunosuke when he’d realized that he was being seen and heard by someone still alive.
“You just need to talk?” Ryunosuke frowned, feeling sad for him. It was very sad, after all, that all of these ghosts sticking so close to the ones they care about can’t do anything for them. All they can do it stay nearby, and watch, and then when they are finally satisfied, finally no longer worried, they can finally pass onward into the next realm. That whole concept, Ryunosuke tries not to think about too hard.
“Yes. After I died… there were many things I wanted to say to him. Now, I fear I’ll never get the chance. But with your help…!” The man reached forward as if to grab Ryunosuke by the shoulders, but of course his hands slipped right through him.
“I can help you.” Ryunosuke offered, and the man smiled kindly and patiently.
“Thank you, young man, your help would be much appreciated.”
The man guided Ryunosuke to his son, and Ryunosuke fidgeted nervously, but finally said to the son,
“Your father wants to talk to you.” It was clumsier than when he’d tried to help the old woman. The son, who was a full grown man himself, naturally dodn’t believe Ryunosuke at first, but the man gave Ryunosuke some facts about the son he couldn't possibly know otherwise. Slowly, the son came around, looking over Ryunosuke as if he would suddenly be able to also see the ghost of his father.
“Come with me.” The son said and Ryunosuke followed. The man hummed as they went, already looking happier. It’s as they went to the son’s house that Ryunosuke wondered if perhaps he should keep doing this, helping ghosts. Not all of them, but these ones who really needed just one thing. The man was the first ghost since the old woman who, when Ryunosuke had asked and managed to get a response, had a solid and single thing they knew they needed to do before they could leave.
The son’s house was nice, and he told Ryunosuke to sit down before coming back with some food that he offered to Ryunosuke, mostly fruit with a little dull knife to cut them up with. Ryunosuke ate a few bites of fruit and then the son asked, after letting out a shaky breath, what his father had to say to him.
“He says,” Ryunosuke started, and then the man leaned close to Ryunosuke’s ear, whispering, “That he wants to know how you’re doing. With your own words.”
“I’m doing well.” The son replied. He talked about a girl he was hoping to marry, and his house, and his job. None of this seemed to satisfy the ghost of the man, who sat forward.
“He also wants to know how it… ‘feels’?” Ryunosuke repeated, a little confused on the phrasing. The son looks confused, but also on guard at the question.
“How does what feel?” The son asked.
“H-how does it feel to have h-his blood on y-your… your hands.” Ryunosuke relayed, now staring at the son with new eyes. In this moment, if Ryunosuke had any sense, he would've run, but he also swore he could feel the ghost of the man holding him there, willing him to stay. The son reeled back as if struck but then leaned forward, suddenly angry.
“If feels worth it after what you did to my mother - to your wife!” The son spat. Ryunosuke leaned forward, mouth continuing to repeat the words of the man.
“She got what she deserved - and-and-and you will too…!”
Ryunosuke’s hand shook, spasmed, and then slapped forward, grasping the small and dull knife between his fingers. He cried out in shock and pain as he surged forwards, towards the son.
But Ryunosuke, luckily, was only a boy, and the son was able to easily disarm him. The ghost of the man was gone after that, gone in a burst of light. In a few minutes, the son would tell Ryunosuke softly but firmly to leave, but for the moment he at least had the kindness in his heart to hold Ryunosuke, hold him exactly like he needed right now, as Ryunosuke cried onto his shoulder, shaking, opening and closing his hand to make sure he can, that nothing and no one else is forcing the action upon him.
Ryunosuke stopped talking to ghosts.
oOo
Neither Iris nor Mr. Sholmes carry ghosts with them, and it makes 221B Bakerstreet that much nicer of a home. There is no fear of slipping up, of mistaking somebody.
At least, that’s the way it is for the first two weeks.
It’s tea time, and Iris is going through her usual motions with it. She prepares five cups, always prepared for an extra guest, should one come. As they sit down, little snacks set out on the table, Ryunosuke looks up, does a double take, and almost shouts in his surprise,
“L-Lord van Zieks!”
Too late to stop himself, he realizes that the man’s hair is a shade lighter, his suit a bright red that he’s never seen Barok in, and he’s lacking the distintive scar. Without a doubt, the man standing in 221B Bakerstreet is not Barok, but the van Zieks Ghost. Somehow, this is ever stranger than.
Ryunosuke wrenches his gaze away, praying he’s done it in time before the ghost has noticed him staring. The three living people in the room are staring at him, and he does his best to recover, stuttering out,
“H-has anybody heard from him? I’ve heard- I mean- he hasn’t been in court since my last trial, right?” Ryunosuke says in what he hopes sounds like convincing curiosity.
“Mmm, indeed, although the Reaper has previously only been known to take on the more high-profile cases, only your own being the exception. It’s not really a surprise.” Sholmes seems to brush off any strangeness about Ryunosuke’s sudden question, and with his nonchalance Susato and Iris also settle down.
“I think he doesn’t want to be in the middle of a case if you take another on.” The van Zieks Ghost says it loudly for a ghost, at a normal conversational tone at least. The very notion that Barok is simply lying in wait for Ryunosuke to get another case is almost enough to make him want to run all the way back to Japan. But he has unfinished business here, Kazuma’s unfinished business, and thus nothing can stop him from pursuing it.
The van Zieks Ghost sits, or pretends to sit, right in front of the extra cup of tea Iris prepared.
“And how has your day been?” He whispers, staring at Iris, “I’m sorry I haven’t visited often. Barok has needed me, I know you’re always safe here with Herlock.”
Iris, of course, doesn’t reply, instead seeming to consider Ryunosuke’s question.
“I wonder if maybe Mr. Reaper is just busy. He must have been doing something for the last five years, so it makes sense he’ll be trying to continue that work, right?” Iris muses, taking a sip of her tea.
Ryunosuke isn’t able to relax until, a few hours later, the van Zieks Ghosts rises, thanks Iris for tea he wasn’t able to drink, bids the rest of them goodbye with words he must think falls on deaf ears, and walks right through the door from whence he came.
oOo
There are a lot of unremarkable ghosts Ryunosuke sees. Sometimes, their presence gives him little hints for things, but for the most part they’re just what they’ve been his entire life; the ghosts stick around those they love and occasionally those they hate.
Gina has a man who walks behind her.
Thrice-Fired Mason stays close to his son.
Olive Green's fiance compliments her art from beyond the grave.
The over population becomes normal, just like it had been in Japan.
This normalcy, that balance, all shatters with the Odie Asman case.
oOo
The Asogi Ghost haunts Barok’s masked apprentice.
Ryunosuke can’t say that, can't present that evidence. All he can do is call out to Kazuma, to the man who doesn’t remember him, who doesn’t say a word, as silent as any of the other ghosts that haunt London. Kazuma’s ghost has never looked more sad, silently following around the masked apprentice. Well, mostly silently. He does talk on one occasion.
The van Zieks Ghost has a huge portrait in Barok’s room, and finally a name to put to the face. Klint, Klint van Zieks, a deceased elder brother to Barok, a man who was once a prosecutor.
And ghost talking to the Asogi one.
“I thought he might remember something today.” The Asogi Ghost says to Klint. Ryunosuke feigns admiring Barok’s hallowed chalices for a little longer.
“Really?” Klint hums.
“Naruhodo and Mikotoba recognize him, even with everything, but… I suppose it isn’t enough.” Kazuma’s ghost sighs.
“Give it time.” Klint says.
“I’m usually so patient, I suppose it comes hand in hand with our current, ah, state of being. Still, I find that patience wearing thin… don’t you? Does this never get to you?”
“C’mon Runo, we should go see if Toby and Gina have found anything!” Iris has been willing to let Ryunosuke burn time in here, but now she’s starting to get a little antsy.
“You know it does, but what can I do besides be by his side?” Klint sighs very sadly. Ryunosuke feels bad for eavesdropping, but still, it’s with reluctance that he lets himself be led out of the room.
It’s possible the two ghosts have simply become acquainted since the masked apprentice has been working under Barok, but there’s something about them that makes Ryunosuke sneak one more direct look at them before he leaves the prosecutor’s office. They are sitting - or pretending to sit - on Barok’s desk, so close to one another. Klint’s hand is set on top of one of the Asogi Ghost's hand, and Ryunosuke catches the moment that the Asogi Ghost rests his head on Klint’s shoulder, eyes closed and looking tired.
Ryunosuke hurries out after that.
It’s rude to stare at ghosts, he reminds himself the entire way out of the building.
Would ghosts grow so close after only a couple months of knowing each other?
Ryunosuke doesn’t have an answer, and if he doesn’t then nobody does.
oOo
There’s one moment, and that’s all it takes.
See, most ghosts would’ve brushed it off, but the Asogi Ghost and Klint are sharp and smart. That much is clear.
Barok unlocks the mask from the wax figure of the Professor.
The Asogi Ghost's face is underneath.
And Ryunosuke, in his shock, forgets all the rules, and whips around to stare right at the ghost of the man.
Their eyes meet.
And the ghost now Knows.
oOo
Ryunosuke and Susato walk back to Bakerstreet after the Odie Asman case. They don’t talk, but the movement of feet on pavement gives them time to think, and the presence of the other is a comfort they both desperately need.
Kazuma is really here.
Kazuma remembers them.
Kazuma walked out of the court room after what had barely deserved to be called a conversation.
There’s also some things about that Susato doesn’t know. For instance, she doesn’t know how strange it was to watch Kazuma walk out of the room alone, his ghost staying back.
She also doesn’t know that they are actually a group of four on a London night, not two.
“He hasn’t looked at you since.” Klint says.
“But he did look right at me. He recognized me from that wax work. Has he… has he been seeing me this entire time?” The Asogi Ghost wonders out loud.
“If he could see me as well, then… I’m afraid I might have some explaining to do.”
“Oh?”
“You know I visit Iris regularly.”
“ Oh. ”
“Yes, oh. ”
Yes, that is something that Ryunosuke would like to know about. But not right here, and not right now.
Herlock and Iris are already asleep by the time they arrive home. Susato bids Ryunosuke good night but, just before she enters her room, she turns around and wraps her arms around Ryunosuke. It’s hard to tell in the dark, but he’s fairly sure she’s crying. He wonders if they’re tears of relief, or confusion, or of hurt, or something else. He wonders if she even knows what she’s crying about. He holds her until she loosens her hold on him, bids him a second ‘good night’, and closes the door of her room.
With silent feet, Ryunosuke retraces his path back down and outside. He sits down on the steps of 221B Bakerstreet. Klint and the other ghost have followed him the entire time, but it’s only now that Ryunosuke allows his eyes to look at them again.
“I’m Ryunosuke Naruhodo,” He introduces himself. Despite their earlier chattiness, the two ghosts seem reluctant to talk now, and so Ryunosuke further prompts, “You wanted to talk to me, didn’t you?”
“Yes, of course. I believe you already know my name, but I am - or I suppose I formerly was - Klint van Zieks.” Klint bows deeply.
“And I am Genshin Asogi.” Genshin bows his head forward, finally a name to the ghost.
“The Professor.” Ryunosuke says, giving the man his title as well. Even after the long walk from the Old Bailey to Bakerstreet, the whole thing swirls uncomfortable and uncertain in the pit of Ryunosuke’s stomach.
“No.” Klint says, turning his head away, “He isn’t.”
“But, the wax figure-”
“A complicated story. The details don’t matter, what does matter is that the true title - the true Professor - is me, not Genshin.” Klint’s voice is empty as he says it, his eyes far off.
“Wh-what? The four victims-”
“Killed at my order. My hunting dog, Balmung, ripped their throats out. A loyal dog.” Klint recounts.
“And Klint killed by my hand.” Says Genshin, like finishing a script, the ending lines of a well-told story.
A story not told at all, though. Not as far as Ryunosuke is aware.
“A lie.” Is all Ryunosuke seems capable of saying about the subject.
“A terrible lie, told for ten years too long.” Klint agrees.
There is nothing said between the three men for a moment as this knowledge tries to fit with all the rest of the confusing and unsettling knowledge that Ryunosuke has had foisted upon him in the past day. Was it this lie that had caused Barok’s great hatred for all Japanese people? This lie that had brought Kazuma all the way here from Japan? And this lie… just how much else did it cause?
“But if you can see us…” Klint holds his chin in his hand in thought, “Perhaps you can finally make this right.”
“Ghosts aren’t real.” Ryunosuke reminds them.
“You are talking to us right now.” Genshin points out. Ryunosuke sighs and shakes his head.
“I mean to the general public, and definitely to the court system. You can’t put a ghost on the stand. I… I agree that the truth should come out, and I don’t like the idea of standing here knowing this and not telling people, especially Kazuma and Lord van Zieks, but… I mean, Lord van Zieks, if the other Lord van Zieks-”
“You can just call me Klint. I’m not a 'lord' any longer.” Klint says.
“Klint, I think if I went up to Lord van Zieks and said that I was being contacted by the ghost of his brother to tell him that his brother was real Professor, he would probably kill me on the spot.” Ryunosuke says.
“He has a point.” Genshin nods.
“Barok wouldn’t kill him!... but you are right that he wouldn’t believe it so readily. No, what we need is to find a way to get the Professor case into the public eye again. All this time, you would’ve thought I would’ve had the time to think of a plan, but the very concept of this happening,” Klint gestures to Ryunosuke, “Well, it’s beyond anything I would’ve expected.”
“Truly, if I had known before you could see me, I would’ve had much more to say.” Genshin adds.
“I don’t talk to ghosts. It’s a rule.” Ryunosuke defends himself.
“A rule?” Klint repeats.
“It’s… I mean, I would look crazy if I tried to talk to ghosts. I came out here just so that I don’t have to worry about anybody in there waking up and find me talking to myself in the office or the living room.” Ryunosuke waves his hand at the building behind him to encompass Iris, Susato, and Herlock.
“I suppose it isn’t our job to police you on how you use your abilities,” Genshin hums, “But you will still help us in this? With finally revealing who the real Professor was and freeing all those involved from the traitorous lie?”
“I will,” Ryunosuke nods, a feeling settling in his chest, like he’s just shaken hands with the devil, “But I’m still alive, and I need rest tonight, after everything that has happened, and time to think.”
“Of course,” Klint bows his head, “Take all the time you need.”
Ryunosuke watches as the two ghosts walk down the street, talking to each other as they go. He stands, and is glad that he was sitting before. It hopefully made it hard for the ghosts to realize he is shaking. He’s still shaking as he goes back inside and climbs the stairs to his room. He closes the door behind him, the little click of the wood meeting the doorframe to assure him it is indeed closed. He collapses on his bed, staring out the window to the night sky beyond.
He shouldn’t be reacting like this. Rules are only rules because he made them that way. He only doesn’t speak to ghosts because he decides not to.
Ryunosuke looks at his hand, opening and closing it. It does so at his command, because of course it does.
He has too much to think of.
oOo
“Most importantly, we need Klint’s will.”
Another night, but this time with Ryunosuke sitting on the floor of the balcony. Klint and Genshin sit with him, Genshin on the railing and Klint cross-legged across from Ryunosuke.
“Klint left a will?” Ryunosuke asks, rubbing a hand down his face. Seven days now of late-night meetings with the ghosts. They are, well, surprisingly good company, although the repeated late nights and usual morning are started to drain on Ryunosuke’s stamina.
Genshin reminds Ryunosuke of Kazuma, which is of little surprise. It makes him miss his friend’s presence even more. Kazuma had said he’d explain, but no explanation was to be seen. Genshin refused to speak of it, loyalties of course lying with his son, even now, even with all of this. Ryunosuke can’t fault him for it, but each evening he still asks what Kazuma is up to. The answer is always the same, that Genshin can’t tell him. But Genshin can tell him that Kazuma is still alive, if nothing else. Kazuma is thinking of him and Susato. Yet Kazuma has a reason to keep his distance.
Klint, on the other hand, is something else altogether. He is and was a man of good humor, it seems. He has a nigh-constant sort of smile with a joke that matches up with any witty remark that Genshin has put out, and vice-versa. If it wasn’t for how light slides through them and they glide over the ground, perhaps they could be alive. But Klint is no fool, either, and when the subject matter demands it, a cold and hard look that matches that of his brother falls over his features. He had once been the Director of Prosecutions for a reason. It shows in how he sets the evidence down.
“My extortioner,” Klint all but spits out the word, a darkness over his face, “Would be the key to revealing this. But I fear what sort of problems it may bring to Barok and Kazuma. At least you don’t work so closely with him, but Barok and Kazuma are almost always near him, more so since Courtney was jailed.”
“Lord Stronghart.” Ryunosuke says. The idea that all of this - both half the killings of the Professor and all the work of the Reaper - had been orchestrated by Lord Stronghart was enough to make Ryunosuke’s blood run cold, but it had also been one of the first things Klint and Genshin had told him.
Their evidence is, so far, rather lacking in the ‘physical’ deparment. There’s the fact that the attacks on the other Professor victims didn’t match how Klint himself was killed. Professor Mikotoba is supposed to come to Britain for a conference, and Klint suggested that, seeing as Mikotoba had been present at Klint’s autopsy, he might know something. There were a few other leads to follow - Gregson had pushed for the autopsy that had lead to Genshin’s conviction, so he probably was in all of it, but if they could get him to flip they might be on to something. Sithe wasn’t likely to change her mind, however, far too loyal or too scared of Lord Stronghart. John Wilson was, naturally, out of the question, long dead by now without even a ghost sticking around.
“So your will cites Lord Stronghart as your reason behind the killings?” Ryunosuke asks, getting back to the subject at hand. Klint nods, but there’s a shrug that accompanies it.
“It admits that he was the one who encouraged and pulled the strings behind the later ones. I openly admit and carry the blame for the others as well, and make it clear that my duel with Genshin had been by my own choice.” Like whenever he mentions the duel, Klint’s form flickers for the briefest moment, a darker red marring his uniform, sliced cleanly through. It disappears again to how he looked in life.
“Where is it now?” Ryunosuke asks, “Surely if they’d found something like that, they would’ve gotten rid of it, or it would’ve come to light in the trial?” Genshin took it from there.
“I took it from the scene with me. I… foolishly held onto it instead of presenting it. I had hoped that, with time, the fear of the Professor would fade with 'his' last victim being Klint. A terrible and unsolved series of killings, but the danger was over by then. A last gift to Klint even after his death, that his name and legacy would be preserved and his family would not need to suffer from the outcome.” Genshin admits with great shame, folding his arms and leaning backwards on the railing. Any living person would’ve fallen over with how far back he went, but he just slowly tips forward again.
“So where is it now? Do you know?” Ryunosuke presses and Genshin nods.
“I have left it in Karuma. It was my final weapon, hidden in my treasured blade. So long as the possibility of it getting out existed, they had to let me go… or so that had been the plan, the deal we struck. It seems other plans were already in order. No matter, it is with Kazuma now.”
“Great.” Ryunosuke sighs. It may as well be an ocean away, then, for how close he’s been with Kazuma.
“We have waited this long, have patience, Naruhodo. With time, the truth will come to light.” Genshin reminds him, as if Ryunosuke needs reminding.
“I know, but… I hate having this knowledge and not having a way to use it.”
“And that’s why I’m glad it’s you that can see us,” Klint smiles, “You remind me of Genshin, in a lot of ways.”
“ I remind you of Asogi-sama? Not Kazuma?”
“Not that Kazuma doesn’t, but you do too. In some ways, I wonder if some of him lives on through you. You can’t see yourself in court, but the look in your eyes… yes, it reminds me so clearly of Genshin.” Klints says, looking off into the distance for a moment.
The hour is late, and Ryunosuke is only human. Both Genshin and Klint say they’re going to stick around for the evening. They’d like to see the arrival of Judge Jigoku and Professor Mikotoba with their own eyes, and it would be easier done sticking close with the two who would set out to see them.
Genshin stays in the office. There’s a law book that Ryunosuke left in a beam of moonlight for the ghost to read if he got bored, and he’s bent over it, perusing the words. Klint, on the other hand, Ryunosuke catches going downstairs. He whispers after him,
“Checking on Iris again?”
The ghost freezes and looks over his shoulder in a way that can only be defined as sheepish.
“I suppose I’m not as sneaky as I think I am. No, of course not, not if Genshin caught on to me back then.”
“Will you tell me why you do that? Why you come here, looking at her?” Ryunosuke asks. Klint sighs.
“Genshin keeps his son’s secrets, and I have this one to keep.” He says like an apology.
“It’s not… I understand the pain of knowing a terrible man went free because of failure to do your job correctly in court. I don’t agree and don’t condone the murders you commited, but I think I can understand what led you to that. I can make peace with that. But Iris, she’s just a child. I guess what I’m trying to say is I don’t like you staring at her, especially when she’s vulnerable, if you’re, uh, if you l-”
“OH! No, God, no, what do you take me for?” Klint splutters in indignation. Above them Ryunosuke can hear Genshin laughing loudly, apparently having listened in on their conversation, “God no. I wish I could tell you the truth now, if just to win back the standing I had with you! But… no, some secrets must be kept, if only for a little longer. But I will say I watch over her like I watch over Barok. I want to assure myself that she is healthy, cared for, loved.” Klint says. Ryunosuke stares at him a little longer, as if staring long enough will let any lies materialize physically before him, so that he can know for sure. Nothing of the sort happens, and it comes down to trust.
“I don’t want you watching her while she sleeps.” Ryunosuke affirms anyway. Klints looks down sadly.
“I understand your reasoning behind the request. Very well, just tea time then.” He nods. He casts a look towards Iris’ door and then makes his way back up to the Office to join Genshin.
oOo
The next day, everything goes to shit.