Chapter Text
Poor Iku is torn between patting You’s back, giving him a glass of water to help with the coughing, or stare at his still brimming with happiness leader. He looks at the two for a couple more seconds, then he sees Yoru coming to You’s aid, so Iku steels his resolution to join Kai and Rui in staring at Shun in shock.
“Sorry… repeat that again?”
Shun pouts. He crosses his arms as he takes a seat at his usual spot. “I said, from now on everyone has a new mission. Everyone has to participate in finding Haru!”
“Who’s Haru?” Kai asks.
Shun claps his hand happily. “Why my husband of course!”
Iku blinks his eyes a couple times. He’s looking at Shun and Kai back and forth, using everything he has to ignore You choking once more behind him.
“Shun-san you have a husband?!”
“Well, not officially yet. We were about to get married, but I had to end the World.”
“You had to what ?!”
“Eh?” Shun blinks. Slowly, he turns at them one by one. “Right, I haven’t told you guys about it.” When no one answers, he smiles innocently. “Remember when I told you we’ve met in the past?”
Iku cringes at the reminder. No one can forget how they’re tackled in the middle of a market by a stranger who screams ‘I found you!’ at the top of their lungs for the world to hear. When he looks at You, he knows the other is also reminiscing of their first encounter with Shun.
“There’s no way we could forget it.”
Shun nods his head happily. “With how it is right now, there aren’t a lot of things I can tell you. I’m afraid telling you too much information will create more unbalance in an already unbalanced World.” Iku has so many things to say about that statement but wisely keeps his mouth shut. “But what I can tell you is that all six of us have met in our previous World, and we’re not the only ones. There’s another six like us.”
“And among those six people, one of them is Haru-san? Your, uh, husband?” Yoru guesses.
Shun smiles. “Exactly! I was waiting all patiently for Haru to come, but it’s been so long, don’t you think? Right, Ikkun?”
Iku jumps when Shun suddenly addresses him. To be honest he’s still having a hard time processing everything. Even after years of joining Procellarum and working under Shun, there are moments where his Meister is too much for his brain to handle all at once. This definitely tops it all. “I guess?”
“The point is, I want everyone to find Haru. My Haru! Any other mission given will still be a priority, but other than that, finding Haru is a must! Everyone, you better hurry up,” then dramatically, he drapes his arm on his face, “I heard rabbits die when they get lonely.”
You glares and snap. “You’re not a rabbit so quit the act!”
Iku slumps back to his seat. He’s looking at the others. Shun and You are back to their back and forth banter, and Iku notices Yoru ready to jump in case it gets out of hand. Across him, Rui and Kai are having their own conversation.
There’s a lot Iku wants to say, way too much to the point he doesn’t know where to start. Finding a guy based on his Meister’s words alone is a huge mystery to solve, but Procellarum exists for it.
So… he’ll do his best?
Iku finds himself closing Furocera early two weeks later. He bids goodbye to the last customer, before closing the door and locking it. He double checks it, does the same for the windows and turns the lights off before climbing the stairs to the second floor. Rui is back on their Base today, consoling Shun after another failed attempt to find Haru, but it doesn’t mean their living space is devoid of conversation for tonight.
Three pairs of eyes turn at him as soon as enters the living room, the conversation dies down but no one looks disturbed by it.
“Sorry for the wait.”
“Not a problem.” Ichiha says. “Must be tiring manning this shop by yourself all the time.”
“Not all the time. Rui helps sometimes.”
From his seat, Rei shakes his head. “Rui’s help is in the form of playing with his Spirit Beast and greeting the customers. I’m pretty sure you do the rest.”
Iku opens his mouth to disagree, but the older one sends him a look and he closes his mouth back. Yeah, he can’t exactly disagree on that one.
“Anyway, what do you have for me today?” Iku takes a seat on the empty couch. They’re forming a loose circle. Rei across from him, Ichiha on his left side while Mattsun sits across her. On the coffee table, there are three cups of tea and a bowl of snacks, but Iku’s attention is on the three manila folders beside each cup.
Ichiha pushes her to Iku first.
“Every information you asked from the last meeting is there. There isn't much from my side, my men received a couple requests to find missing people, all found within three to five days. All but one.”
“All but one?” Mattsun questions.
His sister sighs. “A girl came to us asking to find ‘the love of her life’. I hate to break it to her, but we’ve been looking for three weeks without any hint of finding him.”
Iku hums. Three weeks of looking and not even a hint? He doesn’t mean to brag, but had it been given to any other guild he’ll accept that, but a request given to Procellarum? Either the so called ‘love of her life’ is very good at keeping low or—
“At this point I’m starting to suspect the girl just imagined him.”
Or that.
“Let’s follow the one month rule.” Iku says. “If by the end you can’t find anything, pull all the resources. Or we’ll put another one depending on what you find within the last week.”
Ichiha nods and all eyes turn to Rei.
The older man pushes his file to Iku. It’s thicker than the other two files, but understandable considering where Iku puts the man in.
“The Guild Federation has been receiving reports of newly discovered Ruins. Two days ago, there was another report in, it’s the fifth time in two months and they’re considering asking Growth’s help to look into it.” Rei opens the folder and pulls out a couple pictures. Iku recognizes some of them, but he pulls them a bit closer when he sees most of them are open.”
“Who is the Meister?”
“That’s the thing. All of them are Meister-less. They’re forced open and while we don’t know what’s inside it, they have strong suspicion that it’s been looted.”
Mattsun jumps from his seat. “Looted? But no one can control the Ruin except their Meister.”
“That’s right. What do you want us to do, Iku?”
Iku pulls the pictures closer to him. He looks at each of them, pulling his magnifying glass to see if he can capture anything he misses. There. He finds it. One of the Ruins, almost hidden by the rocks, is a water bottle that looks way too similar to the one Iku sees everyday on the market.
“What’s this?”
“Some people reported they saw a man in the Ruins after it was discovered and before anyone from the Guild Federation arrived.”
“Did they see the culprits?”
“No. It happened at night.”
“What about the water bottle’s owner?”
“Most people claimed he disappeared as soon as he realized people saw him.”
Iku puts the photos back on the table, putting them side by side in comparison. Ichiha, Rei and Mattsun put away their teas and snacks to make more room. “The Guild Federation don’t know how much Procella knows about Ruins, they don’t know how much Shun-san does. Keep an eye on their progress, if there’s another Ruin found, I’ll ask Shun-san about offering help, maybe we can gather our own information that way. Also, keep an eye on that man. There’s a possibility he’s a part of the group who looted the Ruins.” Iku keeps silent on what the implication is, but everyone seems to understand him.
Rei nods his head in answer.
When everyone turns to Mattsun, Iku almost does a double take seeing how big the smile on the man’s face is. “Okay, look, I know someone looting Ruins is bad, and I’m sure the information I got for you is nothing like Rei-san, but this is interesting, here me out. A couple of my men in the countryside have been saying that they’ve been getting a traveler visiting their village.”
“Traveler?”
Mattsun nods in excitement as he pushes his folder to Iku. His, unlike Rei and Ichiha, is thin.
“The guy helps them for a couple of days, keeps looking out to the sky for some reason, and when it’s a week or so, poof, gone as thin air.”
Ichiha raises her eyebrow. “That’s a very subtle information gathering if I must say.”
It is, Iku agrees with her. “Any characteristics to look out for?”
Mattsun takes his folder back and opens it, his eyes scanning through the report before he finds what he’s looking for. “Let me see. Oh! Black hair, grey eyes, band-aid at the bridge of his nose—”
“A hat with goggles, light brown jacket and leather gloves?” Rei asks suddenly.
Mattsun looks up from his report. “Yeah, exactly that.”
Ichiha straightens on her seat. “Hold on. Guy with a satchel and a ring on his necklace?” When Mattsun slowly nods, she continues. “Let me guess, claims his name is Arata?”
There’s a heavy silence as the information sinks in. Three times. Someone has accidentally, or maybe not, successfully avoided Procella’s extensive connection three times. Once or twice is a coincidence, but the third time is a pattern. “Anything else?”
Mattsun flips his paper. “Not much. My men said the guy is a total mystery. But, wait, uhh, there was one time when the kids pushed him to the river, and while he was okay to play with them, at the end he pulled something out of his pocket and said, I quote, ‘Oh no, Haru-san is going to kill me.’ That’s all we got from him.”
Iku freezes at the name. There it is again. Haru. This is the fourth time the name has been thrown around in the two weeks after Shun’s order. Should he take a chance and tell Shun about it? Or keep it a while and see if they have more information? Everything is too vague for Iku to make a move.
“Do you have pictures?” Rei asks.
Mattsun nods and pulls out a picture from his folder. “Someone was taking a picture of their family, so his picture is a bit blurry because they have to crop him out of the bigger picture.”
Mattsun puts the picture on the table and they crowd it immediately.
In the picture are two men. One of them matches with the collective description Ichiha, Rei and Mattsun give. Black hair, hat with goggles, light brown jacket and leather gloves, a satchel and a ring as a necklace. The other one isn’t facing the camera, and only half of his body is in the frame. Iku takes note of the collar-length light sandy-green hair.
There’s something about this picture that bothers him. They don’t know what these two men stand for, and as much as Iku wants Shun to be happy, he wants to make sure whoever Haru is is good for his leader. The request to keep looking and get more information before they tell Shun is already at the tip of his tongue, but he stops it when he notices something on the ring around Arata’s neck.
“Iku?”
He pulls out his magnifying glass again, and focuses on the ring.
It’s not just a ring, it’s a Ring .
Shun’s Haru or not, he has to tell his leader about this.
Iku never pulls an emergency meeting. Usually it’s Kai or You, so when he sends a message to the group asking everyone to meet tomorrow back in Byakko, five of them message him privately asking if he’s okay. He replies he’s okay, and he’ll tell everything when they meet.
The next day, Iku is the last to arrive. Shun never leaves the Base, and while both Kai and Rui are already on the Base, You and Yoru were heading back when Iku sends the message.
He pulls them to their meeting room, ignoring the panic looks the others throw at each other. Once everyone is in position, he pulls out everything he has from Ichiha, Rei, and Mattsun from the other night, and begins telling everything.
He takes note of Shun's expression the entire time, but nothing out of the ordinary.
“And, this is what made me call for an emergency meeting.” Iku pulls out the last picture from the folder and presents it to them. “This is—”
“That’s Haru.”
Iku pauses. He looks back at Shun, but the other has his eyes locked on the picture on Iku’s hand. Shun smiles, a hint of red on his cheeks as he whispers once again, softly, fondly. “Ikkun, that’s Haru.”
“Wait, what? Mattsun said his name is Arata?”
“No, this is Arata,” Shun chuckles as he takes the picture and points at the man with black hair. Then he points at the other man, whose body is only half on the frame with light sandy green hair. “ That is Haru.”
“How do they know each other?” Yoru questions. “Shun-san, they’re not… bad guys, right?”
“No, no, no. They’re not. I assure you, they’re not.” Shun laughs a little. “I see even in another World, you guys found each other like we did.”
“Shun-san?
Feeling everyone’s confusion, Shun finally looks back at them. “Remember how I told you we were part of the Second Fleet?” When everyone nods, Shun continues. “Haru and Arata were both part of the First Fleet. I’m glad they found each other like we did. I’m sure Aoi, Kakeru and Koi are with them too.”
Gently, Shun traces Haru’s picture. His eyes are filled with longing and adoration and ah, Iku thinks, his leader truly loves this man.
Kai leans back. “Okay, that’s more names than I thought. You still want us to find Haru, right? Not the others?”
“But if they’re together, wouldn’t it be easier to find Haru?” There’s a still of silence. You facepalms. “Did none of you actually think of that?”
The reaction is instant. Yoru is shaking You, Kai laughs as Iku high fives with Rui. When they look at Shun, there’s a glimmer in his eyes. Hope, excitement.
“Come on, give us their full names and whatever you can give to us.”
“Okay, right, of course!” He motions with his hand. “Someone write it down.”
Iku pulls out his notebook and a pen.
“This is Uduki Arata.” Shun says to the picture once more. “Then we have Satsuki Aoi, Shiwasu Kakeru, and Kisaragi Koi.” Iku notes them down dutifully.
Shun sounds bashful as he says the next name. “And of course, Shimotsuki Haru.”
Iku is already writing down ‘Shimotsuki Ha’ on his note before he pauses. He looks up just in time to see You hitting the back of their Meister’s head with a rolled-up paper.
“That’s not his name and you know it!”