Making moves
She smiles in satisfaction. The revelation in Skeeter's bombshell of a front line had caused a massive uproar in the British Wizarding World, and even the non-magical world when they got wind of it. Even before one read the article itself, the two photos splashed on the front page, of her parents and the rest of the Marauders together and a second one of Peter giving Sirius a pained determined smile with his hand resting on Sirius’ own on his arm, making it very clear who Peter was, blew the commonly known story out of the water.
Peter's own testimony, accompanied by her own story of the years’ long fight she's been in since she was seven as well as why Sirius broke out and they found Peter and the revelation of the real story shook the British Wizarding World to its core. It had given Amelia exactly the opening she'd been looking for to force things to trial. After, her casual mention of keeping meticulous track of all those who worked against her when Skeeter asked who was to blame for the travesty of injustice made more than a few of those same people incredibly nervous, and caused quite an uproar of people demanding the list be published.
She was pretending to be reluctant about it, concerned about the chaos it would cause and the opening it may create for those that mean their society harm, but it was more that if she had it, they knew she had it, and knew she could release it whenever, it meant she had something on them. If she released it, she may be able to swing disgracing them so badly they get tossed out of the Wizengamot and replaced, but unless she can find suitable replacements, she has no guarantee those replacements won't be just as bad or even worse. It's better for her to keep people she now has leashed around then bring in new wild cards.
Well, given the Wizengamot still needs to fill out the seats that went vacant during the war, if she can get them to get around to it instead of constantly pushing it off, and if they do there will be wild cards brought in regularless, but this way of doing things at least has less of them. Basically, even if most people didn't realize it, it means she was kind of publicly blackmailing them. Which because of how many of them there are, also means that even when they bring new people in to fill out empty seats that she has the Wizengamot.
It may seem strange, but given how much it pushes good people who are Dark to bad places, one of the very first things she had done was had a reevaluation on Light, Dark, White, and Black magics and their legality done. Using a polished version of the argument she'd made all the way back in first year debate club and with a whole panel of experts to back it up as well as revealing the years long question of how she survived that night and the magic her mother used, illegal under the current laws even though it hurt no one but herself.
She did that first though, since she knows full well that Voldemort is still alive, and with that little bastard Snape's escape enroute to Azkaban, would likely be returning soon. While it doesn't do anything for his base in the pureblood supremacists, it cuts off his ability to draw forces from those who are just desperate, both not to be unjustly persecuted, and also for change, since she'd gotten the labels to be legally straighten out, and only Black magic marked as illegal.
Once she had that wrapped up, she shifted her attention to finishing up the years long push of reevaluating the last of the creature laws, once more whipping out a well put together argument, this time drawn up by a combination of Hermione and Susan, and once more called in a panel of experts on the differences it makes in more tolerant countries and why it's a better idea to adopt their policies. Which, on top of furthering her own agenda in just wanting to help the werewolves and allowing Remus to remain on as the Defense teacher this upcoming year despite the fact they'd had to remove his Fidelis prior to the trials for Sirius, Peter, and Snape since it would complicate things in said trial otherwise if none of them could speak of it, and the subsequent public revelation of his Lycanthropy, as well as also cutting off Voldemort's in with creatures in general.
The final piece of weakening Voldemort before he can even rise will be in sowing uncertainty and chaos amongst the pureblood supremacists, but she's already working on that with Lucius and it'll take a little more time.
By the time she's done, she has every intention to have cut off Voldemort at the knee before he can even rise once more.
She's pulled from her thoughts on how well things are going and planning her next move by her mail pouch to Moody glowing subtly. Reaching for it, she really hopes it'll be more good news.
As she reads it, horror fills her.
Hei eyes the door in confusion. People hardly ever knock on it, since other than his neighbors occasionally inviting him for another get together, the only other time it happened was the one time Misaki and Saitō had come to ask about the Doll that had been his neighbor when he first moved in. Making his way over, he opens it to the surprise of his life.
There on his doorstep was his Xiǎolóng. Calanthe.
He chokes, terror ripping through him at what could happen to her, and quickly pops his head out to look around for anyone watching, but the only person he doesn't recognize is some grizzled old guy leaning against a street sign. As he eyes him, Calanthe murmurs, "That's Alastor Moody. He's with me. I thought you'd be more comfortable with this conversation without someone you don't know being here though, so he agreed to stay back and keep an eye on things, make sure none of the Syndicate comes sniffing around. And he already checked for anyone watching.”
He turns to her, then steps back quickly, "Come inside before anyone sees you anyway." She moves past him, turning to him after only a few steps, and he quickly closes the door and scrubs at his face, "What were you thinking? If the Syndicate finds you-!"
She cuts him off, voice calm as can be, "The Syndicate will have completely collapsed into naught but ash and memory by this time next week."
He stares at her, eyes blown wide, "...What?"
She shakes her head, lips twitching a bit, "Let's start from the beginning. Hi Hei. It's nice to see you, since it's been a while since we saw each other in person."
He can't quite help the small smile that tugs at his lips at that, "Hey Calanthe. You've grown an awful lot."
She looks over towards the table, "We should probably sit down for this. It's gonna take a while." She glances at him, "And you'll probably need to sit anyway."
That gets a raised eyebrow from him, but he moves past her to pull out one of the two chairs for her, giving her a faint smile as she thanks him before settling himself, "Okay. So what, exactly, is going to take a while?"
She tilts her head, "Probably just be easier to let you see for yourself."
With that, she gets into the messenger bag she's carrying, pulling out a stack of papers before handing it over. His brow furrows, but he accepts them. There are tabs sticking out, the top labeled 'Updates', then 'Evidence Copies', and finally 'Syndicate's Plan'. Directly on top of the stack was a letter from Moody reporting having gotten his Hit Wizard license and getting to work on the job Calanthe had hired him for. The very next was an update about him arranging the arrests of that little bastard RB-529 as well as some of the others who had taken part in dragging him back to the Syndicate that fateful day, as well as leads from them about bases and the like.
His eyes blow wide again as he starts to realize what the stack is. He's been hearing about it for years after all. The sheer destruction following him from county to country, utterly demolitioning the lower ranks of the Syndicate.
He flicks through the stack, picking up speed as he goes as he's proven right. All of it, every last rumor he's heard of was from Moody hitting the Syndicate and hitting them hard. A particular passage jumps out at him, "Still can't decide if you're just living up to the nickname or if your soulmate was right on the money, but you really are as vicious as a Dragon, you know that? Especially given how many times I've heard you describe your hiring me to work against the Syndicate as 'obliterating the thieving bastards that had the audacity to steal a Dragon's treasure'. Remind me never to piss you off. Anyway, I've basically dismantled the local branches of it, and I've gathered the evidence against the higher ups to be released later, so I'll be following that lead I got on Hei's location. Update you when I get there and get an idea of the situation."
He stares at it. All those things he's been hearing. All the branches getting torn to shreds or just going dark. It's all been his Xiǎolóng absolutely tearing the Syndicate to pieces. All because they took him. Who… was apparently his Xiǎolóng's treasure. That makes his face a bit warm, but it also explains a lot.
Only a fool messes with a Dragon's treasure after all.
He flicks through the rest of the update reports, just in case there's anything else of note, but it's mostly just standard stuff regarding tearing the Syndicate to smithereens. He flips to the start of the 'Evidence' section, and his Xiǎolóng shifts, "Moody insisted on just copies."
Which, he supposes, was to explain why all of them had the superimposed silvery hue declaring it to be so. He flicks a look up at his Xiǎolóng with a brief smile to let her know he's not upset or anything of the like for not having the originals. However, almost immediately his eyes go wide again as he starts flicking through the evidence pile. There was more than enough to crush the Syndicate.
Hope blooms in his chest. His clever Xiǎolóng had said the Syndicate would be gone by this time next week, but… she really wasn't exaggerating, was she? There was no recovery for the Syndicate once this was all brought forward. He pauses on the files on Misaki's father, and even the police chief Misaki works for. That… was going to hit Misaki hard.
Not wanting to think about it right this second, he flips past the last page after the Tokyo police chief which was a list of cops in on it and their branch with a note of evidence existing but not included in the summary since they aren't higher ups, to the 'Syndicate's Plan' section. If he thought he'd been shocked by the previous two, this one goes above and beyond as he chokes on his sheer horror.
When he's done, he slowly drags his gaze up to her, "All of them? Every Doll and Contractor in the world… just dead?"
She nods, "So it seems. I mean, they could be wrong about it working, but…"
He shakes his head, "That isn't a risk worth taking." He runs a shaky hand through his hair, "So what now?"
She shifts, "That's technically up to you. You could just try to leave it all and forget about it, but… you'd be trying to hide it for the rest of your life. On the other hand…"
He looks up, "On the other hand?"
She levels a look at him, "Between the fact they tried to indoctrinate you as a child and that they threatened you into coming back, Moody and a lawyer I've hired are both incredibly confident that you could have all charges dismissed if you turned yourself in."
He drops his gaze, fiddling with the corner of the top paper on the stack as he thinks it over, "That… isn't such a bad idea…"
She nods, "Yeah, and if I have Moody release the evidence at the same time," She shrugs, "the Syndicate will be too busy trying to escape and put out the fire to bother with you."
He runs his hand through his bangs, "...My team."
She tilts her head, "What about them?"
He drops his gaze again, "They aren't bad people in general, and… we've kinda gotten close."
She hums, "I have no idea what sort of defense they could muster, but my lawyer would defend them if I told them to." She smiles in reassurance, "Hell, again I don't know how solid whatever defense they can come up with would be, but I'd like to remind you that the Potter and Black families are both incredibly wealthy. The lawyer I got is in the top fifty in the world. If anyone can get them leniency with even a scrap of a reasonable defense, it's him."
He nods slowly, "I'll… need to meet with my team just me. They may spook otherwise."
She nods, "Of course."
She makes her way down the stairs, utterly confused as to why she's being called. When she gets to the parking lot, she sees a couple of officers, a third handcuffed to the van they're standing near, and a grizzled old man with a peg leg and a weird, presumably magic, eye spinning around almost wildly. She steps forward, "You… asked for my team, Mr…"
The roving eye locks on her, "Moody. Alastor Moody. Though… I'm not sure if you specifically should be here, Miss Kirihara."
Her brow furrows, "Pardon? How come?"
He eyes her, then holds out a stack of papers, "These are just a few copies to kick start things, I didn't want to risk the originals, and didn't bother with the rest, until I was sure they'd be taken seriously and wouldn't end up in compromised hands."
Saitō leans over to read over her shoulder in curiosity, and he isn't the only one since Kōno is peeking over her other shoulder. She'd probably have more, since it's not just her team, but November 11th's had followed her down too, except there's not enough room for them. The first half talks about a group that calls itself just 'The Syndicate' and the horrendous plan they'd had, the second half is a tsunami of evidence on the higher ups in the organization. As she flicks through it, her eyes get bigger and bigger, before she stops dead, "...Dad? He's… in on this?"
Moody nods, "Unfortunately, yes." He jerks his thumb at the cuffed officer, "So is this one. Why he's cuffed. More surprising, particularly for you, is the last one. Or, last full dossier in those summaries papers anyway. The actual last pages are on crooked cops. Might wanna deal with them before this lot is taken up to holding cells."
She almost dreads turning to the next one, and sucks in a sharp breath even as Kōno starts cursing up a storm, Saitō jerks away with wide disbelieving eyes, and Matsumoto narrows his eyes at the cuffed man as he starts shifting nervously even though he couldn't fit to see the papers. She can't blame either of them, given that the last person in the stack was the chief.
She shudders as she looks up, handing Kōno the stack over her shoulder, "I… likely do need to stay away from my… father's case, but that's no reason for me not to be here period."
He shakes his head, then jerks his thumb to the smaller arrest van behind him, "For that, no, for this? You may not know it just yet, but you really can't have anything to do with this case."
She tilts her head, "Who's in there?"
He shakes his head, "Some people who worked for the Syndicate… and have much better legal defense than you'd think. They're turning themselves in."
She shares looks with Saitō and Kōno, "Really?"
He nods and walks to the back door, opening it. He reaches in and starts to pull something out, but looks over at them before he brings it into view, "I'm… probably going to have to preface basically all of them. This first one is a contractor with the ability to jump into an animal body, mind and soul, or from animal body to animal body. Problem is, his actual body died in an explosion a few years ago while he was in an animal body so…"
He pulls whatever he'd been holding out, which was… a cat carrier holding a black cat. She stares at it, and chokes when it talks, "Hello, I'm Mao. Well, that isn't my birth name, but I don't actually remember that, so I hope Mao works?"
Kōno tucks the stack of papers under one arm as he steps forward to accept the cat carrier. She shakes her head, voice a bit faint, "Mao is fine, but… honestly, why even bother? We'd have never found you on our own. Hell, I'm not even sure how we're supposed to go about all this with you being a cat, even if only physically."
Mao shakes his head, "I have my reasons."
Moody snorts, "By which he means his contractor pride won't let him admit he's friends with the rest of this lot and didn't want to have to constantly hide just to see them." Mao manages surprisingly well to give Moody a dirty look despite his feline face, but… doesn't contradict him, which is telling enough. Moody doesn't bother responding, only turning back to the van, "Her? You sure?" He nods, then reaches out though this time she can see him holding someone's arm as they climb out of the van, "This is Kirsi, though she prefers Yin. This… is going to completely shatter your understanding, but she's a Doll. One who is knowingly and willingly defying her programmed orders."
Her eyes go huge again, as Saitō sucks in a sharp breath. She shakes her head, "I- Are you sure?"
Moody looks over at the silver haired girl, who looks vaguely in their direction, "My… dad showed up a while ago. When he did… I started to remember my life before I became a Doll as I… woke up as it were. I can still… feel the programming, I suppose would be the best way to put it, but I don't have to listen."
She lets out a shaky breath, then rubs at her eyes, "I'm gonna have to call Kanami asap to take a look. If it's true, she's gonna flip her shit."
Moody snorts, "That's the Observatory lady, right? Yeah, I'd imagine she would."
Krisi, or Yin rather, steps off to the side, seemingly unbothered by the cuffs on her wrists, she turns her head vaguely towards Kōno, "Mao's carrier has a padlock, so it's not like I can open it. I can hold it for you so you have a hand free in case you need it."
Kōno blinks, then after a questioning glance towards her and getting a nod, holds the carrier out, which she takes. Moody glances up into the van again, "Not much to say about this next one, barring the fact he got pulled in, then by the time he realized how the Syndicate operates, he was in too deep, since they like to kill anyone who tries to leave."
Her brow furrows at that, and Moody helps an older guy out. She tilts her head, "You… look familiar."
He nods, "Undoubtedly." His mouth pinches, "Before I got dragged into this mess, I used to be a cop." He shrugs, "These guys call me Huang, but my name's Kuno Kiyoshi."
Her eyes widen, before she nods. He steps off towards Yin, and interestingly enough, while he knows better than to hide her and bring suspicions of what she's doing out of sight, his pose and the way he stands near Yin and Mao is… rather protective. She shakes her head. This Moody wasn't kidding about them being close it seems.
The man in question sighs, "It's this last one that's really gonna surprise you, and while you may not know it yet, he's why you can't be on this case Miss Kirihara. Hard as I imagine it'll be for you lot to wrap your heads around, he's also got the most solid defense of this group. Anyway, don't meet the eyes.”
She tilts her head in confusion, then chokes on her surprise as the last cuffed person Moody helps down is revealed. In all his white masked, black and green coated glory is BK-201. There are gasps and terrified murmurs of his messier code around her, and a wave of terror grips her as well, but the moment she recalls his warning and looks away from the eyes of the mask, it starts to fade.
Moody looks over at her, "He's got his mask on because we thought it'd be better to get one surprise at a time. So if you're ready?"
She braces herself, nodding firmly. And the floor promptly drops out from under her as the mask is removed, "...Li?"
He tilts his head, "Misaki."
And it's not the lovable, clumsy, easy going Li that responds. His voice is the same for the most part, a little lower, flatter, cooler. Her mind immediately drifts to his Mark, looping around her ankle in the same color as his eyes. Talking about that mess with Alice and VI-952, which… BK-201 had swooped in at the last second and dealt with before VI-952 could kill Saitō, even though he could've easily waited a few moments for them to be dead.
She blinks back to the present and steps away, "Ah. No, I can't have anything to do with either my father or soulmate's cases. You're right about that." She looks over at Kōno, who was staring at her with wide eyes, utterly unsure how to react to this reveal, and she lets out a shaking breath, "You said those are just copies?" Moody nods, "Then no one can claim I tempered with evidence if I take that up." Her eyes harden, "And deal with everyone on those papers in the building."
November steps forward, "Forgive me for potentially stepping on toes, but we can be of assistance with that. Would you prefer if we stayed down here and freed up your team to help you, or come with?" Misaki pauses, thinking it over. Her attention is drawn by Li's gaze swinging to November, and she looks over to see his eyes narrow as he stares him down. November blinks, "...What's that look for?"
The old cop by Yin barks out a laugh, "Hei here isn't like most contractors. For one thing, he holds grudges. He doesn't like you much. Not since you almost killed Yin one of the times you ran into each other.”
Her eyes widen, and she glances over at November, "Ah, if nothing else, perhaps you should come with me, November."
November takes a confused step back, "Indeed."
She sweeps her gaze over the crowd, "Alright, if you guys are willing to help, April should stay down here, just in case the Syndicate got word of what's going down and any contractors show up. I don't know how good she is in a fight without November, but it should at least slow them down, and July will stay with her to keep an eye on anyone incoming. I'll head up to the swat team. There are only a couple names on the paper from their group, whereas Internal Affairs was full of them. That should give me more than enough manpower to sweep the building, especially with November with me in case of any hidden contractors, so the rest of you stay down here with April and July."
They all straighten up and Kōno hands over the evidence copies. Even as she tucks them under her arm, she sees Yin and Kuno, or Huang, step over to Li and gently nudge him into sitting on the edge of the van steps, Yin settling beside him with Mao's carrier in her lap and promptly leaning against his side. That pulls his gaze off November finally as he lifts his hands and runs them through her hair, expression all but screaming overprotective older brother.
Kuno once again situates himself so he isn't hiding them so they have no reason to be suspicious, but is absolutely between them and their group with a protective posture. And it's… such a weird dynamic. The only regular human in the group being so protective of this group of two contractors and a doll. She pulls her gaze away as November turns to her, and they head off as fury begins to burn through her.
She glances over at Matsumoto, "Is it really alright for me to be here?"
He shrugs, "There's no harm in you just observing his questioning."
She nods slightly, then focuses on the one way mirror as Li is brought in. Kōno taps his pen on the table, as he glances over at a potion and piece of parchment, "Don't know why you requested these, but we got them."
Li smiles tiredly, "Because a lot of this will be either hard to believe or won't make a lick of sense without it." He holds out his arm, "I assume you brought a way to draw the necessary blood?"
Kōno nods as he pops the lid off the potion and puts it closer to Li, then leans back to grab the scalpel, which wasn't metal for safety reasons, off of the table behind him, usually out of Li's reach but especially with him cuffed to the table. Not that it matters much with the way his hands are bound. Kōno looks at him, "As you know, all this is being recorded, but just for clarification so there's no claims of mistreatment or anything, you're giving me permission to make a small cut so the necessary blood can get in this potion?"
Li nods, "Yes."
Kōno nods as well, then careful not to touch his skin just to be safe, grabs one of his rubber glove-like bindings to hold him steady and makes a small cut in his arm above the potion. He lets go and leans back to place the scalpel out of reach again and turns to grab a bit of gauze and larger band-aid which he opens mostly, then waits. When the potion turns colors, he quickly presses the gauze to the cut as he peels the paper back to expose the adhesive one handed. When he's got it ready, he lifts the gauze and folds it to a cleaner section and wipes blood off the area to clean it up so the band-aid can stick right.
When that's done, he looks over to double check that the TV showing the active recording of the parchment is working and has the parchment centered correctly. Once he's sure, he starts pouring the potion on it, and when he's done there's a brief wait. Then the results show. And she feels like she's just been suckered punched in the gut.
Kōno gapes, "That's-!"
Li- Hei rather, smiles without humor, "I did tell you this wouldn't make much sense or be hard to believe without those results backing me up." He shrugs, "Moody told you all I'm not like other contractors." His smile becomes a bit sharp, "He wasn't lying when he said I'm perfectly capable of holding grudges." Then he shrugs again as the smile fades, "Capable of a lot more than that, since I'm entirely human mentally, without any of the contractor influence."
Kōno leans back, still floored, but clearly trying to get a hold of himself, "How exactly did you find this out the first time?"
Hei purses his lips, "...If it doesn't have anything to do with either my crimes or defense, there's no reason for it to become public record right? Because I don't mind answering that question in the sense of being honest, but… parts of it could maybe endanger mine and Misaki's other soulmate. Maybe. I don't know what the situation is now and how delicate things are."
Kōno's brow raises, "If it had nothing to do with your crimes or defense, then no. It'll still be in the recording obviously, but it wouldn't need to go on public record." He tilts his head, "Though I'm a bit confused why both you and that Moody are so sure it's a shared soulmate. That's usually true of people with more than one, but not always."
He smiles a bit, "Yeah, but we have one of those 'First things a soulmate says to you' kinda Marks, and Calanthe literally has Misaki introducing herself on her."
Kōno blinks rapidly, "Ah. Yeah, that'd cinch it." He shakes his head, "Anyway, how did you find this out?"
Hei shrugs, "The how isn't the potentially damaging part, since it was from this exact potion a little under six years ago. It's the why that's potentially… bad if it gets out, since I imagine your follow up is why I was using that potion?" Kōno nods, and Hei sighs, "Because the Syndicate went out of its way to make sure that by the time they were done training me that I couldn't remember my birth name, or my birthday though that's not particularly relevant, and I kinda needed the former to make some documents as legally binding as possible." He looks down at the table, jaw clenching, "I don't know if it's the same here, but over in the British Wizarding World, which is where Calanthe, mine and Misaki's other soulmate, is from, if one can prove any form of abuse or neglect, than an adult soulmate can gain guardianship of a minor soulmate."
He looks up, eyes burning in anger, "And Calanthe, who is ten years younger than me, had a magical guardian that witnessed her parents' wills and knew full well it cleared her godfather of playing decoy for a spell to magically hide their house which was necessary because the UK magical world was in the middle of a civil war and her parents had made themselves targets of the other side. Yet upon her parents' deaths he promptly sealed their wills away so her godfather, who was supposed to be her guardian, went to prison, without questioning or trial mind you, forcibly took guardianship of her, then promptly tossed her away with her mom's sister, who the sealed will outright stated she was never supposed to go to with even orphanages being preferable to her since she hates anything magical.”
“Calanthe was then starved and abused while her magical guardian never even checked up on her, even as he helped himself to the inheritance her parents left her. So I needed my name back to claim guardianship of her away from him, and I'm very glad I had the foresight to name a backup guardian in case I was unavailable, but because of some… other issues, we had to use less… damning reasons because she needed to keep her head down regarding her old guardian rather than throwing all the evidence out there."
Kōno drops his pen and jaw. Her heart clenches painfully at the info dump of what their little soulmate went through. Utter silence hangs over both rooms, broken only when Kōno's pen hitting the floor after it rolls off the table which seems to snap him back to the present, "Why-" He clears his throat after his voice comes out croaky, "Why couldn't you just hit him with all the evidence?"
He purses his lips, "I don't know how knowledgeable you are about the magical world, but have you, by chance, heard of Albus Dumbledore?"
Kōno snorts, "Who hasn't, he's-" Then he cuts off, eyes blowing wide, "No. You're kidding me! Tell me you aren't going where I think you're going!"
Hei gives him a terse smile, "If you're thinking that Dumbledore," The name was spit with hatred, which she can fully understand if he's about to say what she thinks he's about to say, "was her magical guardian, then unfortunately I can't. Because he was absolutely the man who did all that. Which… may also help you understand why it'd be… difficult to actually pin him with his crimes. He'd have been far too likely to weasel out of them."
Kōno's brows furrow, "Are… Are you sure you should be talking about that so casually? Even if it's in questioning, that…"
Hei shrugs, "You're forgetting that between running into you all as BK-201 and Li Shengshun that I've gotten to know you all decently well." He looks away, "You're all good people, and aren't the sort to be blinded by the illustrious Albus Dumbledore's reputation. Anyway, I don't know how precarious Calanthe's position is, so I have no idea how damaging it would be if that came out."
Kōno straightens, "No. No, we aren't going to be blinded by a fake man." He clears his throat, "And no, I don't think that needs to be included in your trial or anything of the sort, so we'll just leave that as only on the recording for now just in case." Then he leans down to pick up his pen, "Though, something should probably be done about her aunt."
A grin stretches across Hei's face, "I'm not gonna lie, my first instinct was to stick a knife in those bastards, but Calanthe mentioned how much they valued their reputations, so when I got guardianship of Calanthe and Dumbledore stopped caring about them…" He shrugs, "I figured it'd hurt a hell of a lot more if I took a page out of my cop of a soulmate's book -which I knew from the very first words she spoke to me being her attempting to arrest me- and sicked the law on them." Then his grin gets a bit mean, "Well, might've thrown a Black Reaper flair on it by taking advantage of them being a bit well known locally and getting every paper in the area to do an article on it. See what happens to their oh so precious reputations then." He shrugs, "Petunia and Vernon Dursley from Little Whinging in case you're interested."
Kōno barks a laugh, "Oh I'm definitely going to have to look that up later!" Then he shakes his head with a chuckle, "But we've gotten a bit distracted, so let's get back to business."
Hei nods, and what little amused satisfaction she got from him taking a page from her book to nail their soulmate's relatives quickly evaporates as the story spills out. Of a young boy of twelve and his younger sister of only ten. Of how she'd started to change and get weird after that meteor shower that started everything with the Gates, Contractors, and Dolls. Of how there'd been scared whispers of people going strange then getting snatched up by the government.
Of the young boy coming home just in time to see his sister kill their mother, cursing and weeping over their father's corpse. Of how she'd collapsed like a puppet with strings cut before she could do anything but ask him a question, of if he hated her and wanted her dead too. Of that boy being confused and scared and lost on what to do. So he'd just taken his sister to bed while he tried to think about what came next. Of him taking care of her and after waking up, her deciding that since he hadn't taken advantage of her vulnerability, that he made a good guard dog. Of him convincing her to flee, because as logical as she was, her underdeveloped brain got in her way sometimes.
They'd quickly got snatched up by the Syndicate and the boy had been desperate not to lose his sister too, so with her backing him up since she considered him her guard, he insisted on staying with her. They didn't go easy on him, even though he wasn't the one they were after. Training him relentlessly and working to make him forget who he used to be. They also filled in the blanks on what happened to his sister. She was a Contractor, with an Obeisance of sleeping.
Meissor code BK-201.
Hei pauses briefly to let them take that in, and once he does she notices the tears streaming down her face, but can you really blame her? After everything Hei had gone through…
After a few beats he continues the story. Once the Syndicate had been satisfied enough with the siblings’ training, they'd been shipped off to the Heaven's Gate War. There, the boy had started to gain a name.
The Black Reaper.
It actually came, not from regular people, but from contractors. Because, as they put it, you could no more negotiate or bargain with him than you could the Grim Reaper once he had you in his sights.
Being contractors, they couldn't understand why. They couldn't understand that as far as he was concerned, any enemy left alive one day could be trying to kill his sister the next. His sister that he still loved, was loyal to, despite everything.
Then… Then he had been sent to chase down a defecting contractor, and while he was gone, the Heaven's Gate disappearance happened, and his sister went missing.
He had woken up a month later to be told he'd been found on the very edge of the phenomenon that happened to the Heaven's Gate, and somehow having his sister's power and meissor code to boot, yet not suffering any of the drawbacks.
And they had tempted him with promises to try to find out what happened to his sister. He had been lost and drifted for a while, uncertain what to do, just doing what he was told as he tried to figure out what happened to his sister, why he suddenly had her powers.
Then a job went wrong. And as he was dying in an alley, a young girl came across him. He told her to get lost, as despite the way they'd numbed him to violence and death, he didn't want a girl her age to watch someone die.
He'd been rather surprised to wake up. And horrified to realize the words he'd meant to be a mercy had left their horrific Mark on her ankle, because she was his soulmate. It had given her heads up about the state he'd be in though, and she'd been fully prepared despite only being eight, which was the whole reason he survived in the first place. Well, actually apparently later the Syndicate told him they were only half an hour from his last known location, but given how quickly he was fading, there was no guarantee he would've survived long enough for them to find him and administrator first aid before taking him back to one of their bases or a hospital.
He had tried to warn her away, tried to tell her that someone as young and innocent shouldn't get tangled up with the Black Reaper. Then she'd dropped her own bombshell on him, about what her life had been like up to then, of the realization of her innocent godfather rotting away in a prison guarded by creatures capable of devouring souls and whose very presence left one with nothing but their worst memories. And he'd decided, right then and there, to leave the Syndicate and stay with her.
It hadn't taken long for the Syndicate to track him down.
And when they had, they made it abundantly clear that they'd kill her if he didn't come back, and given he was all too familiar with their long reach… He knew there wasn't really anywhere he could get her away from them. Knew that if he tried to run, they probably wouldn't give him the option next time. That they'd just kill her.
Her eyes blur as he finishes that part with a sigh, “After that, well, I was back with the Syndicate, and I can tell you as much as I can about my second time there, but honestly? As terrible as it is, I've gotten so used to the kind of stuff they had me do that most of it blurs together. I don't particularly remember a lot of it in general. Some things stand out, just because of weird circumstances if nothing else, but a lot of it was more… going through the motions then forgetting about it and turning my attention to other things immediately after.”
Kōno swallows thickly, looking a bit teary eyed himself, then nods and with a hoarse voice, “Just start telling me what you do remember for now then.”
Hei nods, “Alright, but fair warning, it may not be in order.”
Kōno nods back, and they get started on the things Hei has done as BK- …as the Black Reaper. She turns away, leaning back against the glass and scrubbing at her eyes. There's a beat of silence in the observation room before Matsumoto pipes up, “No wonder Moody said he had a solid defense. A lost, scared child, snatched up and indoctrinated, and then after he breaks free, dragged back with threats to one of his soulmates…”
Saitō nods morosely, “I suppose he's living proof as to why it was a bad idea not to let the general public know what was going on. His parents might've contacted the authorities and survived otherwise, and even if the warning about that came too late, he may have avoided getting dragged into the mess with the Syndicate and all that.”
She sighs tiredly, then croaks out, “...Does it make me a bad cop if I forgive him for everything he's done just like that?”
Matsumoto and Saitō immediately shake their heads, but it's the first who replies, “No boss, it's perfectly understandable. And besides, we never really noticed back then, but in retrospect, he did his best not to kill any cops or anything ever, and even went out of his way to save us when we got into a pinch.”
She takes a deep breath, then nods.
She throws her arms around Hei's neck, "You won!"
He laughs as he wraps his arm around her waist. She hears a clap of a hand against fabric, and from the sudden small shift, she's fairly confident that it was someone clapping Hei on the shoulder, and looking over his shoulder, she sees Huang, as he told her to call him. Honestly, for all that she hardly knew them, she was already fond of Hei's team for their loyalty to him. Well deserved loyalty, given the revelations that had occurred in the four of their trials.
Of how Yin, when she had started to ‘wake up’ as she put it, had been ordered to be put down as well as confused about where she belonged now, and Hei had covered for her and insisted that if she wanted it, then her place was at his side.
Of how Mao's collar had broken, and without the link to the server that helps him keep his mind, he'd quickly lost himself, only for Hei to repair his collar and spend days catching black cats and slipping it on them and holding them gently for at least an hour, no matter how much they scratched and bit, until he found Mao.
Of how he'd tried to help Huang and a woman that were in love escape the Syndicate to start a new life. Which only fell apart because she noticed a Syndicate agent watching them at the docks right before they left, and realizing they already knew, chose to toss herself in front of a bus because she knew if she was still alive, Huang wouldn't give up which would only result in his death as well when they killed them both, rather than just hers.
Huang snorts, "Knew you would kid. You had the best case of all of us, and if that lawyer she hired managed to even get Mao and I acquitted with such shaky cases, there was no way in hell he couldn't get you a not guilty verdict. Little irritating that because you were so 'high profile' that they held off on it while they were cleaning up the Syndicate, but it's done now."
A female laughs, and she pulls away and turns to see her approaching. She's fairly average in height, with dark brown hair and decadent chocolate eyes. She's smiling at them, "So, how's it feel to be a criminal record free man?"
Hei smiles, "Pretty good. The mandatory counseling is a little irritating, and it feels a little forceful or presumptuous for them to say that while I'm not officially being watched that they want me to live with you so you can keep an eye on me, but it could've been a hell of a lot worse."
The woman laughs again, smiling warmly at him, "That it could've. Though, while I get we're soulmate's and all, it'd be weird to just start sharing a bed and I only have a one bedroom, so I'm not sure what to do to be honest.”
She tilts her head at her, "You should smile and laugh more. You've got a pretty laugh and beautiful smile, and you're far too young to already be developing frown lines on your face when you should be enjoying life to its fullest."
The woman gets a surprised expression, before she grins at her in amusement, "Why yes, it's nice to meet you as well, I'm Kirihara Misaki. Generally you're supposed to start with a greeting like that before you start dishing out life advice. Though given that you're about half my age some people would find it rude anyway."
Her eyes go wide in recognition, "You're-"
Hei laughs as Misaki grins and tugs the high collar of her coat down to show the graceful scrawl down her neck, "Our other soulmate? Yeah, she is."
She blinks rapidly, then lets go of him to turn to extend her hand to introduce herself properly, "It's nice to meet you Misaki, don't know if you've heard of me from Hei, but I'm Calanthe. Calanthe Potter-Black to be specific.” She flicks her gaze down to her own handwriting before it disappears back behind the collar Misaki has let go of with a faint grin, “I'd show you mine, but you left your Mark someplace… rather inappropriate for that.” Misaki chuckles as she pauses briefly then adds as she glances at Hei, “And also, as to the apartment thing before, I didn't know what exactly would happen with Hei, but I figured it's not like it'd be detrimental for the Potter family to have one in general, so I actually purchased an apartment here. It's a three bedroom too. You could both just move in there.”
Misaki steps forward and shakes her hand, "I've heard a little bit, but it's nice to meet you myself.” She gets a grin or her own, “Don't worry about not showing me yours. It's perfectly understandable. And yeah, your apartment could work." A woman at her side elbows her with a grin, and she gives her an exasperated smile, "I suppose I should introduce these guys. This is my best friend Ishizaki Kanami, and my colleagues Saitō Yūsuke, Kōno Yutaka, Matsumoto Kunio, and Ōtsuka Mayu. I'm around them… a lot so I imagine you'll be seeing quite a bit of them."
She smiles at her, then glances back at Hei, "I was l going to take Hei and his friends out to eat to celebrate. If none of them mind, why don't you guys join us? Well, as long as you're all comfortable with it too. I wouldn't want to pressure anyone into anything that'll make them uncomfortable."
She glances at Hei's group, who all shake their heads and murmur agreements to them coming, and Kanami's brows furrow, "I don't think any of us would mind tagging along on principle," She glances back and Misaki's coworkers shake their heads as well with smiles, "but that's an awful lot of people. Are you sure you can afford it?"
She smiles a bit, "Sweetheart, are you familiar with who was just the defense lawyer to Hei and his friends?"
Kanami smiles in amusement, "I'm friends with a cop. Of course I recognize such a well known lawyer."
She shakes her head, "Kanami, or I guess I should call you Ichizaki? Japanese people use last names unless you have a good relationship, right?" She shakes her head, "Anyway, who do you think hired him?" Her eyes, as well as everyone else's barring Hei's for that matter, go huge and she laughs, "If such establishments didn't tend to require reservations a long ways in advance and Hei didn't hate them, I could take you all to the most expensive place in the country and the bill would practically be pocket change given how much the various business I inherited from my family and investments I've made myself make in a day." She gives Hei an amused look, "That being said, don't expect anywhere remotely fancy. I wasn't kidding about Hei hating those places."
Kanami blinks rapidly at her, then covers her face as she laughs, "How-" She tries to fight her laughter under control enough to talk, "How did two people with similar distaste for high society, because Misaki is exactly the same in that regard, end up with a rich as fuck soulmate?"
She raises an eyebrow in amusement, then dryly says, “It's particularly humorous when you take into account that the British Wizarding World still very much has nobility, and I am a noble.”
That gets her almost busting a gut as her laughter redoubles, and the rest of Misaki's group try to hold their laughter in to varying degrees of success, but they clearly find it just as funny. After a few moments, she wipes her tears away, "Phew. I needed that laugh after such a stressful mess of the Syndicate getting justice. Oh, and don't worry about the name thing, just go ahead and call me Kanami. I don't mind."
They start to head out, and Misaki gives her a look of curiosity, "Do you really pull that much money in?"
She gives her an innocent smile, "You know, after this whole mess with the Syndicate, you could probably use a vacation. How about the Potter family Chalet in Switzerland near the ski resort I own?" Misaki gets wide eyed, and she continues on in mock innocence, "No? Too cold for your tastes? Maybe the beach manor on the property with the resort in France?" Misaki makes a choking noise, "Oh! I know! How about one of the vineyards in Italy, Spain, or France?" She almost trips, "Don't like wine? How about the breweries? Can take your pick of the ones in Germany, Belgium, Ireland, and England if that's more to your tastes."
Kanami starts laughing again, "Your fake innocence is fooling no one, for the record! But you should probably stop before you kill poor Misaki.”
She taps her bottom lip, then leans towards her to mock whisper, “But I've hardly even scratched the surface!” Kanami gives her an amused exasperated look before pointedly looking at where Misaki was making a rather hilarious face, and she waves a hand, “Fine, fine. I'll stop messing with Misaki for now.”
Hei shakes his head in amusement and she snickers as they head out to get food, then tilts her head at him, “By the way, just so there aren't any issues, Moody said you should probably get your stuff back from the police, because I… may have gone a bit overkill on them and he pointed out that if people realized the exact extent of what they were capable of that less… morally bound people would probably start killing each other in an attempt to get their hands on them.”
Misaki gives her a weird look, “Why would people try to kill each other over them? It's just a coat, wires, knives, and a mask isn't it? I mean, there's gotta be some magic on the mask, since Moody said not to look it in the eyes, but…”
She smiles a little, “That's probably not something we should talk about out in the open. The fact that they are things worth killing for and Hei really needs to take them back soon should say enough about the magic I put in them. I can tell you later in private if you want, but not in public.”
Misaki's brows furrow, but she nods and they head out to get food, and so she can get to know Misaki, and her and Hei's friends.
Rather than the group breaking up after the meal, and the quite lively conversation between them, including a brief but interesting discussion on if he was capable of and what may happen if Mao jumped into an animagus while they were transformed or a Maledicta as well as explaining what they were, things had rapidly turned into them helping Misaki, and Hei to a significantly lesser extent, pack their places up quickly and they even swung by to get Hei's gear from the evidence lockup, since it was clear to be taken back now that his trial was dealt with. It actually hadn't taken too long between all of them, since they got it done by the end of the day, and with the fact the boxes could just be stored in her and Hei's expanded trunks as well as the fact they'd followed them to her apartment to help get all the boxes back out and at least started on the unpacking, she found herself offering to order pizza for dinner for the group as thanks.
They had taken her up on it, and though it had been a bit chaotic getting everything ordered, it had gotten done in the end. She stretches out, “Well, it should be here in twenty minutes or so.”
Hei groans, “The worst sort of waiting imaginable.” She tilts her head and he clarifies, “The wait for food.”
She shakes her head with a smile, “Glutton.”
He snorts, “Excuse you, I'm an extremely active man, and the fusion with Bai increases by caloric needs as you well know, thank you very much. My appetite is perfectly reasonable. Seriously though, I hate waiting for food.”
She raises an eyebrow at Hei, “Well. There is one thing we could do to pass the time so you aren't hyper aware of it.” Hei raises an eyebrow back, and she narrows her eyes, “Even if you like to cheat at it.”
Understanding washes across his face, and amusement flickers through his eyes briefly as he rests his arms on the kitchen table and leans forward, expression challenging, “I do not, but are you sure you're up for it?”
She raises her nose and looks down it at him, “Oh, I'm up for it. And your dirty tricks won't work on me this time!” She and Hei stare each other down intently even as the others shift a bit nervously around them. She lowers her head back down, “I'm ready to throw down if you are.”
He smirks, “Always. Just remember that you asked for it when you lose.”
She narrows her eyes as she starts to reach into her space expanded bag. The tension around them had ratcheted up as they continued, and every last one of the crowd around them jumps as she whips what she'd been reaching for out of her bag and slams it on the table as she points at him with her other hand, “You're going down this time, Hei!”
There are choking noises around her as the crowd realizes what she'd brought out. There, resting innocently on the table was a box, a name printed on the center of the top.
Monopoly.
She drops her pointing hand to start opening the box, “You won't win this rematch, Hei!”
He smirks, “If you say so Xiǎolóng.”
Misaki suddenly starts laughing, and when they look over waves her hands, “No, sorry, just- To be honest, for a minute there I thought you two were about to fight.” There are agreeing nods, “And it's just monopoly. That, and I'm still getting used to Hei being the Black Reaper to be honest, and the thought of him doing something as normal as playing monopoly… It's a bit weird to wrap my head around for the Reaper.”
Kanami snorts, “Pretty sure they made it sound that way on purpose to mess with us. But yeah, I agree it's a weird notion.”
Hei shrugs, “It's not like all I do is kill day and night. And probably not ever again. Not to say I'll miss it or anything, but they desensitized me to it so much that in a messed up way I got so used to it that it'll be strange not to.”
She very carefully doesn't say anything about what's brewing back in the UK. Not tonight. Not during the first actual freedom he's gotten in years. Arguably since he was twelve, not seventeen, since even when he was with her last time, he was technically still a criminal hiding from his past and the Syndicate.
She knows full well he'll be mad if she doesn't say anything, and he does have a right to know, given it involves her, one of his soulmates, but she'll be damned if she drops all of that mess on him the same day he gets free and they get properly reunited instead of just her popping back into his life to explain the mess with the Syndicate, the plan to deal with them, and the options of either hiding or clearing his name rather briefly before he takes the second option and ends up in police custody.
He should get at least one day to just enjoy being free and back with her before he finds out there's more of a mess ahead. Despite the fact that on one hand she very much wants to just keep it from him and let him enjoy a peaceful life, she's not dumb enough not to know he could help. A lot. She wasn't exaggerating to Moody when she told him Hei was one of the best people they had available. And it was Hei's decision to make, one way or the other. She'd had too much of other people trying to make decisions for her when she was younger to turn into a hypocrite and make his for him. She could justify this one day to Hei and herself, but any longer then that and he would undoubtedly get upset with her, and he'd have good reason to, the longer she put it off the more akin to making his choices for him it would be.
She looks up at him with a grin as they finish setting up the game. Just one day at least.