A Professional Hug... It's Not Weird At All

“Would you like some of Deez Bunz?”

Hoshino took a number of heavy, measured steps. He kept his head low, grimacing and hiding the shortness of his breath as he marched toward a certain kid sitting on a bench in the middle of a park. Yes, he approached him like a normal person. And in his hand was a paper bag full of steaming matcha buns.

This was him. Shiba Kakeru.

“Oh—” Shiba Kakeru lifted his head, his dead eyes straining and meeting Hoshino’s gaze. He forced out a chuckle. “You’ve found me.”

“Yep.”

Hoshino sat on the other side of the bench and placed the paper bag between them.

Well, it wasn’t easy. Getting the Sumire household’s address wasn’t an issue. Hazama did the talking and Ishigami just… stood by the door with his arms crossed and said nothing. After three minutes of silence and just that, the personnel in charge cracked like an egg. The actual hard part was covering the area.

Hoshino believed that Shiba Kakeru would be going for Hino Sumire next. And of course, the Hino household had a timely vacation as soon as they heard the news—but Mr. Shiba Kakeru right here wouldn’t know that. He didn’t have to, even at this moment.

To be fair, they recently discovered that too. Hazama planned to put them under custody, but they couldn’t exactly do that anymore. So with their newest lead dead and sinking in the water, Hoshino had the brilliant idea to run around the area to see if there were suspicious people around.

And there—bingo.

To note, Shiba Kakeru wasn’t exactly hiding. His silhouette burned with malevolent mana, its pressure and shape covering the park itself and making the nearby swings and seesaws move just a little. But even so…

Hoshino bit into his first matcha bun. When Shiba Kakeru looked his way, he smiled and encouraged him to take one. The boy stared at him for a good minute. Hoshino dared not look away, his eyes slowly softening at the silence that raked his ears and twisted his chest. There was a certain weight on him that he could not explain… it was as if he was the center of a world that didn’t want him while everything and nothing was attached to his body. Finally, the boy obliged and got his first matcha bun too.

Shiba Kakeru took his first bite. He smiled a little. “So… what happens now?”

Hoshino set his eyes on the boy again. His mouth felt dry. The air had become unbelievably cold. It was as if his blood was flushed out of his body. It was as if his body would break like glass if he moved. His legs started bouncing with the tap of his feet. His body screamed at him to run, to hide. But where?

If there was… If there was something he had learned from his training, it would be the fact that curse magic or curses were extremely deadly and can only be activated by a number of very specific conditions. Eugh. Lemmy came to mind. But he was the perfect example. One of the most common conditions would be for the caster to see or at least remember what the target looked like. So, it was possible that Hino Sumire only survived because her family avoided putting their faces on the internet. The rest of the victims were normal and had a semblance of a social media presence.

Shiba Kakeru. Hoshino already knew that the boy was dangerous. And great, and now that he entertained the thought… he wanted to run again. But then again, he didn’t have to be here. In fact, he didn’t have to do anything. He could just call Ishigami or Hazama… maybe both of them. Then, he could get this shit over with. No trouble. No risks. Then he would get praised for saving their weekend. But no—

Hoshino tasted blood in his mouth. Slowly… he peeled his eyes away from Shiba Kakeru. Ah. He was bleeding from his nose. He wiped it off. As calmly as he could. As gently as he could. For a moment, he imagined himself to be as strong as Ishigami and as cool as Hazama—the kind of thing they would do if they ever hurt themselves like this. It worked nicely. If he panicked, he would die.

But Hazama and Ishigami wouldn’t be coming. At least not yet. Hoshino turned off his phone. Not yet. The case itself. The things he had learned about the victims. The story of Nagamori Arisa. The school. The baddie at the bridge. The videos. The home. Shiba Miyako herself. And now… Shiba Kakeru. Hoshino gathered the mere fragments of their lives—a bastardization of them, most likely.

Hoshino never placed himself in the equation. But if there was a person in front of him with eyes as dark as the deepest, lightless parts of space, the eyes of a person that just snapped and had toed the line between what was good and what wasn’t… the eyes of a person that was wondering if they could still go back and after wallowing in the weight of the sins they just committed.. Why wouldn’t he help?

And there it was. That look. The one he was most familiar with. The thought that Hoshino could not, would not, and would never understand what the person was going through. And to be honest, Shiba Kakeru was right. There was no way Hoshino could tell a person who had been bullied for years, who had his mom kidnapped, and who may have crushed three people in cold blood that everything was going to be alright. It wouldn’t be. Shiba Kakeru had plenty of time to understand that too.

Hoshino rubbed the back of his neck, still keeping his smile. The sex was okay… numbing at some point. But if there was something that he absolutely loved about his previous job, it was that it let him encourage other people to tell their stories and then dream of a better future. The boy needed it. Desperately. It’s just that the ice was sometimes too thick to break. Alcohol would work wonders as an ice breaker but… Hoshino’s not the best b-tier host in all of Kanzakicho for nothing.

Hoshino stared into the dark sky. He pressed his back against the bench, sighing as he welcomed the freezing wind of the night. “You ever think fish get thirsty?”

“Seriously?”

Hoshino smiled. “I’ve been thinking about it.”

“Obviously not.” Shiba Kakeru snorted. “They’re in the water.”

“So?”

“So—” Shiba Kakeru raised his voice. It was small, but he was smiling. Probably due to how dumb their conversation was. “So, they’re drinking when they need to. So, they don’t get thirsty.”

“See…” Hoshino replied, grinning, matching Shiba Kakeru’s energy and shifting his body toward him. “Water is like air to them. We don’t drink air. Therefore, your argument is stupid—”

“No, you’re stupid.”

Hoshino chuckled. “Nuh-uh.”

“That’s assuming they need water specifically to breathe. It just so happens that there’s oxygen in the water,” Shiba Kakeru continued, his voice getting more and more energetic. “And if you’re going to argue about the act of drinking… fish don’t drink. Water just gets into them. So that’s an extra level of stupid. And another level of stupid would be trying to avoid the fact that we can never know or understand what a non-human feels like—”

Shiba Kakeru stopped. There was a bit of light glinting in his eyes. But there was no need to point that out and use that against him. Hoshino relaxed and breathed, shrugging as if what they were doing was the most normal, obvious thing. A second passed. Shiba Kakeru’s gaze fell to the floor, turning and looking more pained from one moment to another. He swallowed, clutching both his fists as though he was battling some demons himself.

“Who are you—” Shiba Kakeru muttered, avoiding Hoshino’s gaze. “What are you, mister?”

“I’m Hoshino… an exorcist.”

Shiba Kakeru let out a heavy laugh. “So a policeman then…”

“Technically.”

Shiba Kakeru lifted his head and flashed him a pained stare. “So… what happens now?”

Arrest him. Release the news to the public. Maybe save his mom. Then, send him to jail. Not necessarily in that order. Hoshino forgot. But the train of thought was just there so he could avoid thinking about how he could not bear to tell him this.

Hoshino had thought about it a number of times even before he approached the boy. His plans were never concrete to begin with, but in his heart was a thought, a bit of hope that the boy was innocent. And that look alone convinced him.

Hoshino’s eyes glistened. He took a sharp, shallow breath, tightening his lips to stifle a cry. But then he lost control. Without another thought, he leaned forward. He hugged him, anchoring him in place. One arm was wrapped around Shiba Kakeru’s back, pulling him in. The other hand shielded the boy’s head, encouraging him to tuck his face into his shoulder—and he did.

The world was silent. It was as if nothing else existed. Shiba Kakeru was as stiff as a board. He flinched, too. If anything, this could’ve been perceived as an attack. Then, he turned his face away. Then, there was a shiver in his frame. He sobbed. Then, his hands moved and gripped Hoshino’s back. Finally, the dam broke under all that weight. Shiba Kakeru hugged Hoshino tighter, muffling his scream into the man’s shoulder and realizing how warm his tears were. This seemed like the first cry he had had in a long while. This seemed like a cry he had finally been allowed to have.

“They h-hurt me, Hoshino-san…”

Hoshino nodded, trying his best not to cry himself as Shiba Kakeru’s voice twisted his heart.

“But they wanted my mom too—” Shiba Kakeru continued, pressing his head harder against Hoshino’s shoulder. He clutched Hoshino's clothes in rage, threatening to tear them apart. “Oogami… and Takenju-san s-said that they’re releasing the video unless I give them my m-mom—but that’s… that’s…” He took a sharp breath. “I had to do s-something… but then, my mom got kidnapped anyway and was taken to an abandoned f-factory and they wanted me to be there. I… I t-took it all… but why did they w-want my m-mom too? Why? Hoshino-san…”

Hoshino could only hug him back.

“Hoshino-san…” Shiba Kakeru breathed. “Help… Please, help me, Hoshino-san.”

Hoshino put on the bravest face he could muster and pulled himself away. He swallowed, gritting his teeth and forcing himself to smile. He held the boy by his shoulders. He set his determined eyes on him. But Hoshino wavered. It was okay. He was there. It was not like he could just tell him that. But finally, there was a light in his eyes. Hoshino dared not to let it get snuffed out.

But then again… who was he to tell him that everything was going to be alright? His mom was most likely taken by the Butterflies. Could he face Satory alone? Could he beat them with Lemmy in the equation? There was Black, too. There was also Nose and Shifu. Then there were a lot of other people. There was no way for him to win. He was not Hazama. He was not Ishigami. He was weak. It pained him to realize that. He had no power. None at all. But even so…

Hoshino widened his smile, ignoring the fact that it would look a bit pained to the boy in front of him. But even so… what kind of man would not protect a child in need?

“Na—”

“Naturally.”

Ishigami’s voice broke through the silence, forcing Hoshino to look back. And there was relief. The man, the myth, and the legend was there… his gigantic body shaking as tears streamed down his cheeks. Hazama was at his side, carrying two energy drinks—one in each hand—looking visibly pissed.

It was not impossible for the both of them to find Hoshino and the kid. The real question was how they were able to sneak up on them without being noticed. And of course, Shiba Kakeru was just as surprised too.

“Good job finding Shiba Kakeru, Hoshino-san.” She chugged the first bottle, walking past Ishigami as she moved toward them. “I would’ve had the pleasure of putting it in the report if not for your decision to ignore my calls and the fact that you hugged a child in a park in the middle of the night without consent. Whatever you could say might not hold up properly with the law—”

“Relax, Hazama-san. I am the law,” Ishigami declared, smiling wide as he removed his jacket, folded it, and set it on the bench. He glanced at Hazama and then at the boy. “You’re Shiba Kakeru, correct?”

Shiba Kakeru glanced at Hoshino and then at the man that towered over him. He wiped his tears. “Yes, s-sir.”

Hazama chugged the second bottle and set it beside Ishigami’s shirt. She wiped the bits of energy drink from her chin with a cute kitty-cat napkin and faced them all, her glasses gleaming with death—met only by the elegance of the moonlight summoned by the veering clouds that were slowly escaping her sheer presence.

“Let’s go save your mom, Shiba-kun.”