Work Text:
Sachika hires Hoeru for three reasons.
The first is that she's desperate. The job she has scheduled for the day specifically requested three workers, but both Hanto and Lakia are still healing from a fight the day before, leaving just her and Shouma available.
The second is that Hoeru is clearly also desperate. When he unexpectedly arrives at Hapipare at eight in the morning, he's out of breath and covered in sweat, explaining when she asks that he walked all the way from the main train station at the other end of town because he didn't have the money to spend on local transit.
The third is that it's immediately clear that something is very wrong with Hoeru's situation. It's not just the walking thing, which is concerning on its own. It's that when he first arrives, he holds out an old help wanted ad she placed in a magazine months ago and had forgotten about. It's the resume he gives her that lists fifteen jobs from the last few months but nothing before that and no education. It's the address from one city over, the one he apparently spent his money taking the train from.
His tone is blunt. It would be rude, but it seems more like he isn't used to speaking to people than that he's trying to be mean. At the same time, there's an innocence to him that reminds her, just a little bit, of Shouma. Case in point, he looks at her with round eyes, his hope palatable as he waits to find out if she has a job for him.
So Sachika hands him a jumpsuit, hiring him for the day, and watches the way he literally slumps forward with relief.
*
Hapipare has been hired to clean up and rebuild an animal shelter after flooding in the area destroyed its outdoor section.
Hoeru doesn't complain when he's assigned to clean up after animals or when he's given heavy items to carry. He's quiet, only really speaking when Sachika or Shouma ask him a question, but he works alongside them easily. The dogs all love him on sight and he breaks into a wide grin when he bends down to give them attention.
At lunch, Sachika notices that he takes a bag of bread crusts out of his bag and nothing else. She excuses herself to try not to cry and comes back with convenience store meals for the three of them.
Hoeru is hesitant to take his at first, but Shouma sits down next to him, bumps their shoulders together and encourages him to eat.
Shouma makes happy eating noises, and soon Hoeru is making happy eating noises next to him, the two of them exclaiming earnestly about how good the cheap food is.
They're both oblivious to the mounting horror Sachika's feeling, and that feeling gets worse as the afternoon goes on. Shouma has trouble reading the kanji in an instruction manual because he's never had any formal education, but Hoeru can't read them either. When she makes a reference to a famous actor, Hoeru stares at her blankly. And then there's how he doesn't own a cell phone.
"Come back tomorrow," she tells him at the end of the day. "Same time, same place." She pays him in cash and adds a few more bills on top of it. "For transit," she explains.
It doesn't feel like enough but his eyebrows shoot up. "Really?"
"Travel safe," she tells him, and for a long moment afterwards, he stares at her in shock, which does nothing to temper the way she wants to both scream and pull him into a hug.
*
At the end of the second day, as she pays him, she invites Hoeru to a job the following week. She wishes she had more work for him sooner, but she doesn't.
In the intervening time, she digs out one of her old phones and puts a cheap plan on it. She hands it to Hoeru the next time she sees him.
He takes it carefully, almost cautiously. "What's the catch?" he asks, exhaustion audible in his voice.
"That I get to call you for work," she replies cheerily.
And she does call him, for jobs that require a third set of hands, or when multiple jobs come in at the same time, especially when Hanto is unavailable and Lakia is less than enthusiastic about being involved.
Hoeru show up, without hesitation, every single time.
She quickly learns that Hoeru is terrible at customer service or anything that requires certain kind of carefulness. When they're hired as emergency wait staff for a wedding, Hoeru is gruff, treating both people and the dishware roughly. So Sachika takes him aside. She explains that if he can't smile, he should act indifferent. She asks him to practice handling cups and plates more gently by picking them up and putting them down on a table over and over again. At first, he seems annoyed to be given instructions like this, but he actually does what she asks, and by the end of the job, he's improved enough to be passable.
It's Shouma who offers to let him stay the night at Hapipare afterwards instead of taking his long commute home.
They haven't been advertising that Shouma sleeps at her place of business, but Hoeru doesn't bat an eye at it, and when she arrives the next morning, Shouma is cooking breakfast for the three of them and a sleep-ruffled Hoeru asks her, "Do you have any work for me today, Boss?"
*
Hoeru knows there's something strange going on with Shouma, Sachika, and their friends.
The most obvious clue is that Shouma and that Lakia guy that comes around sometimes don't smell human. They look human and act human, but it hasn't escaped Hoeru's attention that Shouma can lift ten times his body weight with ease, or that he eats more candy in a day than is probably advisable.
Then there's Hanto. He's grumpy, he glares at Hoeru whenever he comes by, he may or may not be dating Shouma, and he, too, smells not-quite-human... and strongly of chocolate for some reason.
And then there are the small somethings in Hapipare and on Shouma's person that Hoeru can tell are there even though he's never seen them. They smell like a mixture of Shouma and different candies and snacks. Hoeru swears he can smell these somethings moving around sometimes.
Not to mention the fights. On more than one occasion, Shouma disappears in the middle of a job after getting a phone call, and comes back looking ruffled. Once, Sachika called Shouma, Lakia, and Hanto over to show them her laptop screen, and the three of them ran out the door only to reappear hours later covered in cuts and bruises.
They're clearly involved in some kind of trouble, but they make excuses, distract him, and pretend nothing is happening when he's around, so Hoeru doesn't ask the obvious questions. This is the only job he's been able to keep, and Shouma and Sachika are kind to him in a way he's still not used to. Shouma is quickly becoming the best friend he has, and Sachika takes the time to teach him the things everyone else just expects him to know. Plus, she took him and Shouma out for yakiniku at the end of the last job, and he'll put up with a lot for grilled meat.
Even if he pretends not to notice or care, he does. They seem to be handling it on their own, but when Shouma comes back with blood at the edge of his lips, Hoeru can't help the way his hands curl into fists at his sides.
*
The first time there's a ring battle while he's working at Hapipare, Hoeru panics. He can't afford to lose this job, and even if Sachika is fine with her other employees running off to fight sometimes, Hoeru has good reason to believe that that courtesy doesn't extend to him.
It's just him and Lakia today, working on a landscaping project, and Lakia waves him off when he says he'll be right back. Thankfully, Tegasword makes his trek back to his own city quick, but he still has to battle a salaryman with a ring and a half-flamingo half-hot sauce monstrosity of a No One.
To make matters worse, he ends up having to face-off against his brother, which he hates for multiple reasons. Kuon's barbs are aimed to cut right through Hoeru's soft underbelly, and Hoeru almost gets his head sliced off, but the worst part of the fight is that it feels more and more like he's fighting a stranger. He's no longer recognizing his brother in the person Kuon has become.
So it's awhile before he makes it back to Lakia and the landscaping. He's doesn't know what he expects to find when he returns, but it isn't Lakia crouched over the decorative rocks they installed earlier, examining one carefully before putting it in his mouth and chewing it.
Hoeru stares at him, frowning. Because that... definitely isn't human behavior. Lakia stares back at him, giving him a once-over that must take in Hoeru's dishevelled appearance and the bruise he can feel forming at his temple. Hoeru wonders if this is it -- if he's about to lose the best job he's ever had.
But Lakia goes back to work like nothing happened.
"Aren't you going to say anything?" Hoeru asks, because he has no interest in waiting for the other shoe to drop. If he's getting axed, whether because of his prolonged absence or because he witnessed something he wasn't supposed to, he wants to get it over with.
But Lakia just sighs heavily. "How dull," he says, and apparently that's it. Even though Hoeru remains on guard, they work together for rest of the day like nothing out of the ordinary ever happened.
*
The somethings keep moving around Hapipare when Hoeru's back is turned. Which is fine until he notices that there are days when he smells more of them and days when there are notably fewer, and that the latter are always after one of Shouma's unexplained absences.
When Hoeru is left alone in Hapipare for the first time, he takes the opportunity to sniff out the closest something. Behind a lamp, he discovers what looks like a small, rectangular snack package. It's got a face on it, and seems more like a figurine than actual snack packaging. With his nose, he sniffs out a few more. When he collects five of them, he holds them up in the open palms of his hands.
"You help Shouma somehow, don't you?" he asks them. Predictably, they remain still, giving no indication they've heard him. He growls at them, a little frustrated. "If Shouma is in trouble, tell me, okay? I can help too."
He quickly puts them down on the nearest table when he hears Sachika at the door. He helps her bring in the supplies she ran out to get, but later, when the supplies are unloaded and he turns his attention back to the table, the somethings have disappeared.
*
Shouma and Lakia are sure Hoeru isn't a granuto, but given the way Hoeru speaks and acts, Hanto can't help but be extremely suspicious of him. He starts digging for information about Hoeru, worried about this guy being so close to Sachika and Shouma, but there isn't much to find. No social media accounts, and no middle or high school records with a photo that matches Hoeru's appearance.
He does discover a decade-old missing person's report about a Toono Hoeru, but it's not available through his usual channels and he has to call in a favor to try to get his hands on it.
In the meantime, he waits for a day Hoeru is working at Hapipare and takes a trip to Hoeru's supposed address, the one in the next city over that he apparently commutes all the way from.
What he finds is a western-themed café that has rooms to rent in the back and overpriced drinks. He also finds a man in robes praising a god he's never heard of, a teenager wearing three different clashing plaids at the same time, a woman in stylish clothing who eyes him keenly, and a guy who looks an awful lot like the disgraced pop star Rikuo Byakuya.
He asks about the rooms for rent, their costs, and the number available, noting their answers and how they all have rings like the one Hoeru wears. They must be his friends. They're tight-lipped with information about themselves, but answer everything he asks about the landlord.
At the very end of his visit, he asks after Hoeru, claiming that he's heard that Hoeru can provide a review of the place for folks interested in renting here. The guy who is looking more and more like Rikuo Byakuya by the second tells him that Hoeru is at work and that he'll be back late in the evening.
Hanto returns home having confirmed Hoeru's address, and with the gnawing feeling he's missing something obvious.
*
Hanto is in Hapipare editing his latest piece for the magazine when it happens. Three gochizos rush in through an open window and chitter loudly to get what he assumes is just his attention.
Two of the gochizos run towards him and he's already reaching for the closest one, when the third gochizo heads towards Hoeru, who is gluing a bakery's logo onto baskets at the table across from him.
Hanto freezes. They've talked about this and Shouma had gone to great lengths over the past months to keep the gochizos hidden from Hoeru. A gochizo should not be showing itself to Hoeru. Hoeru should not know they exist.
Yet Hoeru jumps out of his chair at the sight of it.
"Where's Shouma?" Hoeru asks. He sounds as worried as Hanto feels, like he, too, knows what a gochizo appearing like this has to mean. "Take me to him," Hoeru says, and Hanto thinks they definitely need to have an important conversation in the near future.
There's no time now though, because Hoeru is chasing the gochizos out the door before Hanto can even grab his bag. Hanto curses, following them, and as they run along city streets and cut through alleyways, Hanto calls out to Hoeru, telling him that this isn't safe and that he should head back. Hoeru ignores him, if anything picking up speed, and Hanto struggles to keep up with him.
The gochizos lead them around the back of a warehouse, jumping up onto a window ledge. There's the sound of a battle happening deeper inside the warehouse, but the view through the window is more pressing. Shouma is lying motionless on the ground, untransformed. Next to him, Sachika is shaking Shouma's shoulders, and she's the only thing between Shouma and an approaching Nylev.
Hanto's about to burst inside when Hoeru flicks his right wrist, drawing his attention. A vaguely familiar a silver and blue blade appears in Hoeru's hand, and between one blink and the next, Hoeru is crashing through the window and charging at Nyelv.
"Toono!" Hanto calls, jumping in after him.
He's intending to get between Hoeru and Nyelv before Hoeru can do anything more reckless than he already has, but to his shock, Hoeru is blocking Nyelv's attacks with his blade, and landing a few hits of his own, forcing Nyelv back. Hoeru moves like a brawler, like he's used to fighting on the streets or maybe underground somewhere.
Hanto leaves him to it and rushes to Sachika and Shouma's side. Sachika fills him in on the trap Nyelv set for Shouma as he and Sachika each take one of Shouma's arms over their shoulders to carry him out of the warehouse. Hanto doesn't like the idea of leaving Hoeru to fight against Nyelv alone but when he looks over his shoulder, Hoeru has backed Nyelv into a corner.
"Who the hell are you?" he hears Nyelv ask Hoeru.
"A lone wolf," Hoeru answers, before attacking Nyelv again.
Thankfully, Hanto and Sachika are able to get Shouma outside without issue. Lakia joins them a moment later carrying a suitcase of human presses and reporting that he's finished off the minions.
Hanto hurries back to Hoeru, but Nyelv is already retreating when he gets there. Hoeru is panting, his chest heaving for breath, but he keeps his blade pointed in Nyelv's direction until Nyelv vanishes through a doorway portal.
Hanto has many, many questions he wants to ask, but Hoeru derails every single one of them when he runs to Hanto, puts his hands on Hanto's shoulders, and asks, "Is Shouma okay?"
*
Shouma is okay, and when they all make it back to Hapipare, Hanto finally presses Hoeru for some answers.
Hoeru tells them he knew about the gochizos because he could smell them. He also says that Shouma, Lakia, and Hanto all don't smell human, which is a statement Hanto finds particularly alarming.
But Hoeru doesn't know anything about granutos, dark candy, human presses, or kamen riders. His biggest concern is that he'll lose his job.
Sachika and Shouma are quick to assure him that his employment is not in jeopardy, though Hanto cuts Shouma off when he starts to explain what gochizos actually are.
Hanto's not sure if they should be bringing Hoeru into any of this. He isn't expecting Lakia to be the one to insist Hoeru deserves answers too. "He saved Shouma and Sachika," Lakia says like it's that simple.
They don't offer Hoeru too many details, or explain who the Stomach family are or their relation to Shouma, but Hoeru takes the information he's given surprisingly well.
Though that's probably because he's involved in his own fights. It's not just the way Hoeru took Nylev on. Now that the adrenaline is starting to recede, Hanto remembers where he's seen Hoeru's blade before. There was a blurry photo of the former prime minister with the same blade that circulated on gossip sights, the same ones that post about granuto sightings. Those sites have collected reports of people battling over magic rings in the city next to theirs. It isn't hard for Hanto to make the connection between those reports, Hoeru's blade, the ring on Hoeru's left hand, and the rings he saw the four people at the café wearing.
Hoeru just shrugs when Hanto asks about it. "Yeah, I fight with them sometimes," he says, and explains to them that the blade and his powerful sense of smell came from a pact with a demigod, and that when they're not battling each other over rings, he and the ring-holders from the café are trying to stop a rogue generative AI from destroying the planet.
It's concerning and raises even more questions, but as the afternoon stretches on, Hoeru goes back to decorating baskets. Shouma joins him, and sitting side-by-side, they finish up the order. As Hanto watches them, it's not the questions that haunt him. He can't stop thinking about how Hoeru rushed into a fight with an unknown enemy without hesitation because he knew Shouma and Sachika were in trouble.
Maybe Lakia was right. As much as Hanto's reporter instincts demand he get answers for every question as soon as possible, maybe that Hoeru saved them is enough for now.
*
For Shouma, it's a relief that Hoeru finally knows what's going on. He can talk about granutos and dark candy when Hoeru is around, and he doesn't need to make excuses when he has to run off to fight. Best of all, he doesn't have to hide to gochizos or where they come from anymore.
The gochizos adore Hoeru. They have taken to excitedly greeting Hoeru at the door in the morning and they bring him snacks to eat, the same way they do for Shouma. Hoeru seems to genuinely like the gochizos as well. He is gentle with them when he holds them, and Shouma has seen him speaking quietly to them on more than occasion. He doesn't mind them dancing around Hapipape or watching them work.
When a gochizo falls from a light fixture to the floor and starts crying, Hoeru picks it up and it crawls from Hoeru's hand up onto his shoulder. Shouma can't help the smile that blooms on his face when Hoeru lets the gochizo stay there and chitter at him for the rest of the afternoon.
*
In the evenings and when he has time, Shouma practices kanji. His mom did her best to make sure he had an education, but the more time he spends in the human world, the more aware he's of what he doesn't know. The kanji he can read are mostly elementary level with a random assortment of more complex characters thrown in.
Sachika got him workbooks to help him learn more, and after a job ends early, Shouma takes out one of them and starts working through an exercise.
Hoeru drops into the seat next to him and takes a workbook out of his own bag. It's for kanji too. "I do them on the train," he tells Shouma and they end up studying together.
Shouma likes Hoeru. He's felt a kinship with him that's only gotten stronger since the truth came out and he learned how similar their lives are. At the same time, he wonders how deep that similarity goes. Hoeru is confused by the human world in many of the same ways he is, and he's sitting with Shouma doing the same workbooks aimed at twelve-year-olds.
It's clear that Hoeru is dealing with more than he's shared. Shouma hopes Hoeru knows that he isn't alone. That no matter what he's facing, Shouma will be there for him.
*
Shouma and Hoeru's arms are weighed down with shopping bags for a client when Glotta appears in front of them, her scythe casually thrown over one shoulder.
"Who is this, little brother?" Glotta asks, a smile stretching her lips.
Hoeru sniffs the air, makes a face, and says to Shouma, "You have a terrible older sibling too, huh?"
Glotta doesn't give him time to reply. She lifts her scythe and charges towards Shouma.
Shouma drops his shopping bags to get out of her way, but Hoeru is faster than him. He inserts himself between them, his silver and blue blade appearing out of nowhere and blocking Glotta's strike. Hoeru is forced back by the strength of the attack and Shouma cries out in alarm.
"Hoeru!"
Thankfully, while Hoeru looks furious, he seems otherwise fine, even as Glotta brings her scythe down on Hoeru, swinging at him again and again. Hoeru keeps pace with her, blocking every attack. Shouma was unconscious when Hoeru fought Neylv, but he's able to watch now as Hoeru darts to the side, landing a strike that slices Glotta across her arm. She rears back, outraged, and when she switches to her true form, and Hoeru doesn't finch at the sight of her.
Shouma transforms to take over the fight, but Glotta is stronger in this form, and it quickly becomes oblivious that Shouma would benefit from some help.
Next to him, Hoeru claps his hands, drawing both Shouma and Glotta's attention. Before their eyes, his body is enveloped in armor, not unsimilar to Shouma's own, but Hoeru's is bright red with black and gold accents.
Shouma likes working with Hoeru at Hapipare. They divide tasks equally and collaborate well, and it feels a bit like that when they take on Glotta together. Even though they've never fought together before, they move like they have. Shouma creates an opening for Hoeru to get an attack in and they strike in unison without having to say anything to one another. They manage to drive Glotta away before she even gets a chance to deliver whatever speech or punishment she came for.
Afterwards, when they catch their breath and collect their bags, Shouma decided to tell Hoeru about his family. He explains his family tree, including his siblings, his great-uncle, and his mother. Hoeru listens attentively, frowning the whole time, and as Shouma tells him about his upbringing, Hoeru frowns even more, a faraway look in his eyes.
*
Sachika knows there was a ring battle the night before and that that's why Hoeru falls asleep on one of the benches at Hapipare after lunch. Sachika and Shouma let him rest and they do their best to work quietly, putting the finishing touches on a set of bird houses they've been working on for three days now. It's a calm, peaceful afternoon until Hoeru cries out in his sleep.
"Older brother!" It's the volume of a whisper yet it still sounds like a scream.
"Hoeru?" Sachika asks, and when Hoeru cries out again both Shouma and Sachika are out of their chairs in seconds.
Shouma gently shakes Hoeru's shoulders, but Hoeru's nightmare must be a bad one because he thrashes against Shouma hold. It isn't until Sachika calls out to him, softly cupping Hoeru's face between her hands, that Hoeru jolts awake with a start.
He's breathing heavily, eyes wide and searching as he takes that he's in Hapipare, and that Shouma and Sachika are at his side.
"It's okay," Sachika says, sitting next to him and rubbing gentle circles into his back. "It was a nightmare."
Shouma goes to the kitchen to pour Hoeru a glass of water and brings it back to him. Hoeru seems confused by it but accepts it, taking a sip as Shouma takes the seat on Hoeru's other side.
It's quiet for long minutes afterwards, and while Sachika isn't happy that Hoeru is having nightmares, she's glad it happened here where they can take care of him, where they can just sit with him and give him the time he needs.
"I dreamed about my brother," Hoeru says into the silence, staring down at the glass in his hands.
Sachika didn't know he had a brother, and she's not expecting him to say anything more, but in a quiet voice, he tells him that he and his brother were separated years ago. They were reunited recently only because his brother is now leading the army of the rogue generative AI that Hoeru and his friends have been fighting. They learn that his brother wanted Hoeru at his side, and that ever since Hoeru refused to join him, his brother has been drawing Hoeru into fights because he believes that Hoeru deserves to be punished for his disobedience.
"He's the only family I have," Hoeru says, and his voice breaks when he adds, "But he doesn't feel like family anymore."
Sachika continues to rub circles into his back, understanding now why Hoeru's brother would give him nightmares.
Shouma hums sympathetically and says, "Sachika, Hanto, and Lakia taught me that family is also who you choose."
Hoeru snorts humorlessly. "For you, maybe. Why would anyone choose me?"
Sachika feels her heart clench. "Because you're Hoeru," she tells him.
Hoeru shakes his head. "That's never been enough."
"Hasn't it?" Shouma tilts sideways, bumping his arm against Hoeru's. "I mean, you and Lakia are much better old brothers to me than my actual siblings."
Sachika sucks in a breath at the words, and she's not the only one who's taken aback by them because she feels Hoeru go tense against her hands.
"What?" he asks, quietly.
"Lakia had a younger brother," Shouma explains. "And I'm not a replacement or anything. I'm another younger brother."
Slowly, Hoeru raises his head. There's a crease between his brows and he stares at Shouma like he can't believe the words coming out of his mouth.
"Just like you're another older brother to me," Shouma continues easily.
Sachika tries to gauge Hoeru's reaction as he continues to look at Shouma like he's grown another head, but then Hoeru blinks. Once, twice, and his eyes go glassy. He swipes the back of his hand across his face and scowls. "You can't just say things like that," he grumbles, but it lacks any heat.
"I just did," Shouma says playfully, like... like a little brother would. Hoeru makes a face at him, Shouma laughs, and Sachika lets out a breath she didn't know she was holding.
*
It takes weeks for Hanto to receive the missing persons report back from his contact. Sachika knows this because he hands it to her, expression grim. She refuses to read it at first, wanting to respect Hoeru's privacy, but Hanto explains that much of this report should be public, and that it took his contact so long to get it because someone tried to buried it.
She's not she what she was expecting to read, but it's not an eleven-year-old report about two brothers who vanished together under mysterious circumstances and who are still declared missing.
"News stories about this were wiped off the web," Hanto tells her. "Though I was able to find this after I got the report." It's a copy of an old newspaper article. There's a photo attached of a tiny chubby-cheeked Hoeru standing next to a taller boy who must be his brother.
The two of them ask Hoeru about it when he's next at Hapipare, phrasing their questions carefully and making sure Hoeru knows he doesn't need to answer. Mostly, they just want to make sure he's okay.
But Hoeru nonchalantly tells them that for a decade he was trapped in another dimension where feeling any sort of desire would've gotten him killed and where he was the sole human survivor of his cohort. He says it like it's a matter of fact, like he's talking about the weather.
Sachika's face is wet. She's crying, she realizes. What he just described is horrific, and she can't imagine such a thing to happen to anyone, let alone to Hoeru.
The tears keep coming as so many things about Hoeru start making sense. The resume with only recent work experience and with no education listed. Hoeru's lack of knowledge of basic things most people know. The kanji he practices with Shouma. His fighting skills. How he treats food with reverence. The way he gets between someone he loves and a threat.
The reality is so much worse than anything she could've imagined.
"Why are you crying?" Hoeru asks when he notices. He stands from the table where he was working and comes closer to her, looking around for what could be causing her distress. "What happened? Are you okay?"
That Hoeru doesn't seem to understand that someone would cry after hearing his story is heartbreaking in its own right. She meets Hanto's equally horrified expression over Hoeru's shoulder, and thinks it's a good thing Hoeru responded seven months late to that ad she placed. That it's a good thing she had work for him that first day. That it's a good thing that she took a chance on him.
Because he's theirs now, whether he fully understands it yet or not, and they have no plans to ever let him go.
*
Hoeru's older brother is an active threat, and after Hoeru shows up with a black eye that he admits was caused by him, Sachika calls a team meeting to bring everyone else up to speed. First, she asks Hoeru if she can share what she knows about him with the others, but he genuinely doesn't seem to care about the privacy of his personal information.
They end up comparing notes, and they all learn something terrible. For Hanto, it's the bread crusts. For Lakia, it's the villainous older brother. For Shouma, it's the decade-long fight for survival that started when Hoeru was just ten years old.
She sees her own protective rage reflected back in the faces around her and hopes that now that they're all on the same page, they can keep Hoeru safe.
*
Hoeru is decorating what has to be his three hundredth cookie for some flower shop's grand opening when four very loud and very familiar people walk in through the door.
"Hoerutchi!" Kinjiro calls out, waving at Hoeru.
Sachika, who's seated next to Hoeru, leans over to ask him, "Is that Rikuo Byakuya?", but Hoeru doesn't answer. He's too surprised that the four of them are in this space that's so far been separate from the world of ring battles and fights with Bridan.
"What are you all doing here?" he asks them, dusting his hands off on his apron and getting up to greet them.
Ryugi looks around Hapipare with a critical eye, taking in the colorful decor and Hoeru's apron. "We wanted to see if your job was real."
"It's real," Hoeru says, defensive until he notices that Rikuo and Kinjiro are grinning. It takes a him a second to clue in to what is really going on. "Wait. Did you really come all this way to check on me?"
Sumino has her hands planted on her hips. "Of course we did. You've kept this job for six months. What were we supposed to think?"
"Ugh," Hoeru groans, but the corner of his mouth quirks upwards without his permission.
Kinjiro rushed over to poke Hoeru in the cheek. "Admit it. You're happy to see us, aren't you?"
He's touched that they made this effort for him, though it's not like he will tell them that. He pushes Kinjiro away, but if he can't quite seem to stop his smile from escaping as he introduces them to Sachika, at least no one comments on it.
*
If Hoeru's friends could find him, it's only matter of time until an enemy does too.
Kuon steps into Hapipare on an otherwise unassuming Wednesday morning wearing a three-piece grey suit, shiny black shoes, and a smug smile on his face. "Little brother," he says. "So this is where you've been hiding."
Hoeru freezes, terror washing over him. Because Kuon can't be here. It's a full house today -- Shouma, Sachika, Hanto, and Lakia are all working, and Kuon can't be allowed to harm them.
But before the words are out of Kuon's mouth, Shouma is moving in front of Hoeru, his fists out, ready to fight. Hoeru grabs his arm and tries to pull him away from Kuon, but he doesn't budge, and to make matters worse, Sachika comes to stand next to Shouma brandishing her pink baseball bat.
"Get the hell out of my business!" she yells.
"Do you have any idea who I am?" Kuon asks, unperturbed and waving his hand pompously in the air.
From behind him, Hoeru hears Hanto curse and then he's yelling too. "You're Kuon of AI Konzer! Your company is literally destroying the planet and people's lives!"
As Hanto continues to yell about the mysterious disappearances of former AI Konzer employees, Lakia walks around all of them towards Kuon. Hoeru tries to stop him, but Shouma grabs his shirt and tugs Hoeru back behind him.
Kuon arches an eyebrow at Lakia as he approaches and he spares a glance at Hanto, Shouma, and Sachika. "It's time for us to go, Hoeru. After all, you wouldn't want anything to happen to these new friends of yours, would y--"
Kuon is cut off by Lakia, who has wrapped his hands around Kuon's middle, trapping Kuon's arms at his sides.
"Unhand me," Kuon says angerly, trying to break the hold. His eyes widen as he realizes that he can't. Kuon is physically strong, but he's nothing compared to granuto super strength. He struggles in Lakia's grip, kicking him and threatening him with bodily harm, but Lakia is unimpressed and unmovable.
"I'm taking out the trash," Lakia announces in monotone, hauling Kuon out of Hapipare. Sachika follows behind them and the second Kuon's flailing legs are through the threshold, she slams the door shut behind them.
As Hoeru is processing what just happened, Shouma, Hanto, and Sachika check him over for injuries and ask him if he's okay. They all seem concerned, but all he can do is stare back at them. He was so shocked by Kuon being here and he was so worried about them getting hurt but...
"You threw him out," he says, stunned.
"Of course," Sachika says. "He's not welcomed here."
Hoeru takes a shaky, uneven breath. As his heartbeat starts to stabilize, he begins to fully appreciate what just happened. Shouma, Sachika, Hanto, and Lakia held their own again Kuon, and they did it to protect him. And judging by the fact that no gochizos are panicking, Lakia is fine.
There's an overwhelming feeling in his chest that's tender to the touch. At the same time, he pictures Lakia shoving Kuon into the trash bin out back -- suit, shiny shoes, and all. He lets out a relieved sigh, and then throws his head back and begins to laugh.
*
The next time there's a ring battle, Shouma follows Hoeru into it.
Kuon, in his full Ring Hunter Garyudo armor, separates Hoeru from everyone else, pulling him into a one-on-one fight. Kuon takes the opportunity to whisper into Hoeru's ear about how Hoeru is a lone, lost wolf who needs his older brother to show him the path forward.
But Kuon is wrong. For the first time in a long time, Hoeru has people who care about him. He has a found family and good friends, including Shouma who, as if on cue, appears from above and immediately punches Kuon straight through a concrete wall.
"I've got your back," Shouma tells him, and Hoeru slaps Shouma on the shoulder in gratitude.