By the time everyone from Haruki's group was back home, it was really late into the night, but Stella still hadn't been found yet. Tired of searching all over, Fa was scowling by the gates of the new house they'd just recently started living in. All hurled up, she could feel her body shaking with fear while streams of tears flowed silently down her cheeks.
"She can't be far, we'll find her Fay," walking up beside her while the others continued to look, Riley tried to reassure Fay, but it didn't seem to have any effect on her.
"Where's Haruki? Is he still not done with that Nabe girl?" Wiping her tears, Fay asked while looking up at Riley.
Not sure how to answer her when Riley herself didn't know the answer, she simply plastered up a smile and tried to comfort her further.
"He'll be here, don't worry," again, words weren't enough to comfort the soul merchant.
Slowly looking back down, Fay covered up her mouth as tears began riding down her cheeks once more. For a while, as she was stuck in that state of emotional agony, her wolves searched for Stella while she tried to calm herself so as to not lash out at Asuka. However, just like the demi-humans, her wolves weren't able to pick up Stella's smell either.
Wallowed up in fear of losing her daughter, an idea clicked inside Fay's head. Heading straight for Haruki's room, she began to search all over for the sapphire brooch that Rose had given him. Unfortunately, no matter how hard or where she looked, she couldn't find it at all as Haruki had taken the brooch out with him.
"Fuck! Where the hell is it?!" At the edge of her sanity, she could feel her demonic nature taking hold of her with her rage.
Recognizing that quickly, she tried to calm down by drawing deep breaths since it was bound to only hurt her in the long run, especially since succubi weren't supposed to nurture and raise children and if she gave into those twisted instincts, it'll only end up horribly for her as a mother figure to Stella.
"Ughhh! I need to go get Haruki!" Tired of waiting around, Fay decided to go get Haruki herself instead of waiting for him.
***
On his way home, cloaked under a rag, Haruki made sure to kill the guards before replacing them all with a clone of their bodies. The whole ordeal took him much longer than expected and the night had slipped so deep that the usually crowded streets of Dolatia were as vacant as a ghost city. On his way back through the silent streets, a pair of child-like laughter threw him off guard. For some reason, he felt like he'd heard at least one of those voices, and it obviously drew him in like a moth to fire.
Upon getting to a secluded corner in an alley near his new home, he found Stella playing in a puddle of mud with a strange translucent child. The moment he tried to approach them, the boy looked right at him and quickly disappeared. Left puzzled by the sight, Haruki didn't realize as Stella turned her gaze to him and beamed up a giant smile.
"H-Haruki!" She cried, her arms outstretched as if asking him to pick her up.
"What are you doing here?" He asked, walking up closer to her.
Quickly picking him up in his arms, he just looked at her, confused.
"Ma-Max!" Stella answered, her hands thrown excitedly into the sky.
"Max?" Haruki mumbled, still just as confused as before.
Nodding at her adoptive father, Stella reaffirmed the name. Having seen the translucent boy Haruki began to wonder if that spirit or that ghost was the one called Max. However, with the night waning away, he pushed everything off of his mind and began making his way back to the house.
On his way, rushing through the streets right outside his house, he noticed Fay trying to free herself from the hands of Riley and the demi-cats. For whatever reason, they were trying to keep her from taking even a step forward, and it wasn't until Haruki got really close that he figured out that they were all probably looking for Stella.
"Haruki! Stella!" Seeing her little girl in Haruki's arms, Fay broke into tears once again.
"M-Mommy!" Exclaimed Stella, her hand stretched towards Fay.
Taking her daughter in her arms, she began kissing her all over despite her muddied skin and clothes. In the meantime, looking around at the worried faces of his companions, Haruki figured out just how long they must've been searching for Stella.
"We should go in, there's a lot of stuff we need to discuss," rubbing Fay's arm to comfort her, Haruki planted a brief kiss on her cheeks before making his way toward the house.
One after the other as everyone walked in, Haruki sat down at the bar and motioned for the others to sit around him as well. For a while, they all allowed each other to calm down in silence before eventually, Haruki broke the silence in the room.
"Fay, I saw a ghostly figure of a boy playing with Stella in an alley," from the edge of his eye, Haruki noticed Asuka's ears perked up at the news. "I think his name is Max, and he and Stella seemed friendly with each other, but we should still take precautions to not allow this to happen again."
Baffled by the revelation, everyone gave each other confounding glances, except for Asuka who'd already seen the ghost kid once.
"What about the devil girl, Nabe, did you finally get her?" Riley asked, breaking the flow of conversation around the bar counter.
"I did, but we can talk about it later, for now-"
"I…" Jumping in on the conversation, Asuka timidly voiced her concern. "I saw that boy hiding down in the basement, but I didn't know that it was a real ghost!"
Following her words, a moment of silence lingered in the room. Only broken once again by Haruki after he let out a heavy sigh.
"We should all just rest our heads for now, and worry about all this stuff later tomorrow, okay?" Looking around at his companions, he nodded his head at them, and then all eventually nodded back in agreement. "I've taken care of the devil girl, and Stella is safe, that's all that matters at the moment, so let's just sleep."
Getting off the stool, Haruki gestured to Fay to follow her upstairs so they could both watch Stella through the night in case the boy appeared once again. Seeing them climb up, Asuka couldn't help but feel drowned by guilt. Even though she'd seen the boy, she did nothing and caused everyone hours of distress.
'I need to do something to make up for it.' She thought and began racking her mind to come up with an appropriate apology.
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