Chapter Text
When Heizou gets a call from the office telling him that there is a ghost haunting one of the houses he is selling, he tries his best not to laugh.
His life as a real estate agent taught him that the older a house is, the more prone it is to ghost stories. He just doesn’t expect his co-worker, Venti, to live with that saying.
“One of the neighbors said loud crashing noises were coming from that house. The decor might have been destroyed by ghosts or demons!” Venti explains over the phone.
“Ghosts and demons aren’t real,” Heizou says, his voice monotone after having to remind him for the nth time this month.
“But they are! Who else would be shameless enough to trespass on this house?” Venti asks. “Look, I’m not going to have another conversation with you about this but—”
“Good.”
“Just go to the house for me, okay? And bring a priest with you.”
“Maybe I’ll bring the cops ‘cause you haven’t considered a break-in.” He says as he ends the conversation and grabs his bag on the way to the alleged haunted house.
He stops his car in front of the estate’s tall iron gates and the first thing he does is check the silver chains prohibiting anyone from stepping foot inside the property. Funny how the chains are still intact and haven’t been touched since he last went here last week.
When he walks by the house's main door, he checks its locks and notices how they also remained intact.
“Uncanny,” Heizou mutters to himself as he opens the front door.
To say that he’s proud of the interior is an understatement. When the house was assigned to be sold under him, the first thing he did was hire an expensive interior designer to properly renovate the house and paid a more handsome fee to make sure that it gets to keep its traditional charm. Traditional Inazuma but with a modern twist.
But Heizou immediately knows that he has a problem when he steps inside the house and sees how some of the expensive decorations seem to have been intentionally broken, particularly the new ones his interior designer added like the shattered pieces of the vases shipped from Liyue. The only silver lining about this ordeal is that the old furniture and decorations from the previous owners weren’t touched. Now that would be a bigger problem.
If the vase murderer is still here then Heizou is going to surprise them. Or call the cops on them. So he opts not to open the lights and only relies on the sunrays crossing through the windows to guide his path as he inspects the ground floor further.
He sees the broken candle stand cut in half by the grand piano and lets out a deep sigh. At least the person who broke in didn’t bash the piano to pieces. Other than the broken candle stand and the Liyue vase, there aren’t any other decorations that have been destroyed on the first floor.
As Heizou is about to leave the kitchen, he hears a faint creak of the wooden staircase.
Almost immediately, he rushes to the staircase to see if the vase killer is still there, but they’ve run off to the main hallway of the second floor to hide.
No one is there, though.
The bedroom doors are also closed. He assumes that the trespasser didn’t have the time to hide in the rooms discreetly otherwise they would make a sound. There’s a possibility that they’re still by the hallway somewhere.
And then he feels a tingle on the back of his neck. Like someone is purposefully blowing air on it.
“Show yourself!” Heizou yells as he spins his body to see the perpetrator, but he’s only met by the old painting hanging on the wall.
This is starting to become a little annoying. Annoyingly creepy. Because someone broke into this house and is now playing silly little tricks on him.
He then hears another creaking sound and this time, it’s louder than before. Heizou whips his head to the source and sees that the door at the end of the hallway has been slightly opened.
He’s rushing towards the opened door when he hears a spine-tingling sound of glass shattering from the same direction. He hurries on his feet because if another piece of furniture gets damaged then it’ll be put under his name.
Heizou slams the door open and sees a boy about his age, standing next to what appears to be a broken lamp.
“What are you doing here?” Is the first thing that Heizou asks. Fear and frustration bottled inside now freely flowing but it doesn’t stop him from concluding one thing: the boy is weird but in a cute way.
Sure, he has platinum hair and red eyes that you won’t usually see from most people, but he’s kinda cute. Quite his type. It doesn’t help that the playful smile on his lips makes Heizou want to kiss him senseless if they were in a different situation that doesn’t involve one pissed-off Heizou.
The boy dares to reach out his hand. “Hi, I’m Kazuha. I live here.” Well, at least now he knows what to tell the police if Heizou gets tired of him.
The growing headache is now clouding Heizou’s judgment and hindering him from properly responding when he replies with his name. “Heizou.” He says but doesn’t shake Kazuha’s hands. “And no, you don’t live here. But you’re going to pay for all the decorations you’ve broken. Your bill starts from fifty-thousand mora.”
“I will not pay for the atrocious pieces you’ve put in my house.” The boy says as he crinkles his nose. Cutely , Heizou’s brain unhelpfully supplies.
Heizou points a finger at him. “You’re going to hear from my interior designer. And this isn’t your house. The previous owner died more than twenty years ago.”
Kazuha gives him a toothy grin that, admittedly, looks good on him. “It was a mysterious death, right?”
Heizou tries to remember the history of the house he’s trying to sell. The century-old property was surrendered to the government, which gave it to the company he’s working for after its last owner died from unknown sickness two decades ago. The previous owner’s death only fanned the flames of the rumors about the place being haunted.
Since then, the mansion has been on the market without anyone wanting to buy it. Eventually, it was assigned to Heizou a year ago and he refurbished and renovated it in hopes of a wealthy sucker buying it despite its reputation.
Speaking of which, maybe that’s why the cute boy is here: to break the newly-added pieces of furniture to summon whatever supernatural creature he thinks is lurking here.
“How do you know this house’s history?” Heizou rubs his hands on his face. “Don’t tell me you’re one of those… ghost hunters who want to debunk the ghosts in this place.” He says, his tone is exasperated. He’s done his fair share of dealing with the lunatics trying to catch a ghost in this place, even going further by breaking into the property.
“I’m not.” Kazuha frowns and Heizou doesn’t know why he suddenly misses seeing it on him. “I dislike them. They’re quite irksome and love bothering me.”
Now that certainly catches Heizou’s attention. “Right?!” He exclaims, throwing his hands in the air. He doesn’t know why this guy is bothered by them but Heizou is just glad to meet someone with the same line of thinking.
“And there aren’t ghosts here.”
Finally, someone sympathizes with his pain and understands how silly the rumors are. “Exactly! But you’re still a trespasser with a penchant for breaking expensive things, which you’ll pay for by the way.”
Kazuha shakes his head gently. “No, I’m a demon.”
That’s… well, he’s not expecting that type of response.
“We were getting along so well.” Heizou sighs as he buries his face in his hands. He’s been trying to sort this situation out peacefully before resorting to calling the police and this cute nutjob isn’t helping himself.
Kazuha nods. “I take it that you don’t believe in the supernatural?”
“No,” Heizou sighs. “This is the last thing I needed: for a trespasser to claim that he’s a god-forsaken demon.”
“But I am.”
Heizou’s sanity is dropping every second he’s with Kazuha when he says, “I’ll entertain you, then.” He squints his eyes at the self-proclaimed demon and moves his head closer to Kazuha’s, their faces now a few inches apart. “Red eyes. Demon-like, yes, probably, but some humans have those.” He tucks some of Kazuha’s hair strands behind his ear. “No pointy ears.”
He then pats Kazuha’s head. Thrice, for good measure and because his hair is undeniably fluffy. “No horns.” He says as his fingers make their way to Kazuha’s bottom lip, gently tugging it for the mouth to open. He inspects the teeth, quietly ignoring two sharp teeth that can resemble tiny fangs if he thinks too hard about them. “No demon-like teeth.” He concludes as he removes his hands from Kazuha’s face.
Kazuha merely blinks at him.
“Hate to break it to you but I don’t think you’re a demon.” He’s too cute to be one. “But you’re trespassing a privately-owned area. You’ll have to go, otherwise, I’m going to call the police this time and—”
Heizou pretends that he didn’t let out a surprised squeak when Kazuha grabs his head and puts it against his chest, right next to his heart. His ear sits directly on top of Kazuha’s heart. Heizou can feel his own heart beating a little too fast for his liking because it feels like Kazuha is embracing his head and he’s liking every second of it. It feels quite intimate without the context of how the man is hugging him to prove an outlandish point.
Still. Heizou notices something. Kazuha smells like lavender… and a hint of sulfur? But the scent of lavender is stronger as if Kazuha was bathing in a lavender field before arriving here. And Heizou basks it in.
Fingers begin to comb his hair repetitively as he fights back the urge to bury his nose in Kazuha’s chest.
“I don’t have a heartbeat. You don’t hear it, right?” Kazuha asked as he gently pulled Heizou away from his chest. Heizou would rather die than admit that he missed Kazuha’s embrace.
“I didn’t,” Heizou confessed. “Sorry, my heart was pounding so loud. That’s the only thing I could hear.” It was either that or he admits that he wants to hug him.
“Oh? Does it make you nervous? Finding out that I’m a demon?” Kazuha grins.
“No, but being headlock by a stranger does.” Heizou lies as he rubs his hands against his face. “I don’t know why you’re vehement in trying to prove that you’re a demon.”
Kazuha only looked at him with intrigue. “You don’t believe me.” He says, his voice laced with amusement.
Heizou’s headache is worsening. Not even Kazuha’s embrace could cure it.
“Ghosts, demons, gods, and everything in between don’t exist.” Because where were the gods when he needed them the most? “Violators of the law, on the other hand, they do.” He closes his eyes and rubs his temples. “You seem like a nice guy. I feel like we could’ve been great friends if we met in different circumstances.”
“We still can be.”
“If you pay for the things you’ve broken then I don’t see why not.”
“I’m a demon. I don’t have anything under my name that you may deem valuable as payment.”
This again.
Heizou sighs for another time as he pulls out his phone from his pocket. “I’ll have to report you to the police.”
Kazuha’s eyes light up at the mention of the police. “Won’t you need my full name for that?”
Heizou raises an eyebrow at him. “Eager to get handcuffed that badly?”
“Perhaps it might prove a point.”
“Fine. Give me your name.”
“Kaedehara Kazuha.”
Never heard of him. But Heizou is not familiar with this side of the city. For all he knows, Kazuha might be a part of a political or wealthy clan that can pull strings to bail their heir out of jail.
That’s good then. They can also pay for the decorations that didn’t survive Kazuha’s eccentric whims.
So Heizou calls the police. Kazuha is just giving him a curious look the whole time he’s talking on the phone. When the police finally arrive, Heizou practically drags Kazuha to the gates to properly greet them.
“Hello, officer. I’m the one who called. Shikanoin Heizou.”
Two middle-aged men with a badge merely give him a bored look. “You say there’s a trespasser?” One of them asks.
“Yes, this guy is trespassing on this privately-owned property.” Heizou looks from behind to point at Kazuha but he’s not there anymore. He could have sworn he was there before opening the door.
“Everything alright?” A policeman asks.
Heizou can only sigh. “He’s hiding here somewhere.”
The policeman only nods. “My partner and I are gonna look for him. Just stay here.”
Heizou stays by the gates and waits for them. Every minute of waiting is a testimony to Kazuha’s capability to evade law enforcement as well as to the police’s incompetencies. So he’s not marginally surprised and disappointed when the policemen step out of the house without any signs of Kazuha.
“Nobody’s there.” The policeman he conversed with earlier says.
“Can I at least file a report against this trespasser?”
The policeman sighs. “What’s the name?”
“Kaedehara Kazuha.”
The policeman looks at him incredulously. “Are you sure you’re the real estate agent of this place?”
Heizou nods with his eyebrows furrowed. “Yes,”
“Then you’re not from around here, no?”
“What does this have to do with the trespasser?”
“The Kaedeharas have long been dead, kid. Whoever trespassed on this property must’ve given you a dead man’s name.”
Heizou has never felt so stupid in his entire life until that moment. He doesn’t know why he would trust someone violating the law to hand over his actual name. Of course, Kazuha is using a pseudonym. The question is why? Why that pseudonym? Was it to affirm his self-proclaimed demon persona? Did it have a connection to him?
“I take it that there was a man once named Kaedehara Kazuha?”
The policeman pauses, giving it some thought. “He’s the last member of that family until he died a tragic death a century or so ago.” He shrugs. “I don’t pay much attention to the gossip in this town. Just look at the public library or whatever you kids are into these days. I don’t know. Ask the locals but don’t cause a ruckus. Until then, give me an actual name if you want to file a trespass report.”
And with that, the policemen clear the property.
Heizou just stands there by the iron gates of the place without any idea how to handle such a new revelation.
He wonders if Kazuha’s claim to be a demon has anything to do with choosing a dead man’s name as a pseudonym since it might help live up to his stupid claim. Probably to convince Heizou into believing him, but of course, he doesn’t buy it.
“You still don’t believe me?”
Heizou jumps from the sudden nearness of the voice behind him.
“Where were you this whole time?”
Kazuha kicks a pebble on the ground. “Watching.”
“Hope you had a good laugh,” Heizou says bitterly.
Kazuha ignores his words before moving his face nearer to Heizou’s own. His gaze never let go of the other. “If it’s worth anything, I find you intriguing,” Kazuha says, tilting his head. “I told you my name, that I’m a demon, yet you don’t believe me. You think that my words clash with your beliefs.”
“Are you calling me stubborn?”
“Reasonably stubborn. Your mind is in the right place but sometimes rationality may hinder you from opening your heart to other things.”
“Tell me something, then” Heizou leans closer to Kazuha and holds a challenging gaze as he asks, “What’s your real name?”
And Kazuha’s eyes never wavered from Heizou’s when he replies, “Kaedehara Kazuha.”
“I believe you.” That’s all he needs.
“I’m glad,” Kazuha says solemnly.
The cool wind blows gently in their direction, rustling the leaves in its wake. For once, Heizou feels peace in his mind upon believing what Kazuha has said so far. Except for one.
“Don’t get me wrong, though. I still don’t think you’re a demon.”
Kazuha gives him a small smile. “I’ll take it as a challenge to prove otherwise.”