With next day having come, with plenty of plans on the list, so saying goodbye for now to the temple, they had their destinations set to Harumitsu.

  Van packed full, there were plans to start with a split-up.

  "So, Klas and Clara, you will go visit dungeon museum here." Edith made sure, as they nodded in agreement. "Hiro and crew are going to check on Haruka."

  "That's the plan." Hiroshi muttered, starting to get cold sweat from the prospect, as Nata kept close to ease his mind. "Then we will go meet some officials. After that, we can get start doing some shopping."

  With plans declared, driving through the city and finding a good spot to park the van for time being and being planned gathering spot, they split up.

  "I wonder how your sister will take us." Nata said curiously, as he very much didn't want to answer it, knowing it most likely wont be good. "I am just hoping best."

  Take walk across the streets of the city, They could note it was much more urban than they have seen so far, more fitting to what they have seen in Elmspring. Passersby were also much more notably more human, than how mixed it was at home, as Nata couldn't but notice the amount of glances gives to them, even if passing.

  The walk was long and while passing stores gave them moment of glance, understanding put them on light trouble to know what they would be selling, and before long, they arrived at an apartment building, easily tall enough to hold hundreds of apartments by a glance.

  Taking careful steps and trying not to get in anyone's way, arriving on seventh floor, on one of the doors, Olivia could read Haruka's name, as Hiroshi dug out his wallet, and pulled out a key from between the flaps, while Nata and Julia could smell something suspicious coming from inside.

  With key turn, and anxiety rising high for him, he opened the door, only to be met by dark apartment.

  "Uhh... Sis, it's Hiroshi." He mumbled loud enough to be heard inside, as he took first steps in, letting girls follow.

  As shoes were taken off, he could take note there were plenty of bottles and cans left on the floor, and most notably being Tapporo sake.

  'What happened to you?' he wondered, as after turning the corner to see the living room, he could notice sleeping drunk Haruka, barely dressed outside of her underwear and shirt, with television being only light onto the room, left on a random channel.

  Hiroshi turned to the girls and whispered "Just, can you start cleaning?" as he slowly and carefully approached Haruka, before gently tapping and shaking her shoulder.

  It took a while before she was stirred awake, as she mumbled out "Kusoyaro..." when getting up. "What?" Hiroshi noted, before he could note angry look by her, and as girls came to check how they were doing, as cans were slowly thrown into a bag, they saw Hiroshi was laid onto the ground, gripping his nose as Haruka was standing up, still buzzed and very much angry. "DO YOU REALIZE WHAT YOU HAVE DONE? DO YOU AT ALL!?"

  "y-yes. Just calm down. We have guests." Hiroshi said in panic, as her stare moved to the fosters, which made Nata and Olivia yelp and run back to continue cleaning, while Julia kept confident as she stepped closer. "Name's Julia."

  "And what are you doing with my Hiro, whore?" She said, clearly calming down, making she swoon, but rage still bubbled from within her.

  "I am his guardian and a trainer." Julia said clear and firm, not moving a inch away from his sister, who nearly burst out of laughing from the prospect.

  "A trainer? What? He ignores my plead for him to take responsibility and gets a woman to do everything for him, like always?" she said, as thankfully to them, it seemed to ease her, as she crashed back onto the sofa, and giving Hiroshi time to get up from the dirty floor.

  "I am making sure he is getting his act up to be responsible one." Julia made clear, which made haruka pause for a moment, before deciding to get up.

  "Let's not talk here. Just leave things be. I know restaurant ran by my friend, I will pay if you can proof your claim." She said, as she slowly waddled to get some clothes on, as Nata and Olivia sighed in relieve to hear things resolved easily.

  "So, how is the family doing." Hiroshi asked awkwardly, unsure how to feel seeing his sisters look most ragged ever, even with normal clothes on, while Nata and Olivia were left to explore the menu, as Julia kept is straight as usual.

  The restaurant wasn't anything luxurious, and during the time, there were barely any customers even, leaving their seatings by one of the booths.

  "Fine, Thankfully after your moving, even with the return, no problems came." She muttered, as she leaned on the bench, nearly able to keep her head straight.

  "That's nice, but what about you? This isn't exactly like you. Cheap sake and looking like you crawled from a tsunami." Hiroshi said, clearly having concerns on her, as she gave a groan.

  "You know exactly why, and don't try pretending." Haruka muttered, as she quickly shouted a young teen working as a waiter a quick order of food and drinks, taking Nata and Olivia off guard. "I said I will pay, not that you will order it personally."

  "I presume this related to the Yaku-" Julia tried to presume only to get quickly hushed by Haruka. "Don't even stutter any letter further. Saito's men are ruthless. If anyone even realizes his business, you are as good as being their target."

  "I see." Julia noted, as she took it calm then, as With no choice on food, and the sister clearly not happy with her brother, Nata was clearly not having it by being on sideline the whole time.

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  "Still, why are you being so mean against Hiro." Which she quickly backed down from, as Haruka gave tired look at her. "Not sure what your game is, puppy, but my brother will either be death of himself or me."

  "Well... to inform you on that, Sis." Hiroshi thought, as he felt he should explain the story in full so far, as shortly food was brought to them.

  "Well, this is more... abstract." Klas muttered, as they arrived at the museum, and to say it fit the scene would be understatement. You would rather think it was a modern art museum than dungeon museum, as he checked on Clara, who just gave a light digital sigh. "I guess better than nothing." as they proceeded to the entrance.

  Seeing couple guards in front and ticket salesbooth, Klas let Clara take the front, as she turned on the japanese translator.

  "Hello, we are Clara and Klas from Elmspring's Dungeon Museum. I believe we had requested to meet with mister Kai."

  The clerk gave light note on the speak, before calmly speaking to an earpiece, before getting their focus back on them. "He will be in grand hall shortly." as happily showing them to enter.

  As they walk in, it was clear Clara was center of attention where-ever they went, but she was more than used to it, as after some while of waiting, they got to meet professionally dressed chinese human. "Ah, Guests of honor, I presume." He said with an accent, to which both affirmed and gave a handshake to.

  "So, how is your research going?" Klas happily asked in excitement, as Kai shared in the joy, however, with some sad news. "It's hard. Our research into old text has already given plenty of information about ancient asian cultures and their origins, but seems such drastic views is not something the common people are used to."

  "That's understandable." Clara noted. "But if you keep your work up, no doubts more people will start to come and see our goals on unraveling the past."

  "I hope that too." Kai muttered, before returning to their main task. "Anyways, I have couple of my boys getting some of the hardest transateable texts done, and in the meantime, feel free to add any information in our database to the universal one."

  Both gave nods, and happily followed him to research wing, prepared to get their hands dirty.

  "No journalists." Guard noted, which got Mittens pissed off. "Come on. I am with them." she said, pointing to the tamers that were walking to the city-state's governmental building. "Rules are rules, missy" guard insisted, as Kat was at least relieved with getting her off their tails.

  "This sure is better looking than our department." Ingolf muttered, as he looked around as the group walked through the halls, taking in the building's quality, and as Matthew and Edith were taking the lead, it didn't take long before they arrived at the mayor's office.

  With guards checking them just in case, they were let in, given a proper office set up, even making Edith feel slightly jealous, as the room was nearly three times larger than her usual office, with plenty of displays and furniture to spice the room up, with Yoshiki Takabashi awaiting by the main desk. "Ah, if it isn't the Elmspring's guests, please, sit." as he showed to the fancy sofas, to which they obliged.

  "My, didn't expect such diverse group." he commented, taking note of the three monsters with them. "Diversity is important for our duty, sir." Edith made clear, to which Mayor gave a light stutter before backing down "O-of course. I wouldn't deny that. Your accomplishments speaks to that."

  "However, we didn't come discuss ourselves, now did we." Matthew got serious, as he calmly leaned forward, crossing his arms. "Our focus is with your branch of tamers. News of Cálajara has put our trust in the system in a weary."

  "Of course." Mayor happily said, taking his seriousness with light worry, but also happy to see the enthusiasm. "Cálajara was a sad situation indeed, but I promise we have targeted to have best of the best with our tamers. Feel free to visit the station. It is couple blocks just across when going out. I am sure they will appreciate you sharing your experiences with them."

  Matthew gave a nod, affirming on his words, "However, with Cálajara case, there were some suspicions with the city-state's higher ups as well, and we will be keeping track of your actions as well, Mayor." His threat got him lightly sweating, but Edith was quick to lighten the mood. "How about foster program? How has it been coming along."

  "Oh, excellently, absolutely." he noted, lightly easing his shirt collar with how pressuring Matthews was. "We for now have been keeping solo-fostering out of opt, but from reports of current fosters, while older folk aren't exactly best at treating them right, having had some issues of returns in recent times, the young folk are doing surprisingly well, even on my account."

  "What about wild monsters." Kat spoke up, taking Mayor by surprise. "Well, they have been a struggle we have had to deal with constantly. Thanks to some powerful ones in our land. But thankfully resident monsters have been willing to give assistance when specifically needed, like Kitsunes, nooks or onis. For such bad history between our people, it is really something I have had to get used to."

  "Then lastly, criminal activity." Sophia spoke, keeping calm demeanor. "Even we have to deal with such trouble. Hope there hasn't been much."

  "Oh, thankfully nothing of that short." Mayor said fast, "Our officers are efficient in their duties. And with tamers settling in, the monster related cases has been dealt handily. No problems at all so far."

  The group shared their skepticism on his statement, he continued. "We want to do our best in your example. It would be a dishonor to make your progress void."

  "As long you keep your word on that, I am happy for now." Edith said, which made Matthew huff lightly, but accepted it as well. "But let's remember, actions speak louder than words. We will come visit before we return to Finland. Hope you will do your best." as he made sure everyone else was satisfactory with it for now.

  Seeing the most notable business was over with, they decided to head out to assist with local tamers, while they had time on the day. And as they got outside, they got surprised to see a lot of heavy machinery and trucks carrying all kind of decoration, but as they considered what it was about, Sophia reminded them of Tanabata, to which they also got reminded. "Oh, before we return, we should get some outfitting for that."

  "So... that's how things happened, then." Haruka groaned in annoyance, as food had arrived during Hiroshi's explaining, as he was left to mutter. "Pretty much..."

  With a sigh of disappointment with more things to deal with, she couldn't deny one thing. "You... you have at least taken responsibility with what shit you have dug yourself into... I hate to admit it, but you have grown."

  As Hiroshi was about to speak up, she quickly silenced him as she continued "However, you still have to deal with the stuff you ran away from."

  Hiroshi was left silent for a moment, before checking on the girls who where enjoying their share of kare. "That's why I am here... I know it will be hard, and it will take long while to understand the trouble I have caused... let's at least celebrate Tanabata like we did years ago. And let's move on from there. I know I have been nothing but burden for you in these years, so let me start repay it, starting today."

  Haruka questioned his promise, but seeing he has changed from last time they were together, she couldn't deny it, and with a tired huff. "Fine, we will go shopping for some stuff to the festival then... by the way, did you hear about it?"

  "uhh... not really," Hiroshi admitted, as they finally dug into the food as well. Clearly made cheap, but quality still good. "Seems 'you know who' decided to hold it in ōnosai. While I wish it has nothing serious behind it, but I doubt it is just a coincidence."

  "Well, it's an ordeal we have to deal when we get onto it." Julia said, taking it surprisingly calm even if knowing the trouble, making Hiroshi and Haruka question her reasoning.

  She rolled her eyes with their doubt, before she reminded. "Hiroshi has survive two deaths without a plan. I doubt things would be worse than that." to which they couldn't really argue against.

  So with it dealt with, they enjoyed a good meal, as Haruka was forced to pay out the promise, while they moved to preparing for proper celebrations.