Miharu wasn't the kind of woman to look at her own culture and think that it was a quaint experience. Especially due to what she went through, namely too many meetings required in such a knee tiring pose, which is why sitting down with her knees on the floor in the seiza position was one she had a bit of a despised streak towards.

So when she was brought in by a woman in a side-less qipao whose chest were seemingly held on by two straps she called tops. And if this was genuinely, seriously the one woman who was able to gently break down Kize's walls, the one thing she bet on was the concerning foundation that was Kize's skewed interest.

Or lack thereof.

Sunohara Shun, as was introduced (something of which she already knows of), slowly set down a tray of cups and a teapot right at the table, before sitting right in front of her, pouring a cup of tea for her and Miharu. Miharu noticed how her eyes glanced at the lanyard, then back up to her face, and then back down to her cup, stopping before it got too full.

"So, Miss Yoshikawa--"

"Miharu. Just go by that."

Shun's smile tightened slightly, before nodding. Both reached out simultaneously to their cups, the waft of green tea seeped into the room that once resided Kize Seikato.

"Very well. Miharu. Are you a new member of SCHALE?"

"Eh. Member's a stretch, but consider me a collaborator."

"I see. It's just that I've never seen you around Kivotos."

"Outsider. Brought in by the GSC. Not as a Sensei, you already have one."

Shun sipped as Miharu answered, closing her eyes to revel in the taste, before opening again to notice Miharu staring at her.

"Hm? Yes?"

"Are you close to him?"

Shun didn't need to ask who. It would always inevitably be Kize.

"Colleagues."

Shun watched as Miharu's grip around the cup tightened.

"Are you now?"

"Yes. We are."

Another sip from Shun.

"What of you, Miharu? What is your significance to him?"

"Fiancée."

The lack of hesitation from Miharu's end caused her to blink, her entire body twitching involuntarily at the sheer suddenness of it all. A breath in, breath out, and then she chuckled.

"How bold of you, Miharu."

"Heh." Miharu couldn't help but smile. "Of course. Katashi needed to know he was loved even before he was here. Before he disappeared."

Shun's smile didn't falter this time. Katashi was an unfamiliar name, and yet, the way Miharu talked about the name, she could tell it was the man Shun knew as Kize.

Or was it really?

"Are you really his fiancée?"

"No."

Miharu scoffed, finally taking a sip of her tea. A striking flavour decorated her taste buds, a flavor she used to enjoy, until the bitter taste of coffee awakened her sensibilities.

"God forbid he finds love for himself that love has to find him and be as blatant as possible."

"Perhaps."

Both took another sip at the same time, before setting down their tea, with Miharu doing it first.

"... I was wondering if Katashi was here. It's why..."

Shun rested her hands on her lap, noticing the notions and motions from Miharu. Her glasses adjusting under the fluorescent light that created a faint creak, the lab coat somewhat loose around her body to reveal a dark red t-shirt that had the insignia of an unspecified brand.

She was as normal as she ever could be. A stranger in a stranger land.

"He is not here, I'm afraid. No one knows where else he's been."

A beat passed between the two.

"Why do you look for him?"

"... Because I want him to come back."

"..."

Shun understood her feelings. A woman who wants the man who she once called by name so casually to return to their lives once again. A man that was significant. A man that shaped their lives so well.

But even she knew, that searching for a dead man gain no results.

"I can't say I don't relate to wanting that. But what if he chooses to run away from you?"

"Then I'll chase him. Right until he can't run anymore."

"You're only reinforcing his beliefs then."

"Of what?"

"That the past is a painful memory. One where you drag him back into just to experience it all again."

"Bullshit."

Miharu's octave was slightly higher, her eyebrows furrowed. Her hand shook, rapping against the table.

"His parents and I had spent four years trying to find him! After the allegations--"

"Allegations?"

Miharu stopped her tirade to look at Shun. Her performative kindness dropped to show both curiosity... And concern.

What did he do?

"... Right. No one in Kivotos knows."

'Apart from that asshole Kuzaka, but she doesn't need to know that right now,' thought Miharu. With a deep breath, she began.

"Katashi four years ago was alleged for misconduct. Harassment of the non-consent kind, of which was by one of his most prestigious students. Kobane Misuzu. Ring any bells?"

A shake of Shun's head, but the smallest twitch of her animal ears meant that she was truly paying attention to the matter at hand.

"Well, now you know. And I'll have you know now that during the time of the crime, I was with him and his family. He was innocent."

She hissed out the proclamation.

"Court of justice cleared him, public opinion never did. We wanted him back, but by the time the court case was done, he was gone."

"... For four years?"

"For four long fucking years... And I am still not going to let go of him."

Shun couldn't help but look at Miharu with the slightest hint of admiration. A kind of stubbornness that truly required the strongest of faiths.

But even the strongest of faiths isn't what was needed. Not here. Not for him.

"That is not what he needs."

Miharu instinctively glared towards Shun, before quickly softening. Every single time an argument happens, she'd always do that. After Katashi left, she couldn't be bothered to not do so.

Shun, on her part, didn't flinch a bit.

"You've been looking for him for four years, and now you know he's in Kivotos. And now you want to drag him out of his responsibilities, his purpose?"

"A purpose that, as far as I know and read, is destroying him! Arius's Ghost? Hyakkiyako's Spectre? Listen to those titles! A dead bureaucrat who holds onto paperwork like a lifeline because that's the only purpose he's been given!! All of you--" She tugged at her lanyard, at the SCHALE badge. "--Simply just put him in one prison to another that can't even guarantee his safety!!"

Shun was awfully calm when she picked up her cup, letting the tension between them simmer slightly, before she let out a breath. Then she breathed in, and spoke coldly.

"And you would drag him back to the world that rejected him? Hated him? You may have claimed that your parents, yourself... Perhaps even a few other people uninvolved, yet appreciative of his existence, do not hate him, but that does not constitute, nor deny the very fact that he is disdained by the world." A beat. "Your world."

She sipped, watching as Miharu shook. A bubbling fury threatening to burst, her emotions running high.

"You think... You think I don't know that? That I haven't spent my entire night wondering if chasing him was just me being so selfish and cruel?"

She breathed in sharply, before leaning forward towards Shun.

"But what's worse? Letting him rot in a role you enforced onto him? Or fighting to remind him that he's more than a ghost?"

Shun slowly set down her cup, before looking towards Miharu dead in the eyes. The same calmness she asserted through much of the conversation.

"Is it truly 'more' to strip him away of what he's built? Of what he allowed to bloom? Arius's Ghost. Hyakkiyako's Spectre. Those are not just flowery titles, an unnecessary addition to a bloated name."

She slowly let go of her cup as she set it back down, now empty.

"They are his deeds. And he didn't choose to be named. His students named it for him. He's no martyr. He's not Katashi. But he stayed."

"And then left."

"He reflects the students, and they follow. So, they choose their own path. If you force him to leave, you erase what made him so beloved... What made him a Sensei in their eyes."

A scoff left Miharu, her eyes looking away briefly as if exasperated before returning to face Shun.

"Beloved? You think that's why he stays? Ask him why he flinches every time someone calls him 'Sensei.' Ask him why he carries that dented thermos that you gave--" A finger was pointed towards Shun, the other raising the SCHALE badge like a weapon of crime. "--like an apology he hasn't forgiven himself over."

"... Because it's a reminder."

"Reminder? Of what? That you'll haunt him even when he haunts--"

"That I'm not going anywhere."

Shun watched as Miharu blinked, almost like a flinch that she didn't expect.

"If he ever needs to retreat, Shanhaijing always opened for him. Plum Blossom Garden, us? We welcome him. Why?"

She didn't let Miharu answer.

"Because the children, kindergartners at that, see him. Cling to him. Want him to be safe, want him to be happy, even if he resists. Even if he denies the self he refuses to name."

"........."

For once in four years, she had no rebuttal. Nothing emerged from her mind, even as she desperately searched for it. An answer of sorts. Something. Anything.

And yet, it was Shun that provided the option.

"If you still insist on looking for him, I will not stop you. You just need to know that what you're doing right now... Isn't what he needs."

"And how do you know that?" Miharu questioned through gritted teeth. Shun just stared. And in those seconds of staring, Miharu found her answer. And she hated it.

Because it was true.

And then, she stood up.

"Don't stop me."

"I won't. Good luck."

And soon, Miharu stomped out of the room, and soon, out to the dark night, surrounded by the warmth of Shanhaijing's life.