amateur detective ━━ stiles stilinski¹

xxix; the divine move

IT HAPPENED WITH ALACRITY. That's what the group of teenagers were instructed to tell the police during the investigations. But in truth, it happened as if it had been in slow motion. Everything that happened in the span of five minutes of her dying felt like hours and hours of watching a frozen screen unable to comprehend what was happening. A gang robbery gone wrong was the cover up story, as explained to them by Allison's father. Juliette sat in the police station for three hours before they let her go. Everyone around her was quiet for a long time, all running out of words to stay, and staring into the distance in shock. She spent the rest of her time by Isaac's side, witnessing his grief which had been a silent suffering.

     Juliette hardly knew Allison, but she knew how significant she was to everyone else. She was the reason Juliette knows how to defend herself in combat, and the reason Isaac has been radiant as ever the past few months.

    "Here, have some tea."

    Noshiko handed Stiles the cup of tea. They were in their house, which is exactly what you'd expect from a wealthy family living in California. It was modern, high ceiling, and bigger than any house she'd stepped into before. "What? Like magic tea?" Stiles questioned hopefully.

     "No, chamomile tea. Drink it."

    Mr. Yukimura stepped into the living room. "They're not safe here."

    "They're not safe anywhere." Noshiko countered.

    "But you said Allison killed one of them." Juliette twisted in her seat to face Kira, waiting for her nod of confirmation. "That has to mean something. She killed an Oni. None of us are sure how, but she did it. Isaac said he might know how, doesn't that mean something? She killed one of them." She repeated relentlessly.

    Stiles twiddled his thumbs as he always does in a state of anxiety. "And then they killed her." He said. "Allison's dead. Now the only good thing is that it looks like i'm dying too."

"Stop saying that." Juliette furrowed her eyebrows at him.

"He made a powerful move by splitting the two of you."

"So we need a move now." Mr. Yukimura began. "At this point, we need a divine move."

"What's that?"

"In the game of Go, it's what we call a truly inspired, out of the box move. The Nogitsune has had sente, the advantage, until this point. What you need is a divine move in order to turn the game around."

Stiles nodded. "Okay, so is anyone feeling divinely inspired?" He murmured. "Jules said she almost took away his powers— shouldn't that be it? Isn't that our best plan?"

    "Taking away his powers isn't enough." Noshiko parried, letting loose of the tea pot. "It will surely help, but it's not enough to kill him, especially now that he knows that you'll do it again. His immortality isn't tied to his powers. But if the scroll is right, then she'll have to do it before Scott changes him."

     Juliette tore her eyes off them, taking a sudden interest in her shoes. After all the build up, all her effort, it still wasn't enough. "What about the bond?" Stiles asked desperately. "Will taking away his powers break the bond?"

    "It's his powers that created the bond, so hopefully, it'll break when his power is gone."

    "Key word being hopefully." Stiles muttered under his sigh. "You said you trapped it in a glass jar, right?"

    Noshika tilted her head to the side. "It wasn't the glass jar that trapped it. It was where I buried it. The Nemeton, a place I unfortunately don't know too much about."