Wet: Overflow (9 page)

Richard led a group of fifteen people to the front of the hotel. They stopped outside the threshold. Lulu recognized two people in the crowd. One woman was a maid she’d seen on more than one occasion around the hotel. The other was a waitress from the hotel restaurant.

The Baba family must feel pretty confident if they were revealing their sleepers. Then again, Lulu wasn’t stupid enough to think those two women were the only ones, or that these fifteen people made up the entirety of the Baba family. For one thing, none of those present looked to be over forty.

Hotsuma said, “Welcome to Onsen.”

Richard said, “Glad to be here.” He gestured to the man closest to him. “This is Takumi Baba. I would introduce the others, but you don’t need to know their names to give us what we want.”

Hotsuma asked Takumi, “You’re allowing an outsider to speak for you?” He shook his head with a soft chuckle. “Of course, that’s a silly question. You already allowed him to negotiate for you because you were unable to do it yourself. I shouldn’t be surprised at his continued services.”

Takumi’s face turned red and he snapped, “The Baba family needs no outsider to speak for us. He was a means to an end. We used his connection to your wife to further our agenda. Nothing else.”

“His job is at an end then, correct?”

“Yes.”

“Good.” Hotsuma turned his attention to Richard. “Goodbye, Richard Grant. If you ever set foot in Onsen or come near my wife again, I will personally dismantle your life and ensure you spend the rest of your days living out of a cardboard box.”

Richard said, “You can’t send me away. We have a deal. I have proof that I’ll post all over the Internet.”

“Cameras cannot record magic. You have nothing, not even the protection of the Baba family.”

“My research into the Mizuno family --”

“Will be treated like sensationalist garbage once my family ruins your reputation. You don’t have the means or conviction to continue, Mr. Grant. I suggest you leave while I still feel generous enough to let you go.”

Lulu couldn’t summon up the smallest shred of sympathy for Richard as he stomped away. She hoped to never see him again. Assuming the situation with the Baba family turned out okay, she planned to give Stan a call and make sure he blacklisted Richard from staying at Voda ever again.

Hotsuma said, “Now we can focus on you and your family, Takumi.”

“Don’t think you can threaten us the way you did him, Masato.”

“No such thought crossed my mind.” He stepped to the side, bringing Lulu with him with his arm around her waist. “You want access to the pool room for you and your family, and we will give it to you.”

Takumi and the others entered the hotel. Once the doors were closed and secured, the group made their way to the barrier room. Lulu didn’t miss the way Hotsuma had referred to the barrier room as the pool room. Neither of them had called it that since he’d been freed. She assumed it wasn’t a slip of the tongue either.

After they squeezed inside the room, Atsuji excused himself. He closed the door behind him, and the click of the lock echoed off the tile walls.

Takumi said, “Your plan is flawed, Masato. You locked yourself in here as well. Anything you do to us will happen to you and your wife. Or maybe this is the Mizunos’ way of dealing with you.”

“You’re too paranoid,” Hotsuma said. “The pool room must be secured for the water to work. If you want the power, you have to get it the same way any other member of the Mizuno family does.”

“We are not members of the Mizuno family.”

“You have Ichiro to blame for that.” Hotsuma cleared his throat loudly, interrupting whatever Takumi would have said next. “Submerge yourselves in the water one at a time.”

Takumi frowned at the pool and then at Hotsuma. “That’s it?”

“That’s it.”

“No incantations or ritual?”

“None.”

“I don’t trust you. We’ve had members of our family working at this hotel for years. We’ve seen the yearly visits to bless the children and spouses. It took hours.”

Hotsuma shrugged. “That is tradition, not ritual. Each person recited their lineage to the
ageman
, going all the way back to his time period, before submersion to prove they were part of the family. You can do the same, if you like, but it’s not needed.”

“Like I would give you the satisfaction of naming off my family tree so you can hunt us down. Dream on, Masato.”

“Which is why I didn’t suggest it.” He gestured to the water. “
Douzo
.”

“Not happening.” Takumi shook his head. “This is a trap of some kind. There’s no way you would be this complacent about the whole thing.” He pointed at Lulu. “Her first.”

Lulu stopped herself from looking at Hotsuma. She kept her demeanor calm and unconcerned while she waited for Hotsuma’s next move.

He said, “If you like.” With his hand on the small of her back, he urged her to the edge of the pool.

She stepped in without hesitation. Arms surrounded her waist and kept her from going under. Masato hugged her from behind and held her as a familiar shifting sensation pulled her to the side. He let her go and she surfaced, sucking in a deep breath of air.

She looked around at the familiar hot spring on the top floor balcony of the hotel. Why was she there? “Masato!”

“You don’t have to yell. I’m right here, sweetheart.” He formed his head and shoulders above the surface of the water, but nothing else. “Did I scare you?”

“What’s going on? What have you done?”

“Exactly as Uncle and I planned.”

“But the barrier room and Hotsuma and --”

“Don’t worry about the Babas. They have bigger things to worry about than you disappearing before their eyes. Holding their breath, for instance.”

“What does that mean?”

He grinned. “We had Atsuji shut you all in so we could flood the room.”

“What? No! You can’t kill all those people.”

“Relax, sweetheart. We aren’t killing them. We had to flood the barrier room since Uncle and I figured they would never enter the water on their own. Each person has been transported to a separate, locked room in the hotel. Uncle is --”

Hotsuma appeared with a soft splashing noise.

“Right here.” Masato patted Hotsuma’s shoulder. “Nice trip?”

“Lulu,” Hotsuma said.

She swam over to him and then gasped when he hugged her. “Hotsuma?”

“You’re okay?”

“Of course. It’s not like I’ve never been transported through water before.”

“Yes, but Masato is bad at it. He nearly drowned me on more than one occasion while we were practicing.”

Masato said with laughter in his voice, “That’s because I was fucking with you, Uncle. I had it down after the third try. I wouldn’t have agreed to do it if I thought Lulu would get hurt.”

She stared at Masato in surprise. Those were strange words coming from a man who had once shot her and tried to strangle her. But the Masato from that time and the Masato before her weren’t the same man. This Masato was carefree and playful… in a mischievous way.

She startled and yelped when a current of water rushed between her legs.

Masato said close to her neck, “Since we’re already in the water…” He trailed off as he cupped one of her breasts.

Masato squeezed Lulu’s breasts and butted his hips against her ass. “What do you say?”

Hotsuma tightened his hold on her, and then a pushing sensation forced them above the surface of the water. Lulu clutched Hotsuma’s shoulders in surprise. He was standing on the water. In a physical body, he was standing on the water. She hadn’t known he could do that.

As though hearing her thoughts, Masato said, “We didn’t spend the last week relearning your tricks while in my body so you could use them against me, Uncle.”

“Relearning?” Lulu met Hotsuma’s gaze. “I’ve seen you control water. What does he mean?”

Hotsuma slipped his arm under her legs so he cradled her as he walked to the edge of the pool. “I could control the motion of the water but nothing else. I distanced myself from my water abilities once I was free. I thought I had no need for such things. My actions put me out of practice. As well, not being part of the water means more effort to control it. Transporting and forming a body are skills I had to relearn. You saw my poor attempt the first night the three of us came together. I couldn’t even speak to let you know who I was.”

Lulu thought back to that night, the way the water bubbled before forming a body. Masato didn’t usually do that, and he wouldn’t have let her yell at him without a response.

He lowered her legs to the ground. “Masato and I spent our nights training. I had to get back the abilities I shunned and thus lost.”

Lulu snorted. “You didn’t lose much, if our session in the barrier room was any indication.”

Hotsuma blushed. “Sex is a great motivator.”

“I’ll bet.” She looked back at the water. Masato stood above the surface with his hands on his hips, his legs spread apart, and his erection on full display. She focused on his face. “What now?”

Masato grasped his dick. “You know my vote.”

Hotsuma said, “We have to deal with the Babas.”

“Deal with them how?” Lulu asked. “You two have kept me in the dark this entire time. What’s happening?”

Hotsuma squeezed her shoulders. “We didn’t mean to exclude you, Lulu, but there was nothing for you to do. The plan is simple -- display my water powers to frighten them into telling us what they had planned for me. Meanwhile, the family is erecting a new barrier around the entire hotel that will alert us if anyone bearing magic enters so we can watch them.”

“Step one accomplished.” Masato cocked his head to the side as though listening to something. “And if the way some of them are yelling and carrying on is any indication, it worked the way we wanted. Now for step two.”

Before Lulu could ask, Masato made an upward gesture with his hand. Takumi Baba lurched into view, struggling and cursing, at the same time Masato stepped into the water and disappeared.

Hotsuma said, “Calm down.”

Takumi glared at him from the water, which he continued to struggle against but couldn’t seem to free himself from. “What is this? How are you doing this? Why --”

His rapid questions cut off when Takumi was pulled below the water. The man thrashed and reached for the surface but was held down. Lulu clutched Hotsuma’s hand. He nodded and Takumi came up for air.

Hotsuma said, “Now then, Takumi Baba. I’ll be asking the questions and you’ll be answering them. Understood?”

“Yes. Yes. Just get me out of this water.”

“Sorry, but no. That’s my leverage. If you say something I don’t like, I’ll drown you and the members of your family you brought with you.”

“That’s murder.”

“That would be an unfortunate accident due to the hotel pipes bursting and flooding the pool room, which has been under renovation to become a therapeutic spa for the last week. I was giving you a tour when I was called to my office on a family emergency. The water pressure from the pipes bursting slammed the door shut and kept it closed. The amount of water filled the windowless room in a matter of seconds. There was no way we could get to you in time. Tragic, really.”

Takumi paled. “You wouldn’t?”

“Try me.”

“Wha-what do you want to know? I’ll talk. Anything. You wanted to know the Baba family tree, right? Names, addresses -- I can tell you everything.”

“Not interested. I want to know how you planned to end the
ageman
power.”

“We discovered a spell to separate Hotsuma Mizuno from the water. Once separated, he would pass on and the power would go with him.”

Lulu whispered, “Something so simple.”

Hotsuma nodded. “Simple but very effective, if I were still in the water.” To Takumi, he said, “Your idea was a good one but is completely useless now. Allow me to reintroduce myself. I am Hotsuma Mizuno, eleventh head of the Mizuno family.”

Takumi laughed but the sound choked to a stop when no one else joined him. “What joke is this, Masato?”

“No joke.” Hotsuma’s brown eyes bled to crystal blue and glowed. “The Mizuno family bound me to water, giving me power over it, and then my wife woke me and put me in this body.”

Lulu almost snorted at Hotsuma’s truncated version of the story.

Takumi swung his gaze between Lulu and Hotsuma. “Bu-bu-but she… you… If you’re Hotsuma Mizuno, where is Masato?”

Hotsuma shrugged. “Who cares? I’m in his body and I’m free. The family knows my situation has changed. They are doing everything in their power to make sure I stay happy so I don’t leave.”

“How did she --”

“None of your concern. Was that one spell the only thing the Babas had planned for me?”

Hotsuma had to repeat his question before Takumi stopped staring at Lulu and said, “Yes. It was the only thing that would work. If we could have gotten past the barrier spell of the room where you were kept, we could have ended the Mizunos’ good luck long ago.” He grinned then started laughing. “Ha! I’ve still won, though. You’re mortal. Your powers will die with you.”