[Relationship] The Rosenhof Residence

[Chase Delacroix]

Chase grabbed a box.

"I can help with this part, it is why you called to begin with," he said, cutting the time moving boxes took in half.

[Narrator]

Thankfully, Howard was going to be easier to deal with than old timey bigots.

As they put the last of the boxes in the study, a car arrived and a redheaded man in his early 30s with a nicely trimmed beard stepped out of it and onto the street.

[Colette Rosenhof]

When Colette heard Howard's car pull up the woman quietly motioned for Chase to head down the short hallway to the rear doorway that opened up into the back garden. She used the time to try and put a proper face on - tired, melancholy... traits she was familiar with seeing on Basil's own face many times. Once Chase was outside she answered the door.

"Hello Howard. Zank you so much for coming. I hate to be even more of a bozer, but... whom else could I call upon?"

[Narrator]

"Quite alright Ms.Rosenhof. I'll just get these things out of your hair.

Er-

As such that it is." He replied, following Colette up the stairs.

[Jezabelle Sherlock]

Colette ushered the man up the stairs to the next floor, and into the study, where she immediately began to open the window.

"Ooh, it is stuffy in here. Would you care for some tea? Or a coffee perhaps?" Small talk and the formalities of a hostess, all in the service of making things seem on the up and up. Except for the possibly obvious fact that not all of Basil's things in that room had yet been packed away.

[Narrator]

Howard didn't give any indication he noticed. He began picking things up actually. However, he declined tea... Which seemed odd if Basil was any indication.

"Oh, no thank you dear. I'll just grab his things and take them back to his mother's for now."

[Colette Rosenhof]

"What about in a to-go cup?" Colette asked, before another question crossed her mind.

"Pardon me, but... to Basil's mozer's, but not to Basil himself?"

[Chase Delacroix]

Chase headed inside, and quietly sneaked up the stairs to prepare for his ambush. It was all very ninja.

[Narrator]

"Oh dont bother on my account." Howard replied in reference to tea.

"I wouldn't know where to take it." He answered honestly.

[Colette Rosenhof]

"... does zat not concern you?" Colette rather abruptly asked Howard.

[Narrator]

"I am." He replied. "But there's nothing I can do "

Howard clearly knew more, but wasn't saying more.

[Chase Delacroix]

Chase stepped into the doorway.

"No need to be quite so cagey Mr. Ealdwine, we know he isn't just off finding himself. Somebody has him."

[Narrator]

Howard wasn't frightened by Chase's presence, though he didn't seem to expect him.

"Ah, Chase Delacroix." He replied.

They'd never met.

"Forgive my avoidance at an answer. I have people to protect in my life besides Basil Benson."

[Chase Delacroix]

Chase wasn't thrown off by Howard knowing who he was. The man wouldn't be any good at his job if he didn't.

"Lucky for him he has friends who don't care about anything but getting him back."

"So do you know who took him, at least? Or is that who you're protecting?"

[Colette Rosenhof]

The excitement of earlier has waned from Colette, leaving her feel a little guilty for having tricked Howard like this. But with Basil's life potentially at stake she had little other choice. Chase had more of a backbone than she did, the girl looking to Howard with pleading eyes.

[Narrator]

Howard sat in Basil's armchair, pulling out a pack of cigarettes and lighting up. He was apparently comfortable with the grilling.

Had he expected it?

" I'm protecting other members of my family. Basil would be perfectly comfortable with my choice to do so, being that sacrificing any of them will not help him in any way.

And if any of us could help him, rest assured he would be back already. Harold, Chisaki and myself have come up with no leads.

I suspect it has something to do with the Spencers, but until I can confirm that I won't allow my little brother to be drug into this. "

[Chase Delacroix]

"The Spencers?" Chase asked. He was more out of the loop on Basil's personal life than he'd thought.

[Narrator]

"His other family. Ms.Rosenhof met with them, she knows whom I refer to." He motioned casually at the gelatinous woman.

[Colette Rosenhof]

Colette turned her head to speak to Chase. "I am in contact wiz a member of zeir family. We share memes. I can perhaps request a meeting."

"Is zat ze only persons you suspect, Howard?" Colette was looking for every possible lead, no matter how minor. "Please, no matter how unlikely, if you have considered any ozer, please tell us now. Out of respect for all you have done for Basil and myself up until now and compassion for your family we would not risk zeir safety by calling upon you again, so zis may be ze only opportunity we have to learn anyzing zat may assist us."

[Narrator]

"That or someone connected to his mother." He said, taking a long drag of his cigarette, and dropping it into an ashtray Basil had on the desk.

"Unlock your phone and hand it to me dear." He asked, putting his left hand out to take it.

[Colette Rosenhof]

Colette took her phone out of her pocket and tapped on the screen a few times (she didn't even need to wear special gloves anymore; progress!) before she placed the device in the man's outstretched hand.

[Narrator]

Howard opened the notes and typed something out. He then pulled out a handkerchief and wiped the phone down before handing it back.

To Colette the note might be a bit of gibberish, an N and an E in series of numbers.

Chase could identify what it was instantly: a set of latitude and longitude coordinates.

"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid there's not much else I can an offer you."

[Colette Rosenhof]

Colette furrowed her brow at the coordinates, not understanding it as anything but some sort of code. She handed her phone to Chase to see if he could make anything of it.

"Zank you, Howard. I hope zat I will be able to repay you on some future occasion." The girl looked about and then began grabbing objects from the shelves that before she hadn't been able to bring herself to touch, hurriedly placing them in one of the empty banker's boxes. Books and mementos that clearly belonged to Basil.

"Here. If what you told us is true, zen it may be dangerous if you were to leave here empty-handed. You can truzfully say zat you came to take some of Basil's zings, yes?"

[Narrator]

Howard rubbed out his cigarette and stood to collect the box.

"If you've no other questions, I shall take my leave."

[Chase Delacroix]

While they finished up, Chase used his own phone to enter the coordinates into Google Maps.

[Narrator]

Chase would be redirected to an unlabeled Island slightly due west of an arc of islands in southern Japan commonly referred to as the Ryukyu Islands, or sometimes the Ryukyu Arc.

Considering one of their two missing friends was Japanese, it seemed too connected to be coincidence.

Howard had just given them her location.

[Chase Delacroix]

"He gave us a way to talk to Chisaki directly. In other words, how do you feel about a trip to Japan?"

[Colette Rosenhof]

Colette didn't have anything else for Howard, and indeed let him leave the way he'd come. She was a little too preoccupied with this mystery to offer her usual polite parting pleasantries.

"I... we can just do zis? We can just get on a plane and travel to ze ozer side of ze world?" The concept seemed bizarre to the woman who, before her first semester at the school, had difficulty imagining going any further than the French countryside with someone else, or the corner shop by herself.

[Chase Delacroix]

"If the school will pay for it and I think they will. My Japanese isn't as good as my Mandarin, but I know enough for this."

"You don't have to go if you don't want to. I just figured you might prefer that to sitting here worrying the whole time."

[Colette Rosenhof]

"It would be nice to talk wiz Chisaki, face to face. Perhaps zat would make it easier for her to explain to me what her involvement in all of zis is.

Colette did have a worried expression on her face. "Will zey allow me on a plane? I am more zan one hundred millilitres."

[Chase Delacroix]

"Don't worry, you aren't a beverage," he answered, trying to be assuring but he wasn't great at it, "But we'll cross that bridge when and if we come to it."

[Colette Rosenhof]

Colette looked behind her at the rest of the house. "Well, it is not like I have much left to do here anyway. Yes, let us go." The idea of just going to another country on a whim with little planning was still very foreign to the girl. But Chase seemed rather sure of himself so she trusted in his experience.

"Monsieur Delacroix, you really are a jack of all trades, are you not?"

[Chase Delacroix]

"Only the sneaky and fighty ones. I'm kinda lacking in regular life skills."

[Colette Rosenhof]

"Zose are overrated." Colette assured him. "Allow me a few moments to get ze necessities, and zen we can go talk to ze headmistress. Perhaps we will be lucky and zere is a red-eye leaving tonight."

[Basil Benson]

After his release from the infirmary, Basil and Colette went home. Basil wouldn't walk, insisting on taking the bus with Colette as it was quicker and 'safer' due to them being watched.

When they got there, he made sure the door was bolted from the inside with the non-key'd lock. He seemed to know exactly where he was now, and made a bee line for the bathroom. He was in there for an inordinate amount of time, and she would hear the shower running in the first half of the time he spent in there. Eventually, he would emerge wearing a towel, and disappear into the guest room where he normally kept his extensive wardrobe to find something to wear that wasn't leant to him by the university.

[Colette Rosenhof]

Colette gave little to no protest as to Basil's whims. She'd gotten what she wanted; she had him back, she'd even gotten to meet and thank the person who had helped him hold onto hope. And now she had him home again. She could understand his need for safety, had she gone through what he had she might've been even worse off. So while he showered she busied herself in the kitchen, which took a little time as many of the things she needed were still packed away in boxes. If Basil came back showered and dressed he might catch a glimpse of her many-armed form tending to multiple things at once as she worked to get some tea and coffee made, and also a little something to eat. She wanted to do her part to make him feel safe and at home, perhaps that would help the memories to drift to the surface.

[Basil Benson]

Refreshed and dressed in his own things, Basil did head downstairs once he'd finished preening.

Colette wouldn't hear him coming, he was just suddenly there, standing near the table and wearing an a-shirt, his trousers and a set of suspenders, and an unbuttoned dress shirt with his tie around his shoulders.

He was watching her work multiple projects at once with a far off expression and a vague smile on his lips.

[Colette Rosenhof]

Colette was suddenly aware of Basil's presence and turned her head to look at him, her many arms still doing their work around the kitchen almost seamlessly. That explained the backless sweater she'd been wearing under her coat, it gave her a little more room to... flex. She seemed to either be a little more comfortable in doing inhuman things around him, or had just gotten so used to doing them that she didn't think about what he might feel about seeing her this way.

When she saw him, her cheeks flushed. She didn't say anything, but her expression spoke volumes. Basil was looking very much like his old self again. Her Basil.

"Tea?"

[Basil Benson]

Basil blinked slowly, as if coming out of a stupor. "Hmm?

Ah,Yes please. Shall I help you?" He asked, moving closer while doing up his buttons. While he was definitely looking a bit more like himself, there were a few things noticeably different about Her Basil. For one, he seemed both bigger and yet, incredibly thin even when compared to his previous size. It was most obvious in how low his trousers sat upon his waist now. But the muscle made him slightly more intimidating to look at than he every appeared before.

Another very obvious change was he now had a piercing in the ear opposite his curtain of curls, which he had put a safety pin through, the closest thing he had to an earring.

[Colette Rosenhof]

"Zat would be most appreciated." Colette said with a soft affection, trying to keep herself in check. Now that she had Basil back, there was so much that she wanted to say, and to do... but she didn't want to overwhelm him.

"Oh, zere is a box in your study marked 'fragile'. Your mug is in zere if you would like it." Much of their belongings were still boxed up, for reasons she hadn't yet explained.