Oh look, it's a brand new fic! Welcome to Anomalous Point, a fic idea that I've been tinkering with for some time now, that I'm glad to finally be able to share with everyone! The setting for this one should stay pretty much on Earth, but have no fear, there's plenty of alien goodness to go around. Hopefully what I've got in store should be interesting, so stay tuned, I guess!

anomalous point

chapter one

the pilot

If he closed his eyes, sometimes he could still see where it all went wrong.

The mission had been a success- they had been able to make it to Kerberos and obtain the ice samples without issue. They had just as successfully left the frozen moon, and made the months long journey back to Earth with no problems other than the usual bit of boredom.

Reentry.

Reentry had been where everything had gone to hell.

He'd been kept shut off from news feeds of any kind while he'd been in recovery, but he still heard the whispers. Pilot error, they had called it- but he knew that was a load of garbage. It wasn't his own confidence in his skills talking- but the mere fact that he'd been there. He'd seen, with his own eyes, parts fail- parts that should not have failed.

And now, it seemed, the Galaxy Garrison was covering that up. Pinning the blame on the Kerberos disaster on him.

They were calling it that- a disaster. That he couldn't dispute. He'd landed the craft, against all odds, but he couldn't save everyone.

Zero casualties on the ground, a small handful injured. One casualty among the crew. One too many.

He'd never forgive himself for the loss of Samuel Holt. The loss of his own right arm seemed insignificant in comparison.

At least Matt had made it out okay- he was out of the hospital long before Shiro was. Might not have, if he hadn't thought so quickly, if he hadn't managed to come to some semblance of a landing. He couldn't take any pride in it- not good enough, not if even one life had been lost. That was one too many.

He wouldn't blame the Holts if they never forgave him.

The first thing he'd done upon leaving the hospital was to turn in his resignation to the Galaxy Garrison. Even if he wanted to stay, there was no way he could go back to being a pilot, not now that he only had one arm. A prosthetic was an option, they'd advanced in the past few years, but there was no way that he'd be able to have anything close to a normal reaction time with it.

Besides, they were expensive, and he was now unemployed.

Finding work when you were a fallen hero was a hard sell, as it turned out, even more so when looking for it town that had such deep ties to the Galaxy Garrison. It was a string of rejections, before he'd landed himself a job at a small bakery. Not where he'd expected to find himself, but a job was a job, and there were worse ones out there. At least he got to be greeted every morning by the smell of baked goods.

What time he didn't put into work and recovery, he put into finding answers.

Something had gone wrong with those parts, and whatever that something was, the Galaxy Garrison didn't want anyone to know about it. If there was a chance that whatever had happened in that crash could happen again, then the public needed to know about it.

It... probably would have been easier to conduct an investigation if he'd stayed with the Garrison, but his moral backbone didn't allow him to.

Was the Garrison using faulty parts? Parts for space exploration vehicles didn't come cheap, it was possible that they'd been cutting corners here and there, where they thought people wouldn't notice. But cheap parts came with a risk- and a grave that had been filled too early was the consequence.

He didn't expect to have contact with the Holts ever again.

He certainly didn't expect Matt to come into the bakery one day, a serious expression on his face. The scar on his cheek was the only visible sign of what he'd been through- seems his luck had held out, when no one else's had.

He had his own fair share of scars- but he hid most of them, wearing long sleeves no matter what the weather, tying off the right at the stump. The scars on it were... not pretty, to say the least, and he didn't want to make anyone uncomfortable by making them look at them. The only one he couldn't hide was the one on his face- split across his nose, dead center.

He'd stopped trying to dye the white lock of his hair, right at his forehead. It quickly proved to be more trouble than it was worth.

"It's bullshit." Matt told him. "What they're saying. It's bullshit."

He almost had half a mind to chide him for language but- yeah, he was right. It was pretty much bullshit.

"I get off shift in an hour." Shiro told him. "Why don't you help yourself to something in the meantime, and we can talk after. My treat."

"You don't need to treat me, Shiro." Matt told him. "But I think I will take up that offer of pastries regardless. Man, this stuff smells good."

He couldn't help but crack a smile at that, watching as Matt selected himself a pair of pastries- and then paused, picking out a third. A peanut butter donut- had to be for Katie.

"She still loves peanut butter?" Shiro asked as he rung him up. Everything was a bit harder with just one hand now, but he made do.

He hadn't spoken to Katie since the launch, but he'd seen her face a few times. In papers, on news reports- though for her part, she largely tried to avoid the limelight, wanting nothing to do with it. He couldn't blame her- she likely just wanted to grieve in peace, not be part of some kind of media circus.

"Always." Matt told him. "She's... doing okay, you know. Not perfect. But okay."

"She's a tough girl." Shiro said, handing Matt his receipt.

"She thinks it's bullshit too, you know." Matt told him- and very visibly smiled at his surprise. "Spends most of her time these days on these crazy conspiracy theory boards. Apparently made herself a pal on one of them. We're not the only ones out there who think the pilot error thing is a load of crap, Shiro."

That was... good to know, if he had to be honest.

"We'll talk more after my shift." Shiro told him. "We've got some catching up to do. You stuck with the Garrison?"

"Had to." Matt told him with a shrug. "It still pays well. With dad gone..."

He stopped there, shaking his head. "I don't, you know. Blame you. You did everything you could to bring us to safety."

Shiro could only give him a rueful smile. He was right- he had done everything in his power- but it just hadn't been enough.

Not nearly enough.

"Shift over?"

"No, I just felt like slacking off." Shiro joked. "You want to come back to my place? It's not far from here."

"You don't want to talk about it in public, do you." Matt noted, arching his brows.

"Something like that." Shiro told him. "Look, the owner of this place is a nice lady and all, but her son is a cadet at the Garrison. I'm not sure how well she'd take me speaking ill of it. And I kind of need this job."

"I take it job hunting wasn't easy, then." Matt observed, tossing away his garbage, tucking the bag with the peanut butter donut in it under his arm. "You could always move."

He knew what he meant- this was a town that the Garrison had basically built. Not literally, maybe- but it wouldn't exist if the Galaxy Garrison didn't. Most people around here had some kind of connection to it- maybe their family worked as part of the staff, or they had a child who was a cadet. Either way, it wasn't the sort of place where you wanted to get on the bad side of the Garrison.

And Shiro... he wasn't on the Garrison's bad side, not exactly. Pilot error or not, they hadn't entirely disavowed him, not even after he'd resigned. But he'd fallen from grace, and that was hard for people to ignore.

"I wanted to stay close to the Garrison." Shiro told him. "And you know the west town doesn't take too kindly to Garrison folk, even former Garrison folk, so I figured staying put for now was my best bet."

"Fair enough." Matt said, opening up the door, propping it open with his body. "Lead the way, oh fearless leader."

"Don't expect too much." Shiro told him.

"Expectations suitably lowered." Matt said, falling into step behind him. "So... bakery, huh?"

"Bakery." Shiro repeated. "Ms Garrett is a nice lady, like I said. Good pay, good hours... can be a little tricky restocking with the one arm, but I manage to get by."

"Does it... does it still hurt?" Matt asked.

"Sometimes." Shiro admitted. "But it's not as bad as it was before. It'll take some time, but I'll get used to it."

"You shouldn't have to." Matt told him. "And I know I shouldn't, but sometimes... sometimes I feel bad about being okay, you know? What with you and dad."

"Well, don't." Shiro told him simply. "Trust me, you walking away from that crash was the one good thing that happened that day. Nobody's holding your survival against you, Matt."

"I know." Matt told him. "I just... it's hard sometimes, you know?"

"I know." Shiro said. He knew all too well.

There was silence between them then, each lost in their own thoughts. They didn't have long to walk- the apartment building he lived in was just a few scant blocks from the bakery. It wasn't much to look at, but the rent was cheap, and the size of the room was decent for one person.

"I should probably apologize in advance for there only being one chair, but I haven't had much time to shop for furniture." Shiro told him, stepping aside to let Matt in. "Didn't expect to have guests."

"Hey, it's cool." Matt told him, glancing around the apartment as he stepped inside. Setting the donut bag down on the kitchen counter, he gave him something of a strained smile. "So. Bullshit."

"Bullshit." Shiro said with a nod. "You can take the chair. You're the guest, after all."

"Then I will take you up on that kind offer." Matt told him, flopping down in the chair. "The mood at the Garrison since you resigned is... it's been interesting, I'll tell you that, Shiro. If there's some kind of conspiracy going on, I don't think everyone in the chain of command knows about it."

"I figured as much." Shiro said, leaning against the wall. It was probably for the best. If the Galaxy Garrison collapsed, it would cost a lot of good folks their jobs- so if there were people in the chain of command uninvolved in whatever was going on there, then that was a good sign. "I take it Katie decided against becoming a cadet?"

"Oh no, she's still thinking about it." Matt told him. "But she may have been caught hacking into their computer systems, so... well, there's that."

"...and when was this?" Shiro asked, raising his brows.

"While you were still in a coma." Matt said. "Like I said, she thinks the pilot error is bullshit too. She knows you, Shiro."

"Hm." Shiro couldn't help but smile a little at that, in spite of himself. "She find anything?"

"Not much. She wasn't there long before someone found her." Matt told him. "I'm amazed they still let me stick around after that. But I guess she swore up and down that I had nothing to do with it, and is kind of pretending to be in some sort of feud with me? So... yeah. Still at the Garrison."

"So what, you're her man on the inside?" Shiro asked, almost amused at the idea.

"Yeah, her man on the inside with like, zero security clearance." Matt told him, letting out a faint snort. "But listen Shiro- the whole pilot error thing? That's not the only weird thing that's been going on at the Garrison."

"I'm listening." Shiro said, his brow furrowing.

"Okay, one quick question." Matt said. "Have you spoken with Keith?"

"Keith?" Shiro asked, before shaking his head. "No, I haven't heard from him. Is... is there something wrong with Keith?"

If he had to be honest, that had been bothering him too. He wouldn't have thought Keith of all people would be the type to abandon him, yet he hadn't heard so much as a peep from him since he'd woken from the coma. Maybe they just weren't as close as he'd thought they'd been, though it pained him to think that.

"Huh. I thought for sure if he was going to contact someone, it'd be you." Matt said. "I- Keith's gone, Shiro."

"Gone." Shiro repeated, feeling the color drain from his face. "Gone as in...?"

"Oh! No, not that kind of gone!" Matt said quickly. "He pulled a Commander Kogane."

Commander Kogane. Keith's father. The one who'd turned in his resignation to the Garrison out of the blue one day, and then had vanished off the face of the Earth. The one who had only turned up again over a decade later, with a boy he claimed was his son in tow.

Keith Kogane, the Galaxy Garrison's new ace pilot prodigy. If there had been any doubt that the two were related, his skills in the cockpit had cleared everything right up.

"...he eloped with a mysterious woman of unknown nationality and went back to her country to marry her?" Shiro ventured. "Because that doesn't sound like Keith. It barely even sounds like Commander Kogane."

"More like he dropped out of the Garrison and became a desert cryptid." Matt told him.

"...that sounds more like Keith." Shiro admitted.

"Yeah well, apparently the Garrison's not too happy about it." Matt said. "And by not happy, I mean, like, really weird about it. Cadets are expected to report sightings of him."

"Sightings." Shiro repeated. "Christ, he really did become some kind of cryptid. I thought you were kidding."

"Shiro, I'll have you know that I've never made a joke in my life." Matt joked.

"So the Garrison is trying to find Keith." Shiro said. "That's... not really too unusual, Matt. We both know how talented he is. They already lost a huge talent when his father went AWOL, I can only imagine they're not too thrilled now that his son's gone and done the same thing."

"Yeah, but here's the thing about that." Matt told her. "Remember how I said Katie hacked into their systems?"

Seeing Shiro give him a nod of his head, he continued. "So she didn't get too far, but when she was going through personnel records, she noticed something weird. Like. Really weird."

"Don't leave me in suspense here, Matt." Shiro told him.

"Keith and Commander Kogane's records? They're classified now." Matt told him. "Like, top secret classified."

Now that caught his attention. "They're... why would they be classified, Matt? I mean, sure, Commander Kogane's, maybe, but why Keith's? He's just a cadet."

Or well, was.

"No idea." Matt said, shaking his head. "Katie wasn't able to get a good look at them."

"And you're saying that you haven't tried?" Shiro asked, now sounding truly incredulous.

"Oh, I've tried." Matt told him. "But they're flagged. If I try and get in, I alert the whole system. Kind of ruins the point of the whole inside man thing."

"True." Shiro admitted. "Okay so... on top of the chance that the Garrison might be using faulty, substandard parts, there's also something weird going on with Keith. You said his records had already been sealed by the time Katie hacked into their systems?"

Matt nodded his head, and Shiro's brow furrowed in thought. "So I'm guessing that Keith pulled his little vanishing act before Kerberos."

"Maybe around five months after we left." Matt told him. "So, probably about the time we reached Kerberos."

"Okay, so... odds are, he didn't decide to leave because of the pilot error." Shiro said. That would have been exactly the sort of stunt that Keith would pull, he thought. Knowing that he'd left before it, though... that complicated things. "Did you talk to anyone who might know?"

"Shiro, I'm pretty sure the only people at the Garrison that Keith talked to were us." Matt told him. "And we were both, you know... gone."

"What about that one cargo pilot?" Shiro asked.

"Like, ninety percent of their interactions consisted of the guy yelling at Keith." Matt pointed out. "I'm pretty sure if he was going to confide in anyone about where he was going, it wouldn't be the guy who kept getting in his face."

"Fair point." Shiro admitted. "So the... sightings?"

"Like any proper cryptid, there have been reported Keith sightings." Matt told him. "Even a grainy photograph or two. Best as anyone can tell, he's living out in the desert somewhere."

"So in other words, he's sticking around the general area of the Garrison." Shiro said.

"Maybe he has the same idea as you." Matt told him.

"Could be." Shiro mused. "Is there anything else weird going on at the Garrison that I should know about?"

"Oh, you know, just the usual mystery of how food in the commissary can taste so bland, when their freeze dried peas are so good." Matt told him- his expression almost faltering even as he cracked a joke. His father loved those peas, Shiro remembered. "But I think that's one conspiracy that can wait to be solved."

"We'll put it on the agenda with the rest." Shiro told him, a faint smile on his face. "Do you know where Keith's been..." lord help him,"...sighted?"

"Over in yonder west town, from time to time." Matt told him. "Any chance you'll need yourself a driver to get out there?"

"I might." Shiro admitted. "Why don't we exchange contact details for now, and I'll get back to you when I get some time off?"

"And then we can go cryptid hunting." Matt said, springing to his feet. "Or well, Keith hunting. But same thing."

"We are not going hunting for Keith." Shiro told him. "We're just... looking for him, that's all."

"Sure Shiro." Matt said, a cheeky grin on his face. "If you say so."

Getting time off hadn't been a challenge.

As it turned out, Ms Garrett had actually been worried because he had never asked for it before- so when he did, she was more than happy to give him two days off, even though he'd only asked for the one. With the date set, he contacted Matt, making arrangements to meet him at the Holt household bright and early.

Matt wasn't the only one waiting for him.

There she was, hair pulled up, hands on her hips, a grin on her face that told him that he was not going to be able to convince her against whatever it was that she had decided she was doing.

"Katie."

"Shiro."

Oh how he wished he had both arms right now- how could he properly express his displeasure if he couldn't do the disappointed older brother arm fold? Katie, by all rights, should not be here- today was Tuesday, and thus, she, like any other sixteen year old girl, should be in school.

"I'm coming." She told him, eyes daring him to challenge her. "You're taking me with you."

"And if I say no?" Shiro asked.

"Doesn't matter, not your car." She pointed out- and damn, she had him there.

Which meant she was coming for sure, because if there was one thing he knew about Matt, it was how much of a pushover he could be when it came to his baby sister. "And school?"

"I have a cold." She cheerfully reported, ignoring the fact that she was very much cold free and was thus, lying through her teeth. "Also, I call shotgun."

And that was how Shiro ended up in the back of Matt's car. A classic design, painted a vivid green, that he had salvaged from a scrapyard just before they had left for Kerberos. He didn't have to ask to know that he'd been burying himself in it's repairs since they'd gotten back, likely trying to distract himself from his own grief.

"Matt's teaching me to drive, you know." Pidge told him, glancing back. "Says this baby'll be mine someday."

"You're already the age to learn, huh?" Shiro asked. "Time really does fly."

"I still remember when you were in diapers like it was yesterday." Matt said, his tone rueful. "Even smaller than you are now."

"Oh shut up." Glaring at her brother, Katie folded her arms in front of her chest. "What's this west town like, anyways? I've heard of it, but I've never been there before. What kind of name is west town anyways?"

"It's not really it's name, not really." Shiro told her. "I don't even think it's a real town. More like a central gathering point for folk who live out in the desert. It's just kind of always been there, even before the Galaxy Garrison built it's facility here."

"They've been trying to buy the land up from under them ever since." Matt told her. "So... yeah. The people who live there pretty much hate anyone who has anything to do with Garrison, so don't expect a warm welcome."

"Expectations suitably lowered." She said, in an echo of her brother. "So it's what? A place where people who don't want to be found gather? That sounds pretty contradictory to me."

"Well, I don't know if it's so much that they don't want to be found..." Shiro said, trailing off.

"Shiro, they live out in the middle of the desert." Katie pointed out. "That sounds a lot like they don't want to be found to me."

"...okay, you might have something there, actually." Shiro admitted. "And you're sure Keith's there, Matt?"

"Sure? No." Matt told him. "But sometimes the cadets sneak out there, and a few of them claim to have seen Keith there every so often. If we talk to the locals, we might learn more."

"If they'll be willing to talk to us." Katie observed. "Though from the sound of it, I'm just surprised that they tolerate Keith. I mean, dropout or not, he's still former Garrison, right?"

It was a fair point, Shiro had to admit. If he really was out there, it was strange that the locals hadn't tried to force him out yet. Perhaps it was just because it was Keith- he'd always been the type to keep to himself. Matt had been right- he really didn't talk to too many people back at the Garrison, and the two of them were probably the closest thing that he had to friends.

Well, there was Katie too, but they'd only met a handful of times. Still, they did seem to get along well together, which was probably the reason she'd decided to come out here with them.

That, or she was just curious about how someone she knew had managed to pull off becoming a desert cryptid. She was into that sort of thing.

Keith was too.

And as for himself? Well, he was just plain worried about Keith. He knew the kid could handle himself when it came down to it, which was also sort of the problem- he didn't seem to know how to ask for help when he actually needed it. If Keith had managed to get into some kind of trouble with the Galaxy Garrison... well, he just didn't want him to face it alone.

He wasn't sure how much help he could give him, disabled as he now was, but he couldn't exactly abandon the kid either. He'd been his mentor, and that mentorship wasn't over yet, not in his eyes.

Of course, there was a chance that Keith wasn't alone out there. Maybe he was with his father, and the mother that no one had ever met, only heard about. Shiro didn't even so much as know her name- she truly was a mysterious figure, all told.

He hoped he was with them. Better together with family, than apart from it.

Especially if the Garrison was hunting you.

Most of the buildings, such as they were, in west town were located up on a plateau. Not only did it have sweeping views of the surrounding desert, but it also had a bird's eye view of the Galaxy Garrison in the distance- as well as the only road leading into town.

Which, incidentally, was not paved. It hadn't been when Shiro last had cause to visit the outpost- and it really was more of an outpost than a town- years ago, before Keith even first enrolled in the Garrison, and it still wasn't now.

"I thought I was going to die." Matt whispered, clearly fighting the urge to get out and kiss the ground once they'd arrived. "Shiro, you've been here before, right? Why didn't you warn me?"

"I... kind of forgot about it, actually." Shiro admitted, an almost sheepish expression on his face. "Sorry. The drive back down isn't as bad though."

And judging from the way Matt paled, it was clear that it hadn't occurred to him that they'd have to get back down again. It almost would have been funny, if it hadn't cost them so very much- that after surviving a spaceship crash that, by all means, should have been fatal, that a drive up a rocky desert road was still a source of terror for him.

"It's sure quiet here, though." Katie observed. "Are there really people here?"

"They probably all saw us coming, and decided to stay inside." Shiro told her. "Like I said, they aren't that fond of outsiders. Especially ones from the Garrison."

"I'm amazed that people can actually live out here, though." Matt observed, seeming to recollect himself. "Where should we start, Shiro?"

"There's a general store here. We should start from there." Shiro told him. "If Keith has been here, then odds are, the owner would probably recognize him."

"The eighties mullet does stand out." Katie muttered, half under her breath.

"Oh, you better not tell Keith that." Matt told her. "He hates it when people call his hair a mullet. I mean, it totally is a mullet, but-"

"Okay people, we didn't come out all this way just to discuss Keith's hair." Shiro interjected, glancing between them. "Let's focus on the mission."

"Mission, huh?" Arching his brows, Matt grinned. "I like the sound of that."

Shaking his head, faintly grinning in amusement, Shiro took the lead. Katie was right- it was awfully quiet here. But there were people here, that much he could tell- even if he couldn't see them, he could feel eyes on him, making his skin crawl. Casting his own gaze over the ramshackle assortment of buildings that hadn't changed in the least since his last visit here, he paused, his gaze lingering on something in the distance.

There had always been a valley just over the horizon of the west town, one that he knew was filled with rocky outcroppings and old caves. He'd explored the area once, back when he had been a cadet, and nearly had gotten himself lost because of it. Not one of his finer moments, he'd readily admit.

It was hard to tell from this distance, but he could have sworn that there was a large rocky outcropping that hadn't been there before. The massive chunks of earth jutted up into the sky, like five great pillars, with the central pillar towering above the rest.

Strange. Something like that didn't just develop overnight, or even over the course of several years- decades, maybe, even centuries. Maybe it was just his imagination, though. He considered himself to have a pretty good memory, but it wasn't like it was infallible, and it had been several years since he'd had cause to come out this way.

That he was mistaken was a lot more likely an option.

"So, you've been here before, Shiro." Matt spoke up, breaking into his thoughts, "Any etiquette tips that we should know about?"

"Other than not volunteering that you're Garrison?" Shiro told him. "Just... try and keep your head down. And if they act like they want us to leave, we leave."

"Just like that?" Katie asked with a frown.

"Just like that." Shiro nodded. "Come on, let's go. We should probably buy something while we're here, all three of us. Might make the owner more willing to talk. Katie, you brought some money?"

"Yeah." Katie told him, patting the large messenger bag that she'd brought with her. "That kind of place, huh?"

"That kind of place." Shiro said simply.

The general store was almost entirely as he remembered it- but he got the feeling that things didn't change out here too much. If anything did, it was the residents- he recognized the owner of the general store, but not the only customer- a man with almost startlingly bright red hair, and one hell of a mustache.

"Pretty early in the day to be seeing Garrison folk." The owner observed, no sooner than had his eyes fallen upon him. "Though you look like you've been through quite the ride, son, since you last showed up around these parts."

So he recognized him. Briefly, he couldn't help but wonder if he'd heard or not. He knew information traveled a little differently out here.

"You could say that." Shiro said. "We're not here looking for any trouble. We just have some questions."

"Questions can lead to trouble." The owner observed.

"Well, hopefully these won't." Shiro told him. "We're looking for someone."

"Oh, those kind of questions always lead to trouble." The owner said, and Shiro could swear that he almost looked amused at the prospect. "But I'll bite. Yer lookin fer the Kogane kid."

Well, that caught him off guard. "Uh... actually, yes. How did you...?"

"Not the first Garrison fellow to come round askin bout him." The owner told him. "But you don't sound like yer with em."

"I'm not." Shiro told him. "Not anymore."

"Keith's a friend of ours." Katie piped in, setting down several candy bars on the counter, which the owner did not waste any time in ringing up. "We just want to make sure he's not dead out in the desert somewhere."

"Oh, I reckon you don't have to worry about that." The owner observed. "The Kogane kid comes by here sometimes, sure enough. Doesn't do no more than stock up on supplies. He don't ask questions, and we don't either. Pretty lady comes round with him sometimes too."

Shiro was pretty sure he caught Matt muttering something about Keith having pulled a Commander Kogane after all, but somehow, he didn't buy it.

"Pretty lady got a name?" Katie asked.

"If she got one, I don't know it." The owner told her. "Just not the sort of type you usually find round here."

"Any clue where he might live?" Shiro asked.

Somewhere, in the back of his mind, it registered with him that the mustached man had left, slipping out without their notice.

"Oh no, son, you don't want to be asking that question." The owner told him. "Them Garrison folk that came to look fer him awhile back- they went out to the valley, and they ain't never come back."

"Well, that sounds ominous." Matt noted. "Maybe probably we shouldn't go there."

"I'd advise it." The man said. "Nobody round here goes out there no more. You get far enough that yer car and all yer other little devices don't work no more, you listen to me, and you just turn yerselves right around. Push yer car back the way you came, and it'll start workin again, right as rain."

"We'll keep that in mind." Shiro told him, unable to help but frown. "What does that have to do with Keith, though?"

The owner seemed to ponder the question- before he shrugged his shoulders. "I'll tell you folk this, only because you don't seem to be with them others, but that Kogane kid? I don't know if yer friends or not, but if yer lookin fer him, you'd best stay away."

"Cause son," the owner told him, looking Shiro dead in his eyes, "-right round when that kid first showed up here, that's when people stopped comin back from the valley."