"So people are getting possessed here?"
"Apparently," Abeno said. His arms were tightly crossed over his chest, expression serious. The light of the dusky sky caught in his gold hair and eyes, bronzing their lustre and rendering him a more somber silhouette than usual. It seemed to Hanae that Abeno sensed something big or bad, possibly both.
Hanae's eyes roved around the multipurpose park, reaching out his spiritual feelers to see if he could sense what Abeno sensed. A playground lay to the right, peppered with swings, slides, and a jungle gym. The most insidious thing about it was the merry go round. Hanae had many a childhood memory of being forced onto and spun on such things until he quite literally puked. However, he knew that even though the equipment emanated a hateful energy to him personally, in actuality it was a normal merry go round with no demonic energy whatsoever.
Hanae turned his attention to the baseball and soccer fields. The last of the kids were clearing out, bags slung over their shoulders, and young, fearless faces stretched wide with smiles. The only energy in that area was that of camaraderie.
Hanae's heart sank in his chest. He had studied long and hard with Yahiko to improve his youkai sensing abilities, but it appeared he wasn't quite up to snuff yet. It was probably true he would never be as adept as Abeno was—being the Master of the Mononokean and having been at that position for years, it was no wonder he was the best—but if the demonic energy was really as strong as Abeno's face betrayed, he really should be able to feel it by now.
"Is it bad?" Hanae asked.
Abeno's eyes narrowed, scouring a hard line from one side of the field to the playground. "I don't know."
"...You don't know?"
"There's definitely residual energy here, from a big youkai. But it feels...dampened somehow. Fluid. Like it's behind a wall, or underground?" He turned to Hanae. "Don't you feel it?" A muscle slid in Abeno's jaw when he saw Hanae's sheepish expression. "Of course you don't. You're about as reliable as a dowsing rod."
"Hey! I don't know what that means exactly, but I resent it!"
"Remind me to schedule another training session with Yahiko," Abeno said absently as he took a step. Hanae pouted and scuffed his shoe against the dirt. Abeno stood on home plate of the baseball field for a long while, staring at the sun as it slowly melted like butter on the horizon.
"So, what now?" Hanae stepped up beside him, and tried and failed yet again to sense the elusive youkai. "You weren't hired to exorcise this youkai, right? So, if it doesn't want to go… What are you going to do?"
A line formed in the space between Abeno's eyebrows which Hanae knew meant he was either troubled, uncomfortable, or about to insult him, all of which didn't make Hanae feel particularly reassured.
"I can't make a youkai do what it doesn't want to do," Abeno said after the sun had finally fully liquefied. "But I can at least talk with it and let it know its options." There was something warning in the flat tone of Abeno's voice, and Hanae felt a shiver tug at the back of his neck.
"You sounded really badass just now," he said, half truthfully, half to dispel his unease.
Abeno didn't turn his head, but his eyes snapped toward him. The furrow in his brow deepened and Hanae was forced to add a fourth interpretation to the expression: Abeno was insulted.
"Sorry," Hanae said, even though he had meant it as a compliment.
Abeno didn't dignify his apology with an answer and said instead, "The rumors say there have been a rash of possessions in this area lasting from a few minutes to an hour. The victims report feeling like they're in a trance or a dream. Afterward, they feel short of breath, nauseated, irritable…"
Hanae's ears buzzed as Abeno continued to detail the possession particulars, by try as he might to focus, darkness crept into the corners of his consciousness, blackening his thoughts. The dusky glow of the field cast shadows where they weren't a moment ago, and in his mind the Executive loomed over him. His heart raced. Energy crushed down on him, sleek raven eyes glistening like black mirrors, his feathers plumed and curling in his nostrils like fetid smoke. I... I can't breathe! He was clawing at his throat, trying to tear the invisible hands from his windpipe. I'm going to die.
"Are you okay?"
A hand clasped his arm and Hanae wrenched himself from the memory. His heart was pounding so hard it hurt. He realized his breathing had gone shallow. His neck and back were slick with sweat. Abeno's eyes shone in concern and Hanae felt his face grow hot with shame.
The incident with the Executive was weeks ago. I'm over it! Why am I thinking about it now?
He had done everything he could to convince Abeno to let him continue as an employee of the Mononokean, to show him he could take care of himself as an exorcist. He wouldn't let himself slip backwards.
"Yeah," Hanae said, trying for a laugh. "Yeah, of course."
Abeno's grip on his bicep tightened a fraction. "Are you sure?" He narrowed his eyes, searching Hanae's face and then his body for signs of weakness.
Hanae knew what was coming next: Abeno would tell him he didn't have to come, he would council him not to push himself. A spike of resistance shot through Hanae's chest. He brushed Abeno's hand away. "Yes, I'm fine," he said with steel in his voice.
Abeno's mouth slanted in disbelief, but he couldn't say anything, because Hanae marched away from home plate toward the playground.
"So the plan is to lure the youkai out, right?" Hanae called over his shoulder. "Let's split up to cover more ground. I'll shout if I find it."
"Ashiya."
Why is he worried now? I wish sometimes that he would go back to the Abeno-san that just scoffed and made fun of me.
"Ashiya," Abeno said again, louder and with more heat, as the distance between them grew.
Hanae whirled around. "I'm fine! I can handle this."
They stared each other down. The silence between them weighed heavily, and Hanae wondered at how there was no sound, not the hush of the wind nor the chirp of cicadas, when he wished for it the most. He needed something to fill the void, to distract from the worry eating at the corners of Abeno's expression.
"I can do this, Abeno-san," Hanae said, just above the silence. "Please let me do this."
The fire in Abeno's eyes died. Hanae saw him breathe in through his mouth and exhale, slow and tight through his nose. "Call me immediately if you find the youkai."
Abeno walked away from him out into the open field and Hanae relaxed. One by one his muscles uncoiled, leaving a low ache behind. He hadn't realized how tense he was until Abeno's gaze left him.
Hanae trudged to the swing set and sat down. His feet skimmed the ground as he drifted forward and backward, tracing drunken lines in the wood chips. I'm fine. I'll work harder. I swear it.
Hanae nodded to himself. He closed his eyes and focused, stretching his awareness, trying to tap into that unnameable something that resonated with the energy around him. He didn't know how long he sat there, but after a while, something bumped up against his consciousness. It was slippery, like a sea creature breaching the surface for a second before slipping back under again, there and gone so quickly you doubted whether there had been anything at all. Hanae screwed his eyes shut tighter and focused focused focused. And then, it happened again.
Hanae opened his eyes. The field had gone dark. There was a lamp at the far end by the parking lot, but the pale dirty light did little about the darkness but draw attention to the depth of it. Goosebumps prickled Hanae's arms as he stood.
The presence was obvious now, but like Abeno said, it felt murky. He couldn't tell where it came from, but he knew that it was somewhere nearby.
"Hello?" he hazarded, turning a slow circle in the dark. The merry go round squeaked as a breeze nudged it and Hanae almost jumped out of his skin at the sound. He groaned under his breath.
Maybe… I shouldn't have told Abeno-san we should split up… This situation was starting to feel like the beginning of a slasher film.
"Yeah…" Hanae swallowed. "I'm going to find Abeno-san, I think."
Something shot out of the darkness. Hanae fell back as the thing bore down on him. Its face was hard and bone white. Wood chips dug into the back of Hanae's neck as he tried to pull away, but there was nowhere to go. His heart thundered in his chest as he saw it had no eyes, just gaping holes. His scream lodged in his throat when he realized it didn't have a face either; the skull of some hellish beast hung above him, and serrated teeth jutted like icicles from the end of its snout.
The youkai reached a hand toward him, but it wasn't a hand at all, just long tapered feelers that writhed and burrowed into his mouth, his nose, his ears. He was choking.
Help! Abeno-san!
The youkai leaned down toward his face, eye to yawning socket and the world went black.
