Something buzzed on Ikuye's leg, and she prayed to God that her professor couldn't hear it. By some insane stroke of luck, she had discovered that Inari attended the same school, the Osaka University of Human Sciences, and they exchanged numbers. Inari wanted to be a family psychologist, and Ikuye was studying anthropology. Both were taking classes in foreign languages, knowing that their respective careers would take them outside of Asia. Japanese would need to be only the first in a respectable list of other tongues. At the moment, Ikuye was actually in her Introductory Chinese class. It was sizeable enough that the instructor would have a hard time notcing her while she texted.
We're doing it at sunset.
She sharply inhaled, thumbs hovering over the touchscreen, before she could find the mettle to respond.
Fantastic. Sounds good.
The day was already going much too slow for her taste. Tomorrow morning, she would wake up, free of the mess she'd made for herself, and she would be that much wiser. What could be better? Her phone went off again, making her jump and realize that she'd forgotten to write down the last five minutes of notes and vocabulary.
Afterwards, we can have tea :)
Oh, good God.
You're much too chipper than I'd like about this, Inari.
Sinking back into her chair, Ikuye thought about how lovely it would be to say "Zài-fucking-jiàn" to this demon once and for all, and never have to deal with it again. Losing all of this sleep was wreaking havoc on her physical health, and she was almost waiting for a heart attack. When did the hallucinations start?
"Tonight," she mumbled under her breath while absently scrawling it down in her notebook. Then jin wan, ce soir, esta noche, segodnya vecherom, kon'ya... Over and over and over again.
Tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight, in every language she knew.
The sun was setting while the two girls leaned against Father Nikolai's car. The priest, a man who had to be pushing into his seventies, was looking through his small briefcase a final time. Ikuye could see a bottle of holy water, a stick of twisted, dried leaves in a bundle, a lighter, a crucifix, and, of course, a Holy Bible. She raised her eyebrows at it, curious how he would use these tools, but he wouldn't allow the two girls to come inside. The demon obviously didn't like Ikuye.
"Now, girls," he said, shutting his briefcase again, "I'm only going to say this once. Whatever you hear, you are not to enter the house. Even if I'm banging on the windows screaming for help, don't come in." Reaching into his jacket, he pulled out a pair of small, plastic squirt guns, each embossed with three crosses. "Ikuye, this thing shouldn't follow you to any other houses, so if something happens to me, move. Don't enter this place again, do you hear me?"
"Yes, sir."
He looked at Inari square in the eye. "As with every exorcism, there's a chance that I may not come out of this alive. If that happens, Inari, first you need to spray down all the doors and windows with the holy water I gave you. Stay as far away from the house as you can manage. This will keep the demon, hopefully, from leaving the home. Once you've done that, go to the church and tell the others what happened." Patting her shoulder, he gave her a half-hearted smile and added, "Thank you for everything, my child. May the Good Lord bless you with much happiness for the rest of your days."
She bowed to him and he made a sign of benediction over her. They were of different faiths, but there was at least mutual respect there. He murmured a prayer to steady himself and walked inside without looking back.
The two watched him, eyes trained on the front door and the windows. Ikuye's mother was out of town until the end of the weekend, and her brother had moved out long ago, so there was no question of anyone else being in danger. Everything was still quiet after a few moments, so Inari set her squirt gun on the roof of the car, sat herself down on the hood, and whipped out her phone to start playing some game.
"You never answered my question," Ikuye said in an off-hand way, "What did you do to get a priest to owe you a favor?"
"He needed the blood of a non-Christian virgin to bless a crucifix."
"... why did you say that so calmly?"
Inari looked up and laughed at her disturbed expression. "Oh, chill out. It wasn't that much blood."
"Let me guess, the cross I saw in his briefcase used to be a different color."
"Yeah, it was white."
"Of course."
Looking down, Inari watched the cursor under her finger scroll across the touch screen until it had spelled out "not funny" on her phone. She closed out to her home screen, feeling a chill go up her arms. Clearly, the message was from Kokkuri-san, but how did he do it without the red gate? She looked up, trying to forget about it, and said, "I really hope Father Nikolai's doing alright in there..."
As the sun started to set on the house, the darkness inside became greater, creeping up the walls and closing in on the priest as if to suffocate him. He had sprinkled holy water and crumbled sage and said his prayers throughout every room in the house besides Ikuye's bedroom, and the smoke from the smudgestick was making the rooms hazy. Crosses drawn from the ashes adorned the front door and the door to the basement, and all that was left was to go upstairs and meet the demon face to face.
The red eyes were leering at him before he had even gotten into the room, watching him come up the stairs through the two opened doors. Fog rolled from his lips as he breathed before his skin could register the temperature change, but it was suddenly ice cold. Crossing himself and saying a silent prayer, he stepped inside, keeping his gaze firmly on the demon and refusing to break contact.
"I call upon the Archangel Michael," he called out in a stern voice, still staring eye-to-eye with the demon, "And I ask that he aid me in my conquest to deliver this home from this minion of Satan." He raised his bottle of holy water and flung it into the closet. "In Jesus' name, I banish you, demon of Hell!"
Thick, grey smoke started pouring from inside the door, and out of the darkness came a taloned, black hand. The demon, red eyes blazing, pulled itself forward with a leering grin on its jaws. "You have done nothing but release me from my recent prison," it says in a hoarse, husky voice, "And I thank you... Father."
It hissed and shot out of the closet, much too long to have fit inside in the first place, and it charged towards Father Nikolai. The man ran, calling out an invocation to God and His angels.
"Come forth and deliver us from this devil!" he cried without looking back, sweat beading on his forehead when he realized that even the sage and smudge smoke is having no effect on it. He had to get to the girls, and quickly. He thought he knew the way to get rid of it, but he was likely to fail.
The creature's tail whipped itself into the wall and shatter something hanging there, Nikolai didn't know what. As he tore down the stairs and raced to the window, he could hear the railing splinter. There wasn't much time.
Outside, neither of the girls were watching the house anymore. All had been quiet, and they'd decided to give Father Nikolai until sunrise to get out safely. Inari yawned behind her hand, fighting not to sleep. This wasn't easy, as they hadn't spoken to each other much. She just kept reading things on her phone. Ikuye twitched, still on edge though she appeared not to care. Something compelled her to turn her head back to her simple, two-story house.
Nikolai's face slammed into the window, with a pair of red eyes leering out from behind, and Inari screamed. Blood dripped from the priest's forehead and he breathed heavily onto the window. The girls took up their squirt guns once more and aimed them with shaking hands at the two inside, waiting for the demon to burst out and attack them, too. Nikolai reached up and started drawing something in the fog in the window, but the demon smacked it away so hard that the glass actually shattered and left a hole.
Father Nikolai started yelling, "The light! Use the light! Use it before he goes back to his hiding place! The li-"
Inari put her hand to her mouth, tears of horror forming in her eyes, as the demon ripped Father Nikolai's head from his body and swallowed it whole. It leered at the girls, then retreated back into the house until they couldn't see or hear it again. Ikuye trembled and the body slumped backwards.
"Oh, God, we have to go get help!"
Ikuye was throwing her things into the car and fumbling for her keys, but Inari couldn't pry her eyes away from the broken, bloody windowpane. The smudges that Nikolai had made with his hands were still there, but fading fast. She squinted and took a step forward, and it finally hit her what he had been drawing.
"No..." Inari said in a hoarse, hushed voice, "We have to go in and finish it."
Ikuye turned on her furiously. "Are you fucking insane?! That's exactly what he told us not to do. He specifically said to go to the church and-"
"Fine, then you go. But you saw that... that thing you summoned into your closet. I'm staying here and spraying the place with holy water, and I'm going to trap it somewhere outside of your room. You heard what Father Nikolai said. By the time you and I get help and come back, it'll already be inside the closet, safe. Besides," she added pointing to the window, "He already told us how to get rid of it."
With that, she snatched up her squirt gun and marched fearlessly up to the house, taking aim and spraying jets of water along the door and window frames. Ikuye watched and tilted her head to the side, trying to see whatever it was Inari saw in the near-invisible squiggles.
"A sun...?"
Just as Inari was getting ready to dash to the other side of the house, a seperate stream of water started hitting the windows. Ikuye was standing there, holding her squirt gun like it was an actual pistol and hitting it just as well. She glanced at her friend, who nodded without taking her eyes away from the house.
"Alright, alright, you've got me convinced. We'll do it. But he had better fucking be right."
Without giving time to grin, Inari rushed her way through the door. Ikuye tore in after her, keeping her holy water clutched tightly in her hand and unsure how Inari could run in the shoes and dress she had on. She could smell sulfur and blood, but refused to look to the decapitated corpse and instead followed Inari up the stairs. The girl had slowed down considerably, keeping close to the wall with her finger on the trigger of her gun, and the blood-soaked crucifix in her hand. Inari looked back at Ikuye with a grimace, but shook her head. No demon in sight.
"My room?" Ikuye mouthed to her silently. Her companion shrugged, but as a thick white cloud rolled across the floor and lifted into the air, Inari's eyes grew wide and her hand flew to her nose and mouth, stifling heavy coughs. The stench hit Ikuye as the smog went down the stairs, and she reacted similarly. Sulfur.
She followed the trail of smoke with her watering, stinging eyes to her room. The creature was definitely in there again. Her lungs started seizing as she fought back the beginnings of an asthma attack, but she continued on. In front of her, Inari had to steady herself against the wall, squatting down to get some kind of fresh air as the sulfur rose. Finally, she popped back up, holding her breath, and charged into the bedroom.
"Wait for me!" Ikuye tried to call out, panting.
Inari halted, seeing the demon sitting in the middle of the dark, unbearably hot bedroom, its eyes illuminating the pitch black with the light of a bonfire. Tail whipping about, it looked like a cat lying in wait for its prey. Honestly, it probably was. Sulfur poured from its mouth, but most of it was coming from the closet, just like the Hellish heat. The jaws twisted into a horrific grin, a lizard-like tongue snaking out to lick away saliva.
"Three humans in one day?" it growled in its gravelly voice, "I'll have a full belly to last me a month."
"Don't be so sure," Inari replied, voice trembling. Her throat felt raw from breathing in so much sulfuric gas, and she couldn't hide her fear, but she could at least speak.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a pouch that she'd seen with the priest earlier, Likely, it had fallen away during the chase. There was a tiny tear in the corner, spilling out a mess of a white, granulated substance. The air around it was perfectly clear, which gave the young woman an idea...
Ikuye's footsteps crept slowly behind her, but Inari signalled for her to stop. She took one step back, not taking her eyes off the demon.
"Ikuye..." she whispered out of the corner of her mouth, "I think I know what to do. See that bag over there?"
"Yeah...?"
"Be real slow. Real quiet."
"You little girls shouldn't be making plans in front of my face, you know," it laughed, but the voices were too low for it to really understand what they were saying.
But there weren't any more words needed, Ikuye had gotten the gist. Inari started moving to the one side, making the demon turn its head with her. This was Ikuye's signal to get going. She raised herself up on her toes, quickly sneaking as silently as possible to the bag. Pinching the torn end, she cradled it to her body, rubbing some of the crystals between her fingers and putting them to her tongue.
"Salt..." she whispered to herself, mind shifting into a gear completely in sync with her friend.
"Any time, now, Ikuye..." Inari muttered.
The demon's body was too large with legs too awkwardly placed to allow it to turn around properly when it figured out what they were doing. It couldn't move in time to stop Ikuye from surrounding it in a thick circle of salt. When it tried to step out, it was as if it was shocked or burned, making it cry out angrily. The two eyes burned furiously.
"I will kill you all!" it screeched, "Release me now and I will make your deaths quick."
The girls had met at the end of the circle, with Inari clutching Ikuye's arm tightly. "What do we do now?" Ikuye asked, letting the panic catch up to her now that the beast was trapped and unable to move. Inari gulped, trembling still, but ripped the curtains and blinds away before tossing the window wide open.
"We have to wait until daybreak," she choked out, "I don't think it can tolerate sunlight. Hopefully, it'll just burn up and away."
"Let's just shoot it with the rest of the holy water."
Grimacing, she turned her eyes to Ikuye and held up her gun, pulling the trigger. A meager spray shot out, and then no more. "Yours isn't any more full than mine. Ikuye, I think we should go get the other priests at the church."
Frustrated, Ikuye whispered, "Why? We have the monster basically dealt with."
"But not the gateway in your closet. What if something else comes out?" Inari sighed, crawling onto Ikuye's bed, watching the thrashing monster. "I'll stay here and keep an eye on it-"
"Don't you fucking talk about me like I'm not here!" it shrieked.
"-while you go find the church. My GPS is in my car. The address should be programmed into it." She tossed Ikuye the keys, looking frightened and tired. "Just hurry, alright?"
"Will you be okay?" Ikuye had to raise her voice over the sound of the raging beast. Her question made Inari laugh weakly.
"I haven't gotten my head chomped off yet, have I?" she asked rhetorically, "Just get going, Ikuye. I'll see you, alright?"
With a nod, Ikuye ran out of the room, and Inari closed her eyes, trying to block out the demon with deep breathing and a mind-cleansing exercise. The truth was that her mind was starting to wander to weird places. She hummed a single note and held it constantly, losing herself in the white noise until everything went blank. The demon was taking a while to calm itself, but in reality, Inari had hypnotized herself into thinking the house had gone quiet.
She took up the crucifix and used a corner to scrape a red gate into the wall, her back to the demon. Kanji also made their way to the wall under the gate, including the words "yes" and "no." Her finger found its way to the gate with a small coin pressed under it.
"Kokkuri-san, Kokkuri-san," she chanted to herself, "Are you here with me?"
It took a moment, and she felt a rush of cold air over her shoulder. "Yes."
"Calling spirits won't help you, child," the demon growled, but she ignored it.
"Kokkuri-san, will I live to see the dawn?"
"Yes."
She felt something like a hand on her shoulder and jumped, letting out a scream. The noise came flooding back to her, though the demon had calmed considerably, seeming to be resigned to its fate.
"W-was that you, Kokkuri-san?"
The coin started to flash across the board she'd made on the wall. "Don't turn your back," the coin spelled out, and she chuckled again.
"Don't worry," she replied, "It can't get me."
"Careful."
"Oh, will you hush? Just keep me company until Ikuye gets back, okay?"
Behind her, the creature slithered around, its lizard-like tongue flicking out to taste the blood-stained air around it with a grin. It let out a small cackle. "How about we play a game to pass the time?"
But Inari had started humming her note again, keeping her eyes shut and finger pressed to the one hundred-yen coin on the wall. She felt as if someone was sitting next to her, Kokkuri-san, she figured. Trying to drown out the demon again, trying to hypnotize herself once more, she found that clearing her mind was becoming more difficult. When she least expected it, strange thoughts would pop up, and soon, her humming turned into a silly nursery rhyme that she didn't entirely remember.
"Mr. Raccoon, won't you talk with me somehow?"
Much to her surprise, Kokkuri-san knocked out the rhythm to the next line on the wall. She let out a slightly manic laugh.
"What's for dinner? I want some!"
"Pickled plums."
"Can I have a little crumb?"
"No."
"Oh, come on, that didn't even rhyme!"
Author Note: Er, wow, I haven't updated this story in forever, either... again, even though I've had this part written for almost a year. Well, I'm trying to get myself to work on a deadline, so I can stay in the habit of timed work for school while I'm away for break.
Thank you for your patience! And thank you for reading!