The Night Will Come Soon
Chapter 06
A Business Contract
"What…is going on over there?"
Manta muttered the question in everyone's head as he fell to the ground. A strange red light was glowing from an industrial district not too far from where they were. And then, a huge fire burst out from the red light. Even though they were so far away, Manta felt weak in the knees, and for some reason he felt that the source of the red light was something bad and powerful.
Yoh had just finished fighting with the corpse of Pai Long, who was controlled by Tao Ren's older sister, Tao Jun. The two enemies have realized their wrong and decided to retreat when the fire started. All the people present were watching it happen. Their shocked faces were illuminated with a reddish glow.
"Isn't that the direction where Ushio went?" Yoh exclaimed, "If something happened… let's go, guys!"
Anna did not stop Yoh this time. Her usual cold expression was a bit stiffer this time.
The group hurriedly ran over toward the red light. But when they got there, no one was there except for a mess of fresh human corpses, all burnt to crisps.
Ushio opened her eyes and saw a familiar ceiling. She felt relieved that she recognized it as the one belonging to her apartment, and she was in her bed. However, her head hurt to the point that she thought it was going to split in two. She tried to remember what had happened. She had faint images overlaid by a shade of red, and a male voice ringing in her head. She tried to sit up, but she couldn't get any strength from her body.
"I'd never thought that you would do something that stupid, Ushio."
Ushio turned her neck slowly to the sound of a man's voice. She knew who it was, and she was ready for a long lecture.
"Mikihisa…"
"Letting a demon have full control over your whole body? That's not even Hyoui-Gattai anymore; I thought you would have more sense than that." Mikihisa said, his voice sounded angry through his mask, and Ushio was glad that she didn't have to see his facial expression. "Not to mention how powerful this demon was. It was going to take your body, you know? If I hadn't driven it out of your body, your soul would eventually die inside your body!"
"…" Ushio had nothing to retort with. She had expected those things before she gave away the control of her body. It was probably the riskiest decision she has ever made, but she really ran out of choices that time.
"Where is it now…?"
Mikihisa paused in silence, and then let out a deep sigh. "Thanks to you, it now has enough power to release its true form. It is too powerful now; I cannot seal it with any kind of spell. But it is here. At least it is not out there destroying the world…"
"Hmph, simple human! Do you think that my desire is as low as to destroy the world?"
Ushio shot up from her bed as she recognized the voice that came from her bedroom door. She remembered nothing about the night before but the smooth, deep voice, which called itself "Tamamo no Mae". When she sat up, the creature that appeared in front of her was a beautiful golden fox with nine tails, too big to be categorized with any existing species in the world. Its posture was straight and upright, but it also showed a bit of carelessness, an aura of a great leader. However, the one thing that Ushio could not stop thinking about was how familiar this creature looked with something deep within her memory.
"Vulpix, you evolved into Ninetales!"
"My name is not Vulpix, you tiny bug!" the fox said with a calm voice, but there was a bit of annoyance in it. "I am Tamamo no Mae, highest of all demons in this world."
"Tamamo no Mae…" Ushio muttered the name as information surfaced in her head. She remembered reading about a legend about a beautiful, wise palace woman in the feudal era Japan. She looked toward Mikihisa for confirmation, who nodded in return.
"It surprised me too; legends told that it had been exorcised long time ago," Mikihisa said gravely. "The nine-tailed fox demon that appeared as a palace woman during the rule of Emperor Konoe. It was said that she could answer anything that anyone asked. Her wisdom and incomparable beauty captured the emperor's heart, so he made her into one of his concubines and kept her close to him. Until the emperor fell into an illness that no doctor can cure, and he hired some spiritual doctors who finally realized that the emperor's favorite concubine was a demon. The fox was chased out from the palace by onmyouji's, and it was finally killed and its body turned into stone."
The golden fox growled at Mikihisa. "Hmph! It is just like you humans to assume that you have won. I've merely metamorphosed into a rock, and they believed that I died. It will take more than just some little onmyouji's to kill me."
"But one of them almost got you," Ushio pointed out, "You were weakened to the point that you couldn't go back to your fox form for hundreds of years. You had to recover slowly by consuming humans and hide in the mountains. I could've exterminated you so many times already."
"Silence, bug, I could have destroyed you from inside your body as well. You are very lucky to be alive," the fox stood up on all fours and glared at Ushio, who merely brushed it off.
"That is why my question here is: why haven't you killed me yet?" Ushio pointed a finger at herself. "It's true that Mikihisa drove you out of my body, but he cannot hold you off for long. Why are you still here?"
Mikihisa sent a glare to Ushio, who couldn't see it through his mask anyway.
The fox made a sound that sounded like a scoff. "The idea still bewilders me, but I cannot change the fact that your body is the most compatible with my spirit, even more compatible than that woman in the palace. You should feel honored that a tiny body such as yours could ever contain my power. Of course, this procedure will damage the body if you try to resist. If you do not agree on this deal, I can kill you either way. It would be wise of you to free your powerless soul and hand your body over to me…"
"Why do you crave to possess a human body?" Mikihisa cut in to ask his question. "Don't you think yourself higher than us?"
"That is not any of your business," the fox looked toward Ushio, "what do you say, bug?"
Ushio did not answer right away, but she stared at the fox with a look of deep thought. The way she pursed her lips showed that she was seriously considering this. Mikihisa saw the look on her face and was surprised that she would think on it at all.
"Don't, Ushio, you know that if he takes your body, your soul would vanish forever," said Mikihisa sternly, even though Ushio should know that already.
"Can you give us a minute in private?" Ushio asked, ignoring Mikihisa's warning.
Ushio's outrageous actions put Mikihisa in complete shock. He had known her since she was a baby, but he has never seen her this senseless before. In his head he thought of all these things that he could shout at her with, but in the end, when looking at her stubborn face, he knew that she wouldn't make decisions upon other people's opinions. Even when she was learning from Yohmei, she only learned the basics and practiced in her own ways.
With a sigh, Mikihisa left the room.
As the door clicked shut, Ushio slid out of her bed and walked to speak to the fox face to face. She hid it very well from her face, but she was feeling extremely excited to see look at the fox closely. The fox that resembled Ninetales was even more beautiful than in any of its representations in the games. Its red eyes were like gems.
"Tamamo," she said, not looking away from the fox's eyes.
"Tamamo-sama," the fox corrected.
"Tamamo, you may have control over my body, but only under one condition."
The fox scoffed. "What makes you think that you can place these conditions on me?"
"Because a compatible body for your soul is hard to come by. According to yourself, a body as good as mine didn't come for hundreds of years, right?" Ushio said sharply. "You can have this body once you help me find one person—she's probably a demon just like you."
"Who is she?"
"I don't know. I know how she looks like, but I have no idea what she is."
"Hmph! As an onmyouji, you're saying that you don't know what demon you are dealing with?"
"I'll admit that I don't, but I have been researching, and recently I heard about something that might be able to take me straight to that demon," Ushio's face darkened as she lowered her head. it looked like she was still in deep thought about this whole thing, but it also looked like she determined to do anything at all. "Do you know about the Great Spirit?"
"I know of no such spirit that would refer to themselves with that name in my presence."
"You can just say 'no', okay? Your ego is suffocating me in this small room," Ushio narrowed her eyes, "Anyway, it's a very powerful spirit and all the shamans in the world are gathering in a tournament to 'make their wish come true' or something. I figured that tournament would be a hot spot for getting intel, unlike blindly looking around in Tokofushi. I heard that all expenses in the tournament are paid by the tournament hosts, so this might be a great chance. The other details are unimportant to you, and I just need you to help me fight. When my end of the deal is met, you can have my body."
"How do I know if that demon you speak of really exists?"
"You don't. You'll just have to bet on it," said Ushio with a smirk. "Just like how I'm betting that you've waited far too long to give up on this body and kill me right here and now."
"What were you thinking, Ushio?! How can you just sell your body to a demon?!"
Manta was surprised by how loudly Yoh spoke to Ushio. Yoh has always been very friendly to everyone; he almost never put down his smile, let alone yell at someone. But he had to admit that Ushio was making a really bad decision. Even little kids would know not to make a deal with a demon. He peeked at the demon Tamamo, who looked completely different since the last time that he saw it, but looked away quickly from the dangerous feeling that it gave off.
Shortly after Mikihisa had left Ushio's home, Yoh, Anna, and Manta came over. They were relieved at first that Ushio had not been injured. But when they heard about Ushio's deal with the fox demon, the atmosphere became very intense.
"Relax, Yoh, it's my body that I'm wagering, not yours," said Ushio as she sipped on the tea that she made.
Yoh widened his eyes at the words that Ushio said. He couldn't believe how cruel Ushio was being. To herself and all of her friends.
"Ushio… that demon is unlike those other ones you've encountered before…" said Yoh, his voice low and sounded hurt. "That demon… he used your body last night and killed eight people. Are you okay with that? Letting him use your body to murder?"
Ushio continued to sip on her tea quietly, but her eyes were fixed on the snacks on the table. She was aware of how dangerous Tamamo was. She knew that she had killed people for the first time in her life last night, but she forced herself to ignore it. Perhaps it was all the deaths she had seen already through two lifetimes; she was able to unsee things in her head that she didn't want to see. If there was one thing that she learned, it was that she can't lose sight of what her goal was. For 14 years in this life, she was beginning to get used to going to school in Tokofushi, exorcising spirits for a living, going to Yoh and Anna's place on a daily basis, and living as Kanzaki Ushio. But the fact is that she is not Kanzaki Ushio. It's just the name of a body that her soul lives in.
"Ushio!"
"Shut up, Yoh, leave things as it is," Anna stopped Yoh after staying quiet all this time. She stared at Ushio's calm face, who did not look back at her, and said, "it's about time she finds a guardian spirit strong enough to be in the tournament."
"You're right, Anna, I'm going to be in the tournament. But not to help Yoh; I'm doing it for my own sake."
"It was just a kind offer. Yoh will defeat you in the tournament anyway."
"I doubt that a samurai spirit can defeat a thousand year old fox demon," Ushio glared at Anna, who poured herself a cup of tea as well. "Right, Tamamo?"
"It's Tamamo-sama, you lowly insect," yawned the fox spirit.
"Don't speak too soon," Anna gulped down her tea and stood up nonchalantly. "Yoh's already got his Oracle Bell, and is set for his first fight in a couple of days. We'll see you in the tournament—if you even qualify."
Anna pulled Yoh away and made her way out of the front door. Ushio didn't see them out. She didn't really feel bad for saying those things to Yoh and Anna. After all, she wasn't supposed to exist in this world at all.
Quietly, Ushio cleaned up the dishes. Tamamo sat still and watched her behavior with interest.
"All right, Tamamo…" she said after cleaning up. "Let's go get us an Oracle Bell… whatever that is."
"It's Tamamo-sama."
TBC
A/N: Sorry for such a late update/short chapter! I've been super busy with a lot of things lately, please forgive me!
