The Night Will Come Soon
Chapter 7
Split-Tailed Cat
Location: Tokofushi Bridge; Time: midnight. It was an eerie night where the whole moon was hidden by thick black clouds. The residents of Tokofushi rarely went anywhere near the bridge at night because of all the suicide stories that linked to the bridge. What people were too ignorant to notice is that the water in the stream under the bridge was not nearly deep enough to kill anyone. However, it was still the most deserted place in Tokofushi. Therefore, even when Peter, a shaman from overseas with a relatively strong guardian spirit, screamed for her life, no one could notice.
"Im—im—impossible!" The tall, middle-aged shaman crawled on the cold cement, sweating like a pig and shaking as if he'd seen zombies. His right leg was burnt to a crisp. "How can my guardian spirit be defeated?"
Approaching Mark was a young girl with such intense furyoku that he could not look at her in the face. Next to the girl was a big golden fox, who has got a human spirit pinned under its claws.
"He might be a good leader, but considering his combat abilities, I don't understand why you'd choose him as your guardian spirit…" Ushio said with her arms crossed in front of her chest, "but it's nice to see King Arthur in person, even if he's just a ghost now."
A week had passed since Ushio made Tamamo no Mae into her guardian spirit. Ushio had successfully obtained an Oracle Bell from a tournament official named Silva, who didn't seem too fond of her when they met. Overall, she felt that she had made a right decision of recruiting Tamamo as her guardian spirit, even though it's going to cost her her body eventually. But so far, Tamamo has been unbeatable.
"You've gone overboard again, Tamamo-sama. He already lost by losing his oversoul; you didn't have to burn off his leg."
Ushio finally started to add honorifics to Tamamo's name, because she got annoyed of him continuously correcting her. However, Tamamo was still displeased by the sarcastic tone that Ushio uses while calling his name.
"I will do as I please, bug."
"No, you won't, or else I'm never feeding you my furyoku ever again," Ushio rolled her eyes without letting Tamamo see her. "And let that spirit go. He's far more famous than you in an international level."
"You said this tiny worm was a king?" the fox leant down to scrutinize the dead spirit of King Arthur. "Pathetic. I was never impressed with the blue-eyed race when they came into Edo in the Azuchi Period..."
"Don't say that, Tamamo-sama, a racist will never be a great person. I also think you're going to help me more during my history tests."
Ushio kindly called the ambulance for the poor foreign shaman, and set the ghost of Arthur free. She glanced at her watch and sighed.
"The tournament officials really choose bad times. I have school tomorrow."
"KANZAKI-SAN!"
The students who remained in the classroom during lunch break all looked toward their classroom door at the restrained exclamation. They watched as their rarely angered student council president stomp toward the quiet girl that sat next to the window. Ushio, the one who was being addressed, did not look away from her lunch box. The boy stopped next to Ushio's desk and crossed his arms. Finally, the girl looked up from her food.
"Ara, Okawa-kun, it's rare to see you during lunch break!" Ushio said with a fake surprised tone. "You're usually helping the teachers with stuff."
"Don't act like you don't know what I'm here for," Okawa leant down to Ushio's level and said in a hushed voice, "I told you NOT to bring weird spirits to school!"
Okawa and Ushio glanced toward the back of the classroom, where a big golden fox spirit sat sleeping. The kind of aura that the fox gave off was very familiar to Okawa, and it didn't take him long to figure out it was the same spirit that Ushio had brought back from Hakkoda. How it got so big or why it felt so much more powerful was a mystery to him though.
"Letting it run around freely outside is dangerous," said Ushio with a shrug. "I don't think anyone around here is strong enough to tame it if it went on a killing spree."
"And it's less dangerous to bring it to school?" Okawa pressed on.
"He's at least a little bit obligated to listen to me," Ushio leaned back on her chair. "If anything happens, Hades-sensei and I can hold him down long enough for you to evacuate the students. Though I'm not sure what good evacuating does…"
"I don't like knowing that there's a chance of that happening…"
Ushio glanced at Okawa briefly and closed her eyes. "Well, that's the curse of being able to see spirits, isn't it?"
Okawa frowned. He opened his mouth to say something, but swallowed it back in on second thought. He merely said, "Kanzaki-san… you've been acting a bit different lately…"
Ushio did not respond to him. She kept her eyes closed as if she did not even hear him. A couple of minutes went by in silence, and just when Okawa turned around to leave, a girl threw the classroom door open and rushed toward Ushio.
"Kanzaki-san!" The girl pushed Okawa aside and slammed on Ushio's table, making Ushio jump in her seat. "You're that Kanzaki-san that they talk about, right?!"
Ushio looked at the girl with wide eyes, still shocked by the girl's sudden appearance. "Uh… I am Kanzaki Ushio…"
"Kanzaki-san! You must help me!" The girl grabbed Ushio's hands.
Ushio blinked at the girl who held her hands. The girl's hands were extremely cold, and when she came close to Ushio, Ushio could feel an ill-natured air about her. Now looking at her closely, Ushio noticed that the girl was quite pale and skinny. Her complexion was horrible, but her uniform looked nicely ironed. Moreover, the redness of her eyes seemed very unnatural for a young teenager like her.
"You are?" Ushio asked.
"Oh, I'm sorry, where are my manners?" The girl let go of Ushio's hands immediately and stepped a little bit away. "My name is Ichijou Mayumi. I'm a first-year. I… I heard about Kanzaki-san's special skill through my friend in second-year and… I think you're the only one that can help me…"
"Okay. First of all, you should know that I do not do free work…"
"Kanzaki-san!" Okawa couldn't help but jump in, but he only got ignored.
"That's no problem, I'm already prepared!" Ichijou Mayumi reached into her bag and took out a thick envelope and put it down on Ushio's table. "This can be the down payment!"
Ushio raised an eyebrow and peeked into the envelope. Her eyes popped open from shock; it was filled with 10,000 yen bills.
"Uh… what seems to be the problem…?" Ushio asked, her eyes still fixed on the cash.
"My… my younger sister… she's been acting very strangely…" Ichijou said with a troubled expression. "My family and I have already taken her to doctors and psychiatrists, and none of them have been able to help… we even took her to the local shrine for the priests to do a ritual on her…"
"You took her to a shrine and they couldn't help?" Ushio asked, "What makes you think a middle school student like me could be any better than those priests?"
"Because your amulet worked!" Ichijou slapped her hands on Ushio's desk again. "My classmate gave me an amulet that Kanzaki-san made and told me to try giving it to my sister. I tried giving it to my sister last night, and… she got extremely frightened!"
Ushio's ears perked up at the word. "Frightened?"
Ichijou nodded and rolled up her uniform sleeve. Okawa and Ushio were surprised to see deep scratch marks on the girl's forearm. "When she saw the amulet, her face was so distorted that it was scary. She jumped at me and then clawed at my arm. After she took the amulet, she ripped it into pieces with her fingers and teeth."
Ushio put a hand on her chin in thought. She hadn't made any amulets for a long time, and she only began to make them again a week ago. But, Ushio thought as she looked toward her guardian spirit, that was when she had already obtained Tamamo. Maybe Tamamo's scent had gotten onto the amulet since it is strong. Ushio looked back at Ichijou and studied her from top to toe once again, and coming up with an assumption.
"Ichijou-san, where do you live?" asked Ushio.
"Eh? Um… on the hill on Kanpachi Road…"
"As I thought, you live close to a cemetery," said Ushio, "That's why you have such bad air around you. If your sister is a young female, she could easily be targeted by demons…"
"She's ten!" Ichijou tensed up and yelped in fear. "Kanzaki-san, could—could my sister be possessed by a demon?!"
"Most likely," Ushio stood up from her chair, "By the way you describe her, she could have been possessed for a long time already. The longer the possession lasts, the harder it is to remove the demon. Okawa-kun, please let the teachers know that we are excusing ourselves from the afternoon classes."
"Wa—wait, Kanzaki-san!" Okawa called after the girl who had already walked past him, pulling the first-year along.
Ignoring the boy behind her, Ushio whistled for Tamamo and quickly went out of the classroom and down the stairs. Tamamo growled in annoyance toward Ushio's whistling, but stood up and went after Ushio casually. As the fox passed by, Okawa was completely ignored again. It didn't bother Okawa so much to be ignored, but he had a bad feeling about letting Ushio take on another case, especially with that suspicious fox.
Ichijou Mayumi's house was very old-fashioned; it was constructed with mostly wood, complemented by paper sliding doors, and the floor was covered by tatami mats. Even the trees in their yard seem to have quite a bit of age to it. When Ushio stepped in there, she could already sense not just one, but many demons' presence in the area. It didn't bother Ushio very much though, because they didn't seem to be very powerful demons. However, there is one demon's presence that was very strong—the one which resided in the body of Mayumi's younger sister.
"Kana-chan, what's wrong?" Mayumi went near her sister, who stood up suddenly when she and Ushio entered her room.
The little girl, with tightly gritted teeth and menacing eyes, looked at Ushio carefully. No, not at Ushio. She was looking slightly past Ushio, but there is nothing there when Mayumi looked.
Ushio noticed immediately the little girl's action. Furthermore, the little girl was as pale as a ghost, and the way that she backed into the wall with her fingers clawing at it didn't seem normal for anybody regardless of age. The little girl was also hissing slightly at Tamamo, who began to step forward when he saw the little girl. Ushio could not tell the expression from a fox, but the little girl seemed to have perked his interest.
"Fufu…" Tamamo made what sounded like a low chuckle, "Well, well, Nekomata, it's been a while; tell me why it doesn't surprise me that you're possessing the body of a little ten year old with hardly any furyoku to offer."
The little girl's eyes became sharp at Tamamo's words. "Hmph! Tamamo no Mae… you were quiet and hiding away somewhere for so long that I thought you were dead. No wonder I haven't heard anything about you from other demons; you've been enjoying yourself as a silly teenager's pet dog!"
"Kana-chan?" Mayumi frowned at her baby sister, and looked toward Ushio. "Kanzaki-san, who is she talking to?"
Ushio looked at Tamamo. "Nekomata… the split-tailed cat?"
"An acquaintance of mine," said Tamamo with an obviously condescending tone, "An insignificant demon who glorifies himself when he really is just a little bit stronger than the weak household demons."
The little girl, or Nekomata, hissed. "Shut up, Tamamo no Mae, even if you have retained your real form, you're still not as powerful as you used to be!"
"I'm surprised that you're not ashamed to say that," Tamamo narrowed his eyes. "After hundreds of years, you haven't improved one bit…"
"Somehow you guys are like five-year-olds bickering…" Ushio commented, "Can we extract it out of the girl?"
"The fact that the human features did not change means that the girl did not make a contract with the demon," said Tamamo, "Extraction would be simple."
"Kan-Kanzaki-san?" although not knowing what was going on, Mayumi guessed that Ushio was consulting with someone about her little sister. "Can you help Kana-chan…?"
"No problem," said Ushio as she reached into her bag and took out her prayer beads. "It might not be pleasant to watch a demon extraction, so please leave the room."
Nekomata looked left and right nervously. As Mayumi left the room, the demon got down to a crouching position. Ushio looked down at it; she had read about split-tailed cats before, and thought that they were pretty troublesome and powerful demons. However, with Tamamo besides her, she no longer thought that way. On one hand she felt lucky to have a strong partner, but on the other hand she felt a tiny bit worried—it was as if her own skills would weaken if she relied on the fox too much.
"Do you wanna step down in case the spell affects you too?" asked Ushio.
"Just do it, stupid bug," said Tamamo, "I'm quite amused by the current state of this cat."
Ushio held up the prayer beads. But suddenly, Nekomata smiled.
The pressure in the room became heavy to the point that Ushio was forced to the floor. She could feel demons suffocating her. As she struggled to look up, hundreds of demons were closing in on them. Where did these demons come from?! Ushio thought. There were demons here before, but they were just a few household demons! Better yet, why do they obey Nekomata?
Just when Ushio felt like she was going to pass out, the pressure around her lessened. Taking big breaths, she looked up and saw Tamamo standing over her. His red eyes glowing dangerously at Nekomata.
"Same old trick…" Tamamo said in a low voice, "Watch it, Nekomata, this is the one that's going to be my human vessel…"
"Hmph! You've always underestimated me…" Nekomata snickered as he stood back up.
Same old trick? Ushio thought. That's right! Nekomata can control the dead!
Looking closely, the demons that were coming towards them were all just human spirits. They were probably from the big cemetery close by. But the number of spirits was still too big.
"Where…did all these spirits come from…?" asked Ushio as she propped her upper body up with her arms.
"Did you think that I can only go so far as the petty ghosts around here?" Nekomata smirked. "Don't be silly; I've been working hundreds of years for this. These human spirits will be my gift to the demons. They will be lured here, and under my lead, I will create the first 'Parade of a Hundred Ghosts' in decades!"
Ushio felt Tamamo twitch above her.
"…Bug, read your spell," said Tamamo in the most dangerous tone that Ushio has ever heard. "I'm going to burn that cat into ash."
"…" Ushio looked up at the fox, but she could only see the underside of his chin. Although she didn't know why he was reacting to strongly over Nekomata's plan, she did as he said. After all, the 'Parade of a Hundred Ghosts' would be troublesome if it actually happened.
Ushio chanted the spell with precision. But rather than coming out from Ichijou Kana's body, Nekomata snickered. It didn't take long for Ushio to realize that the human ghosts around them were taking the affect of her spell instead. The poor humans fell down and grabbed on to their heads. If she continued to chant, their spirit will probably shatter and disappear forever. However, that was better than letting Nekomata have his way, right? They were already dead, anyway…
Ushio felt her power draining. Even though Tamamo was standing over her, she was still feeling the pressure. Maybe all the demons were coming.
I have to hurry… she thought. But something caught her attention from her peripheral vision.
"…Kanzaki-san! It hurts!"
Suddenly, the number of demons in the house multiplied. It felt like demons from all over Tokyo were starting to gather. Even Tamamo began to waver due to the large amount of demons. He glared down at Ushio, who had stopped chanting.
"You fool! Why did you stop?!"
"I…"
Ushio's eyes were wide open. Her whole body felt numb; what had she done? A moment of hesitation brought the unthinkable. It was either the murderous intent from the demons or the regret of her actions that made her unable to breathe, but all that was in her head was the face of Shimai Reiko that she saw from the corner of her eyes.
"Useless maggot!" Tamamo growled and jumped toward Nekomata, fire forming all around his body.
The instant that Tamamo left her side, all the pressure came down on her. She could only begin to think the word "no" before blood spewed out from her mouth. Her head felt as if it was smashed into pieces like her prayer beads.
And for a moment, everything went black.
It felt like forever, but it had only been a few minutes. Ushio regained her consciousness and she was lying there on the tatami mat in Ichijou's house. The house had been ruined. But Ushio's body was in just as bad condition as the house. She looked slightly to her side and saw Tamamo standing there. However, he was not looking his way. Rather, he was growling at what was in front of him. The air was clean and she no longer felt all of the evil spirits around her, not even Nekomata. She slowly pushed herself up from the floor. Her vision was still a little blurry.
"I seem to always run into you in this type of situation, Kanzaki Ushio."
A familiar voice slapped her awake. She blinked hard and looked forward. A giant red spirit towered over the ruins of the Ichijou house. It was the Spirit of Fire. Its size had more than doubled since the last time she saw it. On its shoulder sat the mysterious boy that Ushio encountered a few months ago—Asakura Hao.
"Asakura Hao…" Ushio muttered his name powerlessly. "You…what are you doing here…?"
"Just like last time, Spirit of Fire needed to be fed," Hao smiled brightly. The moon's light made the boy's face look frighteningly pale. "You should feed your guardian spirit sometimes as well. It's a waste to have a spirit like that and still be stuck in a situation like this, isn't it?"
Ushio widened her eyes. "You let Spirit of Fire eat all of the demons… and all the human spirits here…?"
Hao grinned. "Well, yes! Can't you tell by looking? Where else would they be?"
"…"
Ushio tightened her fists.
"Tamamo-sama… that Spirit of Fire… can you beat it?"
The fox scoffed.
"It's just the Spirit of Fire. Demonic fire burns hotter than anything in this world."
TBC
