An XXXHolic/Hikaru no Go X-over
By
Lady Addiction
WWWW
CHAPTER 5: EATING ODEN WITH KITSUNES
"Are you sure you're going the right way, Mokona?" Watanuki asked, his eyes darting from side to side. Shindou and Doumeki followed at his heels, both watchful. But although it was late that evening, they seemed to be in a perfectly normal neighbourhood.
Mokona nodded from where he perched on Doumeki's right shoulder. "This way, this way, Mokona knows!"
Then, as if their feet stepped over an invisible boundary, fog started to encircle them and darkness fell. A faint hazy light beckoned them closer, and soon they found themselves approaching a simple oden-stand. They could hear the bubbling of the flavourful stews, and the smell of the vegetables, fish-cakes, and meatstuff was heady and enticing.
Watanuki approached first, swallowing several times. As he pulled away the heavy curtains, he was greeted by the sight of that familiar fox-figure in the kimono and apron, small glasses glinting on a foxy nose. "Ah, you have come back," the shopkeeper said with a smile. "And you've brought friends with you."
At that, Shindou and Doumeki came closer. Watanuki saw that Shindou looked visibly stunned, while Doumeki merely glanced around. "Um, yes, these are my two friends, Shindou and Doumeki. The little black ball on Doumeki's shoulder is Mokona Modoki. Shindou, Doumeki, this is…um…"
"Please call me Seishuu," the kitsune behind the counter said. "And this is my son, Shun." The tiny fox-child peered at them from a corner of the wall, but didn't come closer. "Watanuki-san, Shun was very happy with the arrow piece you gave him."
"Oh, it was my pleasure," Watanuki replied, flushing and flapping his hands. "Actually, Doumeki here was the one who owned that arrow."
"I gave it to you because I knew you would find a use for it," Doumeki interjected quietly.
"Nevertheless, thank you both," Seishuu said. He gestured at them to sit down. "Now would you like to try anything? We only have a humble selection at this stand."
"No, I remember that the oden I tasted here was the best oden I've ever eaten," Watanuki refuted with a wide smile. Then his face fell. "But we have nothing to give in exchange and we are here to ask for something else."
"Ah?"
Watanuki began carefully outlining out their situation. "…and Yuuko-san and Doumeki both think that something may have captured him, though we don't know for what purpose. We're here to try and free Shindou's friend, so Shindou himself can return back to his own body," he concluded. He noticed that Shun looked very curious, and he smiled at the kitsune-boy, who shyly smiled back.
"I see. Very noble of you all, to seek and battle with powerful spirits in order to save a friend," Seishuu said. He tucked his paws into his sleeves and contemplated the three of them. "We of the spirit world has heard of this, of a young man touched by a powerful god, who defied death twice in order to pursue a dream. He has become a favourite with the gods and great demons in the Worlds Beyond, because he is eager to challenge and never backs down."
"Yes, that sounds like Sai!" Shindou interrupted. Watanuki hushed him, and the other boy flushed and fell quiet.
"There've been rumours that he has recently challenged the River-God who held his body for the right to cross the barrier for one special night. There've been rumours he has succeeded."
"And what do the rumours say now," Doumeki asked.
"There are rumours that a certain trickster holds a very strong grudge against this young human, that in a game where the trickster had boasted he would never be defeated by a human, the human won and caused the trickster to lose face among his colleagues. Such a trickster may go to great lengths to avenge his loss of honour," the kitsune replied, reaching out to stir the bobbing fish cakes. Deftly, he prepared three plates of steaming oden and handed them to his visitors. They accepted it, though no one bit into it yet.
"And does such a trickster carry a special item?" Doumeki continued, contemplating the dish before him. "Like perhaps a bag of rice, or a bottle of sake, or maybe a fan of feathers?"
"This trickster is rarely without a drink in hand, for he dwells in places where few humans go." Seishuu opened his arms. "Please eat. Oden is best when it is hot."
"But we have nothing to give in exchange for such a great story and food," Watanuki replied.
"Then I will request only one favour from each of you," Seishuu replied with an unsettling grin, "something you can do for me or my family at a time of my choosing. Is this agreeable?"
The three of them looked at each other. It was easy to forget that Seishuu was also a trickster, for he is congenial and generous. Watanuki sighed and shrugged. They didn't have much choice.
Still, the food that melted in their mouths and exploded on their tongues seemed well worth a favour. Being able to watch Doumeki hand feed the black puffball with a longsuffering expression didn't hurt as well.
555
"According to this book, tanuki-spirits are a form of dog-spirit that is between a racoon and a badger," Watanuki read out. After their visit to the oden-stand, they retreated back to Doumeki's temple to spend the night. Currently, they were sitting around a low, lacquered Japanese coffee table with a pot of steaming powdered macha tea and a selection of jam-smeared dango skewers. This time, before making the decision to stay, Watanuki made sure to ask whether there was a corpse in any of the rooms of the temple (or even in the courtyard). Though Doumeki's face remained passive as he replied in the negative, there was the faintest hint of an upturn in one corner of his mouth. All too conscious of Shindou's curious gaze, Watanuki balled his fists and tried to content himself with glowering at his nemesis. He transferred his glare to the other boy when Shindou opened his mouth to ask, and pointedly plopped the book on the table and opened it.
"All the legends say they look pretty much like the statues we have of them in the restaurants and those shops and street shrines. It says here that they can transform into living or nonliving things, though usually they prefer the forms of monks or teakettles, like kitsune-spirits prefer the form of a woman. Their powers involve being able to cast illusions, like turning leaves into fake money, though their transformations are never perfect. They love sake and playing tricks on hunters and woodsmen. Neither the chapters on tengu nor kitsune mentioned anything about sake so I think we're probably dealing with a tanuki-spirit," Watanuki concluded, fixing his glasses and rubbing his other hand nervously along the side of his trousers. Doumeki was lounging against a shoji screen, casual and enormous in a dark-grey house yukata with black stylized clouds. Shindou had transformed his pair of jeans and another 5 shirt into matching yellow-and-black track pants and shirt. His green eyes were bright and keen under his sunshine-gold bangs. To Watanuki's surprise, the other boy had settled onto seiza, his knees tucked under him in the traditional Japanese sitting position. Shindou's highly informal manner of clothing and behaviour would never have led Watanuki to believe he would be able to sit in that pose comfortably for long periods of time.
"What does it say about how we might be able to defeat him, it?" Shindou asked. "I mean, I've never really met anything supernatural beyond Sai and those kitsune people at that oden-stand. I never even paid attention to the tanuki statues on the streets!"
"My grandfather mentioned that in the myths about tanuki, it is commonly shown that the tanuki transforms itself into a kettle," Doumeki said, looking away from them. "However, once you put the kettle onto fire, it hurts the tanuki, breaks the transformation, and it then flees. There is one story about how it was tricked into drowning, but most seem to show that fire is what causes the tanuki's defeat."
"But how do we get it to transform into a kettle?" Shindou protested. "And how does that free Sai? If the tanuki runs, then it'll take with it all information about Sai!"
"Seishuu-san said that the reason the tanuki has a grudge on Sai is because Sai defeated him in a game," Watanuki said thoughtfully.
"Probably a Go game," grumbled the green-eyed boy with fond exasperation. "Like I said, Sai's Go-obsessed! That stupid ghost, even in the spirit world, his addiction to Go is causing trouble!"
"For a mortal, even a ghost, to defeat immortal spirits in a game is very, very unusual," Doumeki pointed out. "While there is always a legend about someone who succeeds, there are ten more about those who failed and were eaten. This friend of yours must be extremely good at Go."
"Sai has never been defeated!" Shindou boasted. He had shifted into a looser, cross-legged position. "Even now, four years later, his Internet games are still being talked about!"
Doumeki and Watanuki exchanged glances. Neither had ever had any contact with the Go-world, and most of what Shindou talked about passed over their heads. "Well, the reason I mentioned it," the thin, dark boy changed the subject, "is because maybe we can persuade it into playing a game where the stake is Sai's freedom."
"An Igo game where if I win, Sai is free?" Shindou tugged at a blonde lock thoughtfully. "But what is at stake if I lose? I don't want to get eaten or anything like that."
"I've never really heard of tanuki being man-eaters," Doumeki answered, "more often they are tricking people out of sake or money. However, we're dealing with a tanuki that's very angry and who has suffered a loss of honour. I have no doubt that he will demand a high price."
"Yuuko-san said that there must always be an equitable exchange," Watanuki agreed. "When she grants wishes, the more powerful or necessary a wish, the more is demanded of payment. One of the highest payment I've seen was for a boy from another dimension. He was trying to save a…a friend of his, and the price Yuuko-san requested for the ability to cross dimensions was that his friend would forget all about him."
"Memories in exchange for the ability to cross dimensions, huh?"
"His was only 1/4th of the price," Watanuki cautioned. "There were three others who also had to pay high price, and now they are all travelling together. The thing is, can you pay the price it takes to free your friend?"
"In this circumstance, it might be a soul for a soul," Doumeki interjected quietly.
Shindou's Adam's apple bobbed several times, but with a deep, shuddering breath that he exhaled loudly, he nodded. "I'll pay whatever price I need to pay to see Sai is free. Even if it means that I can't return to my body before the week is up," he replied stonily, his green eyes dark with resolve.
Watanuki shivered and he fiddled with one of the book's thick, parchment pages. "Well, now that we know what we'll do, the problem is finding where the tanuki might be."
"Where's the black puffball?" Shindou asked suddenly.
The three of them immediately began to look around. Moments later, there was a muffled yelp and Watanuki and Shindou saw Doumeki fall over. Mokona was bouncing up and down on his kimono happily. "What happened?" Watanuki asked, jaw agape at his rival's unusual lack of composure.
"Mokona was practicing cloud-form!" the creature replied cheerily. There was a small puff and suddenly a black form identical to the ones on Doumeki's kimono was floating in front of them. Mokona transformed back immediately. "It's one of Mokona's 108 Secret Techniques!"
"You mean that thing can transform like a tanuki!" Shindou yelled, pointing wildly at Mokona.
"Yuuko-san made these things," Watanuki grumbled, "I wouldn't be too surprised if they can cause lightning on a clear day."
"Hey, that's Mokona's Secret Technique #72!" exclaimed the wing-eared entity. "How did you find out, Watanuki?"
The boy's jaw fell for a moment, before he regained composure. "Never mind," he growled. "Mokona, Yuuko-san wouldn't send you with us if she didn't know you'd be able to help us. Do you have any idea how we can find the location of the tanuki spirit?"
Mokona frowned and bounced all the way back up to his nest on top of Doumeki's head. Watanuki covered his mouth, hiding a snicker. "Mokona sees and feels spirit and spirit power," it replied once it resettled itself. "But Mokona must be close by to be able to tell."
Doumeki stood up and left the room without a word. Shindou fell onto the tatami mats, sprawling spread-eagled. "Dammit, Sai!" he yelled to the ceiling. "Leave me a message or something! I can't rescue you if I don't know where you are!"
Watanuki's eyes brightened. "That's it!" he exclaimed. Shindou goggled at him. "The dreams, Shindou! Those nightmares you were having! Sai was already leaving you a message!"
The boy pushed himself up to a sitting position. "But I haven't had dreams since that last one!"
"But there must have been something! Probably the dreams are the only way Sai could communicate with you! He must have left a clue!" Watanuki persisted, his arms waving in his excitement. "There are hundreds of spirit shrines around us, and a lot of Japan is still forests and mountains and valleys! We need to at least have a general idea of where to look!"
"Sheesh, pipe down, Watanuki, and give me time to think." Shindou propped his chin on an elbow and furrowed his brow. Both Watanuki and Mokona remained still and quiet as the other boy closed his eyes.
"Sai is sitting down," mumbled Shindou. His new friends edged closer, trying to listen in. "He's in seiza, and he is looking down. His hair is loose and he doesn't have that tate-eboshi cap of his. The white mist isn't there. He's kneeling in a forest. Shadows, the shadows are all over him. Sai, Sai is glowing, the only bright thing in the place. The place he is kneeling is dark, but it's odd, like it has bumps. The shadows on his kimono are also odd, it's long and jagged. It's swaying – I think they're shadows of bamboo trees!" His eyes popped open and Watanuki muffled a shriek, yanking away, as that sudden movement startled him. "That's it," Shindou concluded, but there was a strong note of excitement in his voice.
There was a quiet rustle and they turned to see Doumeki (and Mokona, of course) settling down between them. In one hand he had a book of maps. "A forest where there's bamboo trees," the larger boy repeated, "but that's too vague. We are surrounded by forests, and I'd bet at least two would have bamboo groves." The other three wilted at this quelling statement.
"I guess the best thing to do is just sleep now," Watanuki suggested. "Let's get some rest. And um, Shindou, do you actually sleep in that form?"
The other boy shrugged. "I'm not sure if it's really sleep. It's more of a state of meditation, I think."
"Do you think that since you are in some form of dream-state, that you may be able to use it to contact your friend?" Doumeki suggested as he slowly got to his feet.
Shindou's face brightened. "That's a great idea!" he said enthusiastically. "I've been so caught up trying to figure out what was happening with me that I never thought of doing that!"
"Maybe you shouldn't," refuted Watanuki, wringing his hands. "I mean, if something happens to you, then our plan to challenge the spirit into a game would not work! Plus, you're a spirit now and spirits are vulnerable in the spirit-world!"
"I'm not just going to laze around here when I could be trying to do something to help Sai," argued Shindou hotly. "I'll be careful! But this is the only way we may be able to locate the place the tanuki is hiding!"
"Just remember, it's your soul and your body that you're are risking," was Doumeki's only contribution.
WWWW
On to the Interlude…
