I sat on the couch and took a deep breath. I keep thinking about the offer that Thanatos gave me. I mean, helping ghosts, I think I want to do that. I know that will happen to me someday and I sure do hope that someone would help me if I needed one.
But I still don't know.... Not to be that kind of person, but I really need a job that pays. I just want to provide for us so that we wouldn't depend on our parents, just like Hanzo said.
Hanzo sat down next to me and placed a plate of red velvet cake on the coffee table. "Here, eat some. We baked these earlier."
I smiled. "Thanks."
"So, how's your day?" Hanzo asked me.
"Why don't you go first? Everything that happened to me is a lot to take in and I need to process it for a while." I replied.
"Oh, okay." Hanzo began to think. "Uhmm, nothing much, you know. Same as always. I baked this red velvet and got a high mark from it."
"That's great!" I said.
"Also," Hanzo points at the table, and there were two daruma dolls on the table. "I found these on the grass as I passed through a tree with a weird lantern in it."
The two creepy dolls were in place. They were round and red. Both of their eyelids weren't painted. so no one has used these yet.
The Daruma dolls are charms that symbolize perseverance and luck. These dolls are purchased without eyelids. You will paint them yourself. First, paint one eyelid while committing to your goals or task, then paint the other one as a thank you for helping you with your goal once it's achieved. One year after purchasing a Daruma, it must be taken back to the place where it is purchase and burn it to free the god, whether the goal is achieved or not.
I picked up one and inspected it. It looks new. Usually, on Sundays, Daruma dolls were sold near the shrine in Izanami Mountains. Today is Friday, which is weird because the shop that sells these dolls were closed.
"They looked pretty new," Hanzo said. "And no one has been searching for them ever since I saw them. I sat on that tree for almost two hours waiting for the owner to find them, but it looks like no one is coming back for them."
Hmm, that's weird. These appeared out of nowhere and there is no owner. It would make a little sense if we are near the mountains, but we aren't.
"Hey, if no one searched for these, can we use them?" Hanzo asked. "I mean, supernatural stuff is already happening around you. Might as well try it, right?"
He has no idea what I have gotten myself into. At this point, I'll believe in any mystical or magical things that I haven't before. "Yeah, sure. Why not?"
Hanzo smiled. "So how about you, how was your day?"
"Well, I went to the buil-"
Before I knew it, something inhuman flew inside our dorm through the open window in the living room.
"Hanzo, get down!" I yelled.
It was spinning around the room like crazy. I can't make clear of its appearance, but it looks like a bird with a human body and has bird legs, and it was dark blue.
"Kazu, what's happening?!" Hanzo yelled. The flying creature's wings were loud.
"You don't see this?!"
"No!"
I really am the only one that can see these things. I did not expect that I would encounter a yokai this early.
The bird creature finally calmed down and landed on the ground. I slightly raised my head to see it.
Just as I thought, this yokai is a Tengu. A Tengu is a type of yokai that's a form of half-human, half-bird. But this type of yokai is a Kotengu.
This Tengu is like a hoarder. It collects trinkets and lucky charms, which probably explains the Daruma dolls. He probably dropped them searching for other charms.
They can be pretty deadly when angered. They throw tantrums everywhere and release their anger through other things.
Its red eyes stared at the Daruma dolls. Yeah, this was his objective here.
Out of nervousness, Hanzo snatched the dolls out of the table.
"Why did you do that?!" I exclaimed in a whisper.
"Maybe these will protect us from that thing you are seeing." He awkwardly smiled, not realizing that he messed up.
"That yokai is after the dolls! That thing is dangerous when angry!"
The Kotengu noticed that the dolls were missing. It let out an ear-piercing screech. We covered our ears. It then jumped on the table and searched for someone. As it spots Hanzo, it let out another scream and grabbed Hanzo by the neck. Hanzo was now in the air.
"Kazu?! What is happening?!" He tried to break free of the hand, but he can't even see the thing, so it's useless.
I tried to punch it, but it only went through him. It looks like it can touch us, but we can't touch it.
It was now angered because of me. It dropped Hanzo and its red eyes locked onto me. I began to think of what to do.
I remembered in my research that salt is used in exorcisms, especially here in Japan. I also saw a videogame where a black and white bear used salt to exorcise a ghost. But hey, it's based on Shinto practices, so maybe it works.
I remember that we have a small Shinto altar near the kitchen. When this dorm was blessed, they gave us a bowl of purified salt to protect us from evil spirits. Looks like it will be put into use now.
"Hanzo! Grab the salt from the Shinto altar!" He just nods and ran for the kitchen. Unfortunately, the Kotengu got me. It held me up in the air. There, I remember that Thanatos gave me a pouch of talismans. I grabbed the pouch from my pocket and took one out.
I saw Hanzo behind the Kotengu. "HANZO, THROW A BUNCH OF SALT TOWARDS ME!"
He couldn't see the thing, so he just threw where I told him to.
The Kotengu felt a strong burning sensation in his back, causing it to drop me.
"Holy shit," Hanzo mutters. He probably saw the bubbles that the salt caused.
It was my opportunity to strike. I then slapped the talisman into his body.
The Kotengu let out one more ear-piercing scream. I noticed that I didn't pull out a talisman, but a paper doll.
A few seconds of screaming, the Kotengu turned into a ribbon and tied itself to the hole on the head of the paper doll.
My hands were on my thighs, gasping for breath. "Holy shit indeed."
Hanzo ran towards me and held me in my shoulders. "Kazu, are you okay?!"I got up from my position. "Yeah, how about you?"
"Yeah," He responds. "I'm fine. Sorry for the trouble that I caused. We almost literally died."
I chuckled. "Yeah."
"What was that thing you saw anyway?"
"That was a yokai."
"Huh? You mean-"
"Yes, they also exist."
Hanzo already knows what a yokai is. I've explained it to him back in high school when I was writing Yokai Short Stories in a writing platform, and that he watched an anime where the character's objective is to befriend as many yokai as possible. It's a kids' show, but it's quite entertaining.
"Remember those half-bird, half-human yokai that I told you about?" I asked him.
"Yeah. Tengu."
"Yeah, and that Tengu is a Kotengu. It's a hoarder of charms and trinkets," I pointed at the two daruma dolls on the ground. "Like that."
Hanzo came to a realization. "And it got angered because I took its dolls."
"Pretty much, yeah."
"What happened to that Tengu?"
I picked up the paper doll with a red ribbon on top of it. "I think I sealed it into this thing."It was really weird. I thought Thanatos gave me a bunch of talismans, but instead, it's a bunch of paper dolls.
I read the text. It was written in Hiragana. The text was also written horizontally.
'KOTENGU'
"I see, it is a Kotengu," Hanzo said.
I turn around to see another text in Hiragana and written horizontally.
ONMYODO PAPER DOLLS.
"Eh?! WHAT?!"
"What? What is it?" Hanzo asked over my freaking out.
"O-onmyodo?!"
"What is that?"
"It's really hard to explain," I said. "Well, Onmyodo is a practice here in Japan that means The Way of Yin and Yang. This topic is so deep and has many things into it, but the only thing I can explain is that an Onmyoji, a practitioner of Onmyodo, can seal a spirit in a paper doll-like this, and can summon them through this paper also. The spirits are known as Shikigami."
"So basically, you became an Onmyoji and sealed your first shikigami?"
What have I gotten myself into? I sighed deeply. "I don't know man, this is all new to me and everything is weird right now."
"I get it." He replied. "Let's just take a break for now and talk about it tomorrow."
"Yeah."
Before we go to bed, we took the Daruma dolls and placed them in our small Shinto shrine. We decided to use it tomorrow.