Daija yawned, revealing his sharp canines. Those were the fangs in human teeth form. Nasty venom injectors. The Japanese seem to think yaeba, known as the unusual fang like appearance, is cute.
Yeah. Wait until he bites them.
"Where next?" He stretched his arms.
"Tsukuyomi shrine in Kanagawa," I replied as I hopped on.
That would take about an hour in street legal mileage. Faster when we do the thrill ride. Most of the traffic cops would be asleep. And easy to deal with the street cams. Counter reflective license plates that blurred the registration.
"Ah him," Daija commented.
A twist of the handle and the Kawasaki started purring loudly.
"Be thankful, we don't need to answer to Inari Ōkami-sama," I said.
The reason the kitsune could not enter the assassination business was because of their primary patron god, Inari Ōkami-sama. Worse for the poor suckers, was the sole fact that Inari could be any combination of gods, three or five for the usual. I call it the 'god combo'. Think of Inari as a overarching branding for most gods.
So if the target is a devotee of one god related to the Inari brand, the kitsune were screwed.
Don't even think of fooling around with Inari. That god combo can burn down a Buddhist temple, Toji temple, for taking wood from its sacred mountain, Mount Inari. The humans call 'mild disturbances' but those in the Kyoto yōkai circles knew why there is a tiny Inari shrine in Toji.
Yeah, Mount Inari behind Fushimi Inari Taisha is the 24 hour department store of Inari god combos to serve every need. An Inari for coughs, sword smiths, exams to the big businesses and war. Warlords donated to that shrine. Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the 16th century feudal warlord, donated the Romon gate which still stands in front of the main shrine.
Big business brands like Shiseido, Panasonic and Hitachi are patrons or heavy donors. Shiseido even has an Inari shrine on top of their headquarters in Tokyo. After all, Inari Ōkami-sama is also the god of wealth.
If the target has a god backing him, it was better to get another god in to watch your back. A powerful one, not a local small timer.
Lesson learnt from daddy dearest.
Yes, yōkai revere the gods too.
That practice is a necessity. The age old patron kami of mine is Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto, the god of the Moon and celestial nights. He is also a god killer. Deicide led to his infamy and shunning by other gods.
Here comes the kicker - the god he slaughtered is part of the Inari brand. That's how Tsukuyomi is. To be fair, he was not a cold-blooded killer. He is only cold but practical.
The traditional lunar calendar used to be an indicator for harvest time. Killing that agricultural god was to signal that crops should be harvested. A necessity for humans to survive.
One rule with Tsukuyomi - don't kill on Iki island.
Iki is the island he has promised to protect.
His headquarters there looked very simple, compared to his branch shrines. Just a wooden hut up a steep stairway. It doesn't look intimidating, but no yōkai ever dared in history to violate the no-kill rule. You don't fuck with a god who kills other gods.
So the killings in Iki were human killing human. Sure, blame the yōkai but it won't be us taking that risk.
Most of us serpent yōkai like him. He is the most powerful in the night when we are very active. And he replies quickly.
***
Once we entered the neighbourhood, Daija slowed down to a snail's pace to lower the noise of the engine.
Besides, waking up the entire neighborhood wasn't a good idea. Motorcycle engine sounds were amplified more at night.
Nothing worse than a grumpy caretaker or a local walking out of their houses in their pajamas to glare in silent, murderous disapproval. Can't attack them if they are on the boundary of the shrine. That action is akin to slapping the face of a god. Can't enter the shrine or else we will have panicked humans calling the police about vanishing people.
Catch 22.
So we prefer to be almost invisible. Or ignored in this case.
As usual, the neighborhood Tsukuyomi shrine was quietly sitting among the trees with its stone torii gate, a boundary separator of the sacred and mundane space. It is simple like his headquarters on Iki island.
That's what I love about gods. They have main branches for big requests everywhere. Just pop in a branch office and state the request.
Unlike humans, we didn't need to ring bells to alert them to our presence. They will instantly detect any yōkai in their sacred vicinity.
The bad news first - we have to transform into our true forms. The good news is that once past the torii gate, we enter Kakuriyo, our realm which the mortals can't see.
Call it the express VIP service. Then again, they didn't like us yōkai bothering their territory unless it is for a reason. So maybe not so VIP.
"Ready?" I asked Daija.
"Question is if you are ready. You haven't seen my form for quite a while," he said, deliberately revealing those canines.
Yeah. My fangs are bigger. Don't try.
Daija and I bowed twice before the torii gate. I took out the paper scrawled with the details and a wad of 10,000 yen notes.
It is good to ingratiate yourself with any god when requesting a service. The shrine needs some maintenance cash. After all, the human caretakers need cash to ensure that it was prim and proper for a god's office.
Placing them in my mouth, I nodded.
We both took a step into the shrine boundary. The scenery changed to Kakuriyo's realm. A dark haze of darkish energy cleared the houses and roads away.
Only the shrine building remained. I could see shadows of our large cumbersome coiled forms. That's why we prefer to stay in the more convenient and smaller human form.
Looks like Daija has three heads for his snake form now, instead of two. This joker has been sucking up some nutritious yōkai soup to get an extra head. Still, he is smaller than me.
Because of our huge ass sizes, we had to move carefully towards the shrine, which is radiating the divine soft yellowish light. No need for slithering towards anywhere. Once the change takes place, we are squashed in. That's how troublesome it is.
Kakuriyo could only adjust the dimensions of space for us to a certain extent. One accidental swipe of our tails could destroy the Torii gate. Again, not a good thing to damage divine property. The almighty gods retaliate.
The benefits of having more heads was that at least one mouth could speak while the other heads drop whatever offerings there is to the plain offertory box. Again caution, one accidental bump against the roof could mean disaster.
"Speak, serpent," a deep smooth crystalline voice spoke.
That's what I appreciated about Tsukuyomi. He was no nonsense. No need for small talk.
"Action for approval," I replied as the other head placed the items, paper and cash, on the box.
A pause. Maybe the gods were discussing. Maybe they were looking for information. Who knows? It always took a while. Divine bureaucracy is unknown to me.
"No conflict," that voice replied.
That only means, 'go ahead, I don't care.' Hey anything is better than 'do not touch.'
So push comes to shove later by any god, Tsukuyomi was the one who told us that there was no conflict. End of story.
"Thank you." Daija and I bowed all of our heads twice in unison before the great one's shrine in utmost respect.
Then we left the vicinity through the torii gate. The heavy dark haze cleared, and we were back in human form with the neighbourhood before us.
I looked up at the skies. The full moon was there, beaming away. Too bad, the light pollution from modernization had dimmed the stars. It used to be beautiful, with the bright and clear stars twinkling merrily away.
"Next? To the Buella's Loli cafe for the checks?" Daija asked.
I nodded. "To implement the plans for execution. Hage is checking out their CCTV system."
Good old Hage, he is one of those rare tanuki yōkai who love tinkering with human security systems.
If a human caught his fat ass, who could ignore those adorable big innocent eyes of a chubby raccoon dog?
If all fails, then there's his charm spell.