Two of us were strolling along the brightly lit main road heading towards the old Tsukiji market. The adjacent high-rise condominiums only had a few lights scattered across on their huge concrete exterior. The stores were closed. Most of the inhabitants were fast asleep by now. One or two cars passed us by.
"Walk slowly, you want to observe first, a few Inari shrines are along this road," Arahabaki pulled me back. "If you go on walking quickly, I will have to hold your hand."
A group of people in their work suits were heading our way.
Most likely after their nomikai, work drinking sessions, which called for them to kiss their superiors' ass. I banned that obnoxious practice in the human operations side of Shinde Inc.'s subsidiaries. Just in case, the human employees expected me to waste my time tolerating their alcohol- fuelled sucking up and flattery. No one complained so far.
As they went past, one of them, reeking of liquor, grasped my wrist. I promptly pulled free.
The retard of a drunken asswipe actually advanced towards me, talking incoherently.
Before anyone else could act, Arahabaki's fist came flying. A resounding crash verberated through the vicinity. The drunk's body slipped down the metal grating of the shop.
"DON'T TOUCH MY GIRL," Arahabaki shouted loudly as the perpetrator's friends stood dumbfounded.
"Really, really sorry. He is drunk. Really really sorry," two of the men quickly ran up and kept bowing profusely to Arahabaki as the others picked the dumb fuck up.
Arahabaki cracked his knuckles as the group quickly fled.
"Are you trying to draw attention to us?" I sighed.
He peered at me with those cold eyes and shrugged indifferently. "I am violent by nature. If I don't react this way, it will draw attention."
His head motioned towards a fleeing white bushy tail around a corner. "We are being watched."
That telltale fox tail was of the Inari messengers. They are different from Yako's bunch. No yōkai who spilled human blood could serve Inari. The Inari selected most of those messengers from very old mortal foxes prior to their death, which limited their shape-shifting capabilities. Rarely, there will be a true kitsune serving Inari.
"Besides, the Inari are only suspicious of me now. They can't touch me unless I trash their shrines. But you…" he stepped closer and lifted up my chin.
"… are yōkai. Most might consider it a service to their believers to get rid of you."
"I get your point but I seldom have issues…"
The gods hardly came out of their shrines to interfere with our business. Only on occasion, they do, but it is linked to the omamori, their shrine pocket charm. So far, Tsukuyomi's permission haslimited any potential for mishaps with other gods.
"Look around you. Do you see anything wrong here?" Arahabaki folded his arms with a smug look.
He is right. There were too few yōkai. Only the usual akaname, the Amabie and lower level yōkai. All of them did human little to no harm. Most are helpful yōkai, like a zashiki warashi, a shy ghost child. One was sitting on the roof of a nearby shop-house, watching us with great curiosity.
The shinigami, death's helpers, were also going about their business.
While Tsukiji was the old code for the go ahead high level assassinations before Toyosu, I had not ventured to the area for a long time.
Before 1935's relocation of the old Nihonbashi fish market to Tsukiji, it was reclaimed land and then a residential area of the wealthy daimyos and the samurai. A frequent hunting ground of ours until the Americans came over in 1875.
After their arrival, Tsukiji turned into an approved foreign residential area filled with plenty of foreigners. That was when we first encountered foreign yōkai, such as vampires. Meetings were awkward, but both sides left each other alone. There was also a new foreign god entering.
Most of the old gods wouldn't care, but that god's overzealous followers got on the nerves of the gods. What goes between the gods is beyond me. However, we witnessed the effects.
In the early 1600s, Tokugawa Ieyasu had a fit when he learnt that Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples were torn down in Nagasaki. That turned the tide against the new God, now seen as an invader and their followers as heretics. Nagasaki remained untouched because of the European traders there.
It remained a stronghold for the new religion and its converts until the Americans dropped the atomic bomb on many of those who shared their beliefs in that same God. Takeminakata-no-Kami, the god, stood over his intact shrine while the Urakami Cathedral was obliterated. The humans swayed back to the old ways. Not all but many returned to the old gods.
Politics of those days were a bumbling mess at all levels, from the humans to the gods. Except for us yōkai. We had an influx of newcomers. Mostly ghosts.
A red glow burst out, distracting me from my reminiscing.
Six circular energy fields lighted around me. Two words to describe this situation if I am right about what they are - FUCKING SCREWED.
"Ara…"
He had disappeared from my sight.
No matter how hard, my yōkai powers were not forthcoming. I looked up at the energy fields. They glowed harder each time I tried. More of my energy was being drained. Can't transform too. The portal to Kakuriyo was blocked.
The escape route was sealed. Screw it. The dagger will do. My hand moved towards the hilt of my hidden dagger at the side.
Eight shikigami appeared ten meters in front of me. Summoned spirits and they were no ordinary shikigami. They were elite shikioji, the ultimate shikigami.
These suddenly took the form of possessed bears. I swung around to assess my precarious position. EIGHT OF THOSE FURBALL CUNTS IN TOTAL. All tumbling towards me from different directions.
Ordinary bears could be handled. Shikioji possessed bears were a different story. Depending on the skills of the summoner, they can injure my yōkai form in varying degrees.
A huge bear claw swiftly swiped at me. My hand drew the dagger. In one quick vertical slash, the blade sliced at the paw. The creature roared madly and reared backwards. Looking around, a clear spot on the roof of a shop house was spotted. Possessed bears can't reach that high.
A few blurs of fur were lunging towards me. Now or never. I leapt upward to that spot. Loud thuds were heard. Three bears were piled on top of each other.
A sharp pain rippled through my arm. I felt another pulsating riddling pain in my leg. One or two had got me. Greenish aura, my yōkai energy, was now leaking out from the deep gash on the arm and the slash on the leg. Bad news. It is weakening me. My eyes scanned around the growling, menacing bears below. All eight were pacing.
Where the FUCK are you, Arahabaki?
No yōkai energy use meant slow regeneration. I haven't got all night to play with these bears. One bared his large nasty fangs at me.
From afar, there were loud screeching noises. AH SCREWED.
Now what?
Shikioji flying SHITS, BATS OR BIRDS?
NO FUCKING WAY.
The shadows were moving in my direction. I ducked down and tried to pull a part of the zinc roof as a shield. No avail. Losing energy and depleting strength resulted in dismal failure. I caught sight of a flimsy looking antenna at the side. That could be used as a bat.
The residents won't miss the 3am television programs. I yanked the antenna out with its loose wirings. A quick zap of the voltage made me jump as I tore off the connected mess of metallic strands. Now my makeshift bat ready to smack whatever the fuck was coming my way via air.
"WHOA there," Arahabaki suddenly manifested in front of me.
He caught my antenna in mid swing with ease.
"I have shikioji bears on me." I panted and pointed to the skies. "I SWEAR THERE WAS SHIT FLYING THERE."
"My momonofu. Spirits at my command, they are dealing with something there," Arahabaki said as he slipped his thick metal chain belt out of his jeans. "And I had to settle a deal with the Inari bunch."
Say what? MomoWHAT? Oh yeah, Arahabaki is the god who rained terror on the other gods. Don't care. Don't give a fuck.
"Oh, fun… big furry bears. Pity, they make nice coats. But first…" He rubbed the chain wistfully while looking down at the creatures.
Coats. He can only think of fucking bear fur coats. Hello. Injured here.
He looked up at the fields. His chain glowed lightly in his hand. His arm arched forward, and the chain flew like a striking snake at the energy fields. They shattered and disappeared. Powers of the Gods, they don't even need to aim.
"That should help you now."
An instant relief washed over me. I could seal the open wounds now.
"Now for those bears." he glanced at them again.
A snap of his fingers and they disappeared. "Guess news won't broadcast eight brown bears on the loose in Tokyo."
Must be real nice being a god who could snap a finger and make problems vanish. That would have saved me time and pain.
"Arahabaki, I considered the deal completed," a disembodied female voice spoke.
Arahabaki sneered, "Benzaiten, I just wished that you would let me have one bear."
Benzaiten, an immigrant god, is part of the Inari group and the chief god of Namiyoke shrine. She travelled with Buddhism from India to Japan in the 6th century. She is a low profile god who never had a history of frequent problems with us, the yōkai.
"Oh you, get it from Karl Lagerfield… not bear but I heard his sable fur coats are much softer," she said.
Yeah, the Inari bunch knew their luxury goods. Day in and day out, they would have been inundated with mundane requests. What the hell, gods also indulge in these?
"So do you want me to deal with your human?"
"Oh no, the rest will deal with the human for disturbing you. Didn't realise that your momonofu spirits consume ghosts… surprising what one can still learn sometimes from another," she said.
Again with the momonofu. What were those things? Benzaiten's tone had a special tinge of fear when she mentioned them.
"You ain't seen nothing yet, rookie."
An apprehensive laugh echoed and Benzaiten's presence disappeared.
"As for you… we have business to talk about once you finish healing. Oh and the one who sent the text, won't be doing it anymore," Arahabaki stretched himself and sat down beside me on the roof.
We both watched the lightening skyline. Sunrise had just begun.