The cult's interest in kidnapping a 12-year-old girl was no random pick of the herd. While Hage and the others were still investigating the magnitude of the threat posed by the cult, the whole situation made me uneasy. Why her?
The portal from Kakuriyo opened into a dark and sparsely furnished private room. No lights were on. Someone had drawn the curtains open to a view of twinkling lights from the buildings surrounding the hospital.
A small body covered by the standard hospital blanket laid curled up. The only illumination came from the panels where an oxygen tank and other sockets laid. Her name, Yoshida Hitomi, was written on the board above her bed.
There were two faint luminescent orbs watching me, protective of their young charge. Perhaps part of her ancestral spiritual protection. They radiated a familiar presence of a long past.
"I know you are here," Hitomi sat up with her large doe eyes gleaming in my direction and muttered. "They all think I am mad but I am not."
Her eyes were trailing every step of mine in the room. There was a police guard outside. I could hear his snoring in the corridor.
The reason for her kidnapping could be because she was cursed with the special sight - a rare gift to see our world. Female humans were far more likely than males to have the sight. The younger the better. And the odds are in a million for one to see through the veil of Kakuriyo.
Hence, in the ancient times, most of the gifted in service to the gods or of great spiritual power, were females. Himiko, Yamatohime and Empress Consort Jingu were just three examples.
Himiko was the famous shamaness Queen of Yamatai Koku, who never got married. She existed during the late Yayoi period around year 189 before Japan was unified. Father had spoken highly of her capabilities.
No other human female could match her spiritual prowess.
The other two were powerful, but not like Himiko. Yamatohime no Mikoto, a princess, was the founder of Ise Jingu and Empress Consort Jingu was also a shamaness who was guided by the Sumiyoshi Sanjin, the Gods of Wars on sea.
On the lesser scale. there were the Itako, blind female spiritual mediums who convey messages of the dead and the gods or perform divination. They were dying out now.
Could she be from the famed Yoshida family of the Urabe clan, I wondered.
That may explain the orbs hovering over her. That clan was one of the famous four clans with accursed bloodlines that could sense our presence. The other three were the Inbe, Shirakawa, and Onakatomi clans. Long is my existence to see the extinguishing of Inbe clan lines.
"Yoshida," I said, "Interesting surname."
"Who are you?" she said. "Are you a ghost or a yōkai?"
For a 12-year-old child, she was too calm, as though accustomed to seeing past through Kakuriyo's veil where I stood. Most kids will run screaming and crying incoherently to their parents. She should be frozen with fear, yet here we are, with her questions.
"Yōkai," I replied.
She shifted a little. "They say you are a serpent Daiyōkai."
"Those orbs by your side?"
She nodded.
"Did they say not to fear me?"
Hitomi bit her lips and said with some hesitation, "They say that if not for you, I won't be alive."
"Interesting. Why can't they save you?"
This is unusual if the ancestral spiritual protection did not kick into a more defensive position. No protective shields. I could sense their weakened powers.
"Their powers are restricted to advising," she replied.
Yeah, shit happens - these orbs were heavily diminished. If she is a Yoshida descendant of the Urabe clan, generations before her could have forgotten to pay their respect to most of their enshrined ancestors, thus eroding the ancestral spiritual powers.
"Do you know their origin? If not, ask them if they are related to the Urabe clan."
She glanced at the closed door.
"I have placed the guard in a deep sleep, so don't worry," I reassured Hitomi
"They… ask why you wish to know and why have you come?"
"Curious. About you. Where are your parents?" I ignored the question.
That is the half truth. I wanted to know the interest of the cult in her. That reply to questions by the orbs only confirmed that she is one of the few gifted descendants of the Urabe clan.
The teachings and influence of the Yoshida family had faded away into some obscurity. A long time ago during the messy Sengoku period, they were dominant in the religious orders until after the Edo period.
"There's only my father, but he is overseas on a job. He said that he is trying to catch the flight in to see me."
"Your mother?"
"She died five years ago," Hitomi mumbled.
"Any siblings?"
Hitomi shook her head.
"So why do you think those cult members took you? Did you know them before?"
"They said I had a gift. I don't know, but my friend took me to their temple after school. I was there a few times," she said.
Dumb kid should have gone straight home to study. Then again, the child wouldn't know any better if she had not much of a family. Loneliness could eat away at a human and make them vulnerable to our suggestions or the cults. The former is preferred, of course.
"The kominka?"
Hitomi shook her head. "It is in Tokyo. A building in Adachi. Near Kitasenju station."
Adachi ward was an oddball area which became infamous because of a certain cult which tried to flood the Tokyo subways with sarin gas. It was known for cheap housing. Many of the working class lived there in drudgery.
Weird cults could just pop up there with relative ease and remain under the radar.
"I wonder, if they wanted your blood," I mused.
"They wanted to gouge my eyes at first. But a leader said no," Hitomi replied.
She was not even breaking down from the recollection of such a traumatic event. There was almost no emotion shown at all. Her words were spoken out as though one was talking about the mundane weather.