"Did you say cult?… we love them cults," Tokoni laughed. "If not for them, a lot of the old gods won't survive. Wars between cults or religions are not unusual. You even had an entire kingdom as your cult who fought against the Yamato cult."
"Don't even mention that matter to me," Arahabaki growled at Tokoni, who distanced himself immediately.
"Don't discuss other irrelevant matters," Asanki pointed to the sleeping girl and said, "we are here for another reason, that girl…"
"Interesting," Tokoni muttered as he studied her while carefully moving behind Asanki.
Looking up at her name written on the board above her bed, he read it out, "Yoshida Hitomi."
"Why ask this idiot?" Arahabaki snarled as Tokoni edged away further.
"Because that idiot has the best skill with Ofori selection," Asanki said bluntly. "Each time we nurture one to be an oracle, the humans somehow find it necessary to kill them as a sacrifice to us to feel good about themselves… that was a waste of our time."
"Boys differ from girls," Arahabaki grunted.
"Both the same, we just don't want to compete with the other gods," both of the Mishakuji answered in unison.
"But her…," Tokoni trailed off as Hitomi opened her eyes and sat up.
She rubbed her eyes again and looked around as though searching for something.
"Maybe she can see us," Arahabaki said.
"No. She can see past the veil, but only yōkai energy. Not ours. Kuro is correct. Those orbs are not very strong," Asanki gestured to the two weakly illuminated orbs, which reminded him of human cotton candy.
"Who is there," she called out.
Tokoni approached her cautiously, sweeping the reluctant orb away with his hand. He bent forward to her ear and whispered into it. Hitomi's eyes grew wide open in horror as she quickly back up against the head of her bed while Arahabaki and Asanki watched in amusement.
Her eyes looked straight at Asanki. Her mouth let out a small gasp as she covered her mouth with two hands.
Tokoni turned around with a mischievous grin. "do you want me to take her powers? Won't hurt her and would lessen her value to cults. She will be safe."
"Why are you suggesting this move and what did you say to the human?" Arahabaki was annoyed.
"I made Asanki visible in his snake form now. She would make a good Ofori."
"Miko, you mean. That's the name they use for shrine maidens," Arahabaki corrected him.
Asanki shook his head. "Miko… no. Most shrine maidens can barely detect their patron god. She has a spell on her which can be enhanced and also diminished to a point of non-existence either by age or by us. It isn't a gift."
"Spell?" Arahabaki tilted his head.
"There are old spells to grant vision of Kakuriyo to those who are not gifted with the sight. The gift is only granted naturally to specific persons, even within the Urabe clan. All descendants having it through their blood is a myth. If she was born with the gift, she would have been mad now. At seven, they dedicate those gifted to receive protection from the patron god to stop them from madness," Tokoni explained.
"Kakuriyo isn't merciful to those with the gift," Tokoni added. "I can remove the spell easily."
Looking back at her, Asanki transformed into his human form of a good-looking young man and said, "Girl, do you still wish the see the hidden world or not?"
"Are you like the woman who visited me?" She asked. "But how come I didn't feel you entering."
"I am not like her. I am just a minor god passing through," Asanki nudged a chuckling Arahabaki. "Tell me… when did you begin seeing ghosts and yōkai?"
"Kami-sama, a few years ago," she replied, addressing him with reference.
"Do you want to continue seeing that world?"
Hitomi shook her head. "But is there something next to me… I can feel something next to me."
***
Kakuriyo, the realm of our kind, has been mistaken for the netherworld by some humans. Some call it the realm of eternal youth and immortality. Others, the realm of the eternal night. To us, it is the retreat that moulds to our needs.
Only one problem, instinct told me that there is something off when I entered to take a shortcut. A terrible feeling of being watched was eating into me.
The murky mists of Kakuriyo were swirling around, warning of an unfamiliar presence nearby.
"Interesting, why not go into your actual form… instead of this… hhhhuman form," a smooth deep voice hissed through the haze of the mists in disgust.
To go to my real incorporeal form was an advantage in Kakuriyo. This joker was looking for a fight.
"None of your business," I answered.
"How rude, and I thought your kind would be politer," it sneered.
My ears pricked at a sudden whizzing sound. Leaping out of the way, my form melted into the mist. A yellowish glow missed me by an inch. Fuck my human form.
Whoever was attacking me was an unknown yōkai. Through Kakuriyo's dimensional filaments, my incorporeal form flowed through like water running through the rapids.
Another yellowish flash from the side was zipping as quick as lightning. The shape was almost like a net of a different energy source. I flew upwards, transforming into the vapour as the net like thing nearly caught whole. Summoning all the pieces, I manifested into my human form.
A quick wave of the hand, Kakuriyo's veil, opened, and I leaped out like a seal through a hoop.
"Not so fast," it growled through the closing portal.
Rolling along the cold greyish concrete floor of my building's carpark, my hand pushed me up into an attack stance. Another bright, blinding lightning flash escaped through as the portal vanished.
It slammed into the white washed concrete column in a blast revealing a well-dressed young man with reddish eyes walking from the cloud of dust and concrete. I could hear a few of my tanuki security guards running towards our position.
"Reinforcements," he said. "How nice."
"Who the FUCK are you?" I spat while my eyes were trained on him.
Definitely not one of us. He looked odd with those inscriptions tattooed on his arms. Those were not our old language or modern Japanese. A wild fire-like aura was revolving around him, almost like the overwhelming aramitama of Arahabaki.
"Eosphorus," he replied and then flashed his white teeth. "But I am known by many names."
Another fucking foreign yōkai again.
"I have a preposition for you, given that you passed my test."