Without a doubt, I have employed the world's most useless security guards. One hopeless tanuki was typing as fast as he could to Hage while the other two looked at me. Quit looking at me, look at the intruder. My eyes rolled in frustration as I motioned towards that foreign yōkai.
Opposite me was that entity in human form keeping watching us.
"I passed your test," I retorted. "How nice…"
His condescending remark was overwhelming. The bastard was sizing me up. What if I had lost the fight? The consequences would be far worse. A portal opened near me - it was Arahabaki's presence.
"More reinforcements? Against one of me," Eosphorus was goading me into the fight with that pride.
Not falling for that. This moron of a foreign yōkai just wanted me to react out of anger. Had I been younger, my move would be brash.
"Ahhh the odd energy burst is here…," Arahabaki muttered the words as he strolled into sight. "Three useless tanuki and Hage sends me in as a precaution."
"Oooohhh, Mexican standoff," he added as he glanced at both of us.
"Trouble?" He walked in front of me.
"This foreign yōkai, Eosphorus, attacked me in Kakuriyo," I replied. "And now he has a preposition."
"That's not a foreign yōkai," he turned and whispered back. "That's another foreign god. They call him evil."
"What the fuck? Foreign evil god?," I gave him a bewildered look.
"Well, humans," Arahabaki shrugged. "They call yōkai evil. Heck, they call me evil. Means nothing, really."
That's true. Anything humans could not beat off the top of the food chain would be deemed evil. Even a virus is evil.
"So you know him?"
Arahabaki coughed as Eosphorus's eyes locked onto Arahabaki. He knew something about Eosphorus which I didn't.
"Did we meet somewhere before?" Eosphorus asked.
"Perhaps," Arahabaki replied.
"Like I said, I am here to make a preposition."
Before I could interrupt, Arahabaki's hand shot up in front of me and he pulled me aside like I was a petulant kid in need of talking to later.
"Preposition are precarious with you," Arahabaki replied as he looked at his fingernails. "As I recall, you seem to like swallowing the souls of those at the end of your deals."
"Oh? How can that be? Surely, you have mistaken me for something else…"
"No mistake there, Lucifer. Last time, you did try to make a deal with me. Didn't turn out too well." Arahabaki flashed his pearly white teeth. "I can recognise your presence even if you are a speck of dust."
Lucifer. Now that's a name I know out of the foreign demons. Eosphorus seemed to come by a different name then, but the presence of the demon leader was unmistakable.
Even the tanuki,who came rushing in, looked like they were slowly shuffling towards the exit for a quick escape. Each time I turned back, they seemed to move a few centimetres away towards the exit doors.
Those Christians hated Eosphorus or his infamous name - Lucifer. When Japan opened up trade with the European ships, it wasn't just goods that the ships brought with them. Those ships brought a new religion - the Christian priests, one god and several demons.
Perhaps Arahabaki was familiar with Eosphorus because Sendai, under Date Masamune in the early 1500s, would have been open to trade with the foreigners. Anything which went on in Tohoku did not escape the gaze of Arahabaki.
"And you must be too insignificant for me to remember," Eosphorus laughed.
Arahabaki did not appear angry. Usually, when insulted, his reaction was violent. Yet his aramitama was restrained to the point of normality.
"Or beaten that memory out of you in Tohoku," Arahabaki folded his arms and turn to me again, asking, "Did he trail you in Kakuriyo?"
"Yes."
"You know the part of the deal I made with you to stay the fuck out of my way?" Arahabaki grinned with a mischievous glint in his eyes. "Now let me remind you of my terms."
With a wave of his hand, the momonofu appeared, surrounding all of us.
"You don't feed in my territory, you don't enter Kakuriyo and definitely do not attack my fellow kind," he said as the momonofu glowed in malice. "You and I are soul keepers. This is my home ground."
Eosphorus did not seem pleased at all. His fists clenched as his body went into a defensive stance. His eyes had a malevolent reddish glow.
With a growl, large black wings sprung up from his back, almost touching wall to wall. His height grew until he almost touched the ceiling. The momonofu nearest to him moved out of range from him.
"I have seen tall tengu, not an oversized one. They are just overgrown chickens to me. So if it is intimidation, I am afraid it isn't working too well," Arahabaki folded his arms. "Gesture all you want, pretend not to remember all you want."
"Arahabaki," Eosphorus sneered. "Don't think you are that intelligent. Just a minor god and I play with the big ones."
"Yes, yes, calm your tits." The momonofu echoed Arahabaki's words. "You are a fish out of your pond and on my home ground. Maybe just a minor god and a laughingstock, but…"
In a blink of an eye, there was a burst of brightness followed by a loud crash of metal and something hard.
"My Toyota crown…," one of the tanuki whimpered in self-pity at the sight.
It is just a damn car, earned from the monies I pay for these sleeping tanuki yōkai security guards. My poor building needs an infrastructure check after this if Arahabaki goes on rampage mode.
Any more structural shaking on the foundations and the damn concrete could collapse like a house of cards. Demolition fees were more expensive than building this whole damn steel and concrete contraption.
Who is going to house Ayane, the spider yōkai then?
Arahabaki's hand was tightly gripping the neck of Eosphorus, pinning the hapless fool against a heap of crushed and twisted metal, splintered glass and wiring. What's left of that car is perfectly flattened for the scrapyard now.
Eosphorus looked stunned for a minute, then he started to struggling.
"Not so fun when the chicken can't transform…," Arahabaki snarled. "I will show you what minor local gods do to foreign gods who want to take their place."
"Just… g-get… o-off… me," Eosphorus gasped as aramitama started flowing into Arahabaki's hand.
"Still roast chicken," Asanki's voice echoed out amidst the writhing of Eosphorus.
Great. More godly gatherers like the Mishakuji. Next I am expecting the whole Takamagahara to show up. A few rolls of thunder induced my silent cursing at Murphy's law as I took out my iPhone to check the weather.
Fine, the online report said. No chance of fucking rain. I could see a few flashes of lightning from a far through the surrounding rotund figures of the momonofu and out of the large window-like opening of the carpark. Just not much clouds.
The Raiju were closing in as the lightning strikes were moving closer. It only meant one thing - one of the major gods was coming to watch the show in my humble carpark. The Raiju are their heralds for around ten gods, despite being bloody yōkai.
Takemikazuchi better not be the one coming. Each time he comes, an earthquake starts up. That god could only concentrate on either pinning the tectonic plates below Japan down or fight a war. Asking him to do two things at a go, often lead to disastrous results.
However, he isn't to be blamed for the 2011 tsunami. The only other deity, which Takamagahara feared other than Arahabaki, was the Deity of Calamity. That deity is blamed for anything that the gods can't control.
Someone placed a hand on my shoulder. I swung around as Asanki slided out of the way with his hand up in mid air.
"Whoa, better leave here immediately with your three yōkai employees and release the others in the building for leave today… Takamagahara has sent in the big guns. And you know, those gods don't like presence of yōkai around," he said. "You don't want them to play whack-a-mole for fun on your employees."