Kyoko knocked at my office door in hesitation, looking almost frightened to see me. I could spot a case file in her hand. Another problem has popped up.
"Just come in, unless you want me to play a guessing game," I stared at her as she shrunk.
"Well," she walked to my table, looking very unsure of how to break the bad news. "This case - Hinoenma said no go."
That was unusual. Hinoenma does not dismiss assignments if the reason was not good.
"And the others?"
"Well, we can't. God protection issue."
Odd. Kyoko placed the case file in front of me to look at. Flipping the file open, I spotted the target's occupation. A 65-year-old medical specialist and an adjunct medical professor. Dr Tanaka. No vices. Just a parking ticket to his name, outshined by a long list of awards.
The department had scoped him out. This man had worked in a COVID-19 designated health facility as a medical administrator. A wife and two children. Marriage is happy with no affairs - rare in society.
"Who is the god that is watching over him?"
"Inari group," Kyoko said. "That's the protective aura she spotted on him. Can't get near."
Every few thousand cases will produce one special like that. Innocent men slated for execution by ambitious assholes. We don't interfere in their affairs but carry out the assassination.
But with god protection, none of the yōkai was suicidal enough to even attempt an assassination at the risk of any god's wrath. Not even I. This is a huge big no-no with major consequences.
I had to confirm the presence - a rare event. Then send another yōkai to scare the crap out of my client to refund his client. That was the only polite way to get out of these cases.
"Did you find out who wants him dead and why?" I asked.
"Um," Kyoko gulped. "Looks like political matters. He refused to admit more patients. Refused to add beds because his staff were overworked. So one of the managing hospital board members is hoping that he gets a heart attack and they can replace him with a more obedient doctor."
"Humans are nuts," I muttered as I ran through the file.
For the sake of their profits, one has decided to kill a doctor which they needed so badly.
"He also made things difficult for the director by protesting about the difficulties his staff faced," she said. "They want him to make it look like the hospital is a saint for taking in those cases and every staff has a work life balance."
I was near to bursting out in laughter at that nonsense. Even though yōkai cannot be infected with the COVID-19 virus, we were all too well aware of our fellow compatriots congregating more often near the hospitals, absorbing the negative energies of the sick, dying, as well as the overworked.
"Looks like I have to enter this one to see what this shit is about."
"He called for a press conference today, so it is likely that these members will be there," she said as she handed me a picture of a sour looking old man.
"This is the one who wants him dead?"
Kyoko sighed. "Yes."
"What time is the press conference?"
"2 pm. I arranged for the chauffeur to take you there. We have the press tags and… going under cover via Maruni's magazine outlet. The van is coming here to pick you up."
Maruni the mujina yōkai was always helpful ever since I saved his fat badger ass centuries ago from a wandering exorcist during the Edo period. It would have been better if his magazine was not a trash tabloid, but some press privilege is better than no press privilege.
I looked at my watch. Only three more hours to go through the busy traffic to the facility.
***
The human journalists there were careful to social distance among themselves, fearful of catching the virus on top of the press news. The temperature was getting colder towards Christmas. Soon it would be 2021.
During pre-Covid-19 times, we would jostle in the crowd. No one wanted to risk catching the virus and bringing it home to their family. A few poured hand sanitizers on their hands and rubbed them.
Masks were in full show. From N95 high grade particulate masks to triple surgical masks. Not a single face was unmasked. It looked odd that some did not bother to cover their noses properly.
We were standing in the plain lobby of an external building next to the white greyish dull health facility. No one could enter the main building as part of their infection control measures.
Well, except for the many unseen yōkai making their way in after bowing to me. There was a connection in this building to the main wards. They already crowded the main entrance with some of old grumpy Death's shinigami soul collectors and other ghosts.
Standing next to me was Maruni's team towards the front of a make shift podium. Their boss advised them that I was free to wander about as part of 'scoping' the news.
The journalist, camera man and driver were having a banter about the latest pandemic matters. All three were happy to keep their jobs when all other companies were shutting down due to decreasing sales.
"I am just going to walk around this hospital," I said to the group.
"Just don't enter the infected areas," Maruni's journalist reminded me.
Before I could take a step away, a young man in a suit came out and started tapping on the microphones set on the shabby curtained tables with the long, ridiculous shield. The microphones screeched in protest, signalling the journalists to grab their choice positions while those from the news television outlets adjusted their cameras.
[They treat us like shit]
I could hear the negative, depressing thoughts of the human staff emanating from the building.
[My online friend told me I was wrong to say that the staff had no holiday. She is not even a healthcare staff, and she thinks we can have a work life balance? She shuts me down because she thinks she knows more when she isn't even working in the hospital. Look at all the patients here… no beds available.]
[Each time one dies, another takes his bed. You have an asshole of a friend. Who has time for anything now except extra shifts when the hospital calls us up? If your friend has time to relax, she isn't working hard enough.]
[That's not your friend. Public are like that. I said that we are treated poorly, but people say I am bashing my profession. Because I said in a chat room that we are too low in ranks to protest. One even used her mother to shame me.]
[Eehhh, you have time to chat? I am too tired to even do anything on my off day.]
I guffawed.
That's why humankind amused me. Nothing like those humans who shut others down because they want to feel superior or knowledgeable when they knew sweet fuck all, but only heard it from friends of friends or relatives.
'Living vicariously through the eyes of others' - that took a new meaning in human stupidity.
Ever met such humans who think they knew more than a yōkai who lived through centuries witnessing history. That's their kind. Most turn on each other for pride and vanity in boosting their popularity through pretending to look like they give a damn.
This species is indeed entertainment.
[Not from overseas, I hope. I heard from my classmate there in USA that they have to use garbage bags as protective equipment. I saw their YouTube filming how busy they are… cubicle 12, his oxygen saturation is dropping]
[P-p-please… c-can't…. b-breath…]
[Coding… respiratory failure. Oh shit… another one.]
[Split the teams. Anyone on their break? Where are the rest?]
[NO ONE HAD A DAMN BREAK… we are in cubicle 24, another respiratory arrest.]
[I can't take it anymore, what are we doing, we don't have enough staff]
[The teachers told my son that he is infected with COVID-19 because I work in the hospital. I don't know what to do. Oh god, we have another in respiratory arrest.]
[Time of death 1.56pm. Contact the family. Let's move on to the next one. Who is more serious, come on, start walking?]
[This one needs a ventilator, any beds in the intensive care? None? No more ventilators available? Full house? What about the step down units? Full? I have a 51-year-old female who needs a ventilator and she will die without one… contact other designated facilities?]
[I want to quit. I can't take it anymore.]
[How many? I can't save them. We don't even have enough equipment.]
Those negative human thoughts of bitterness, regret, and despair were wafting out like a thick black smoke from a burning building. This was endless candy for the large crowds of yōkai, who rushed in to feed on such thoughts. Death himself from afar looked grouchier than usual.
'Dr Tanaka is trying his best to reduce cases entering. This doesn't look good at all on us when he and staff complain.'
I could hear the whispers behind the clumsy looking curtains as footsteps came out.
There it was, the golden aura radiating from one bespectacled man in a white coat whom Hinoenma refused to touch. Nigitama, good will of the gods, was what we call that aura. Another older, matured woman in a nurse's uniform had it surrounding her as she walked out with her head hung low.
His eyes were weary and almost tearing. He was struggling to keep back his tears of disappointment. Black circles told me about his sleepless nights. His face haggard and cheeks sunken as he stood in quietude behind in a gloomy overcast of an impending doom.
I took out my iPhone and typed the message to Kyoko.
[Kyoko, send in the yōkai rejection team to our client.]
There was no way I want to fuck with the gods on this target. Or the other accompanying him. But I wouldn't mind targeting that sulking board member if the order for assassination came for him.
He is bad for my business. Who needs a yōkai assassin when there are idiots who could sabotage by killing more people with a virus? There are many more of these morons around where they come from, supporting a fucking virus in its rampage.