The problem with reflexes was that by definition they happened before conscious thought. I was moving by the time my brain acknowledged that I was awake, at the door to my bedroom by the time I realized the noises I'd heard hadn't been from fighting, and out in the living room by the time I remembered that I was buck naked apart from the bandages on my chest.
I skidded to a halt in front of four familiar women, dick swinging in the breeze. The bang of my door being thrown open drew their startled attention. Maki's mother and cousin were in my apartment, here, judging from her new outfit and the smell of egg fried rice, to drop off clothes and supplies. Maki herself had been in the middle of scolding her younger cousin, Susy Sunada, who had knocked over a decorative bronze bowl off the half-wall countertop next to the kitchen. The bowl had been filled with jade Ben Wa eggs and golden balls, now rolling across the floor noisily; the hollows of the toys were filled with ball bearings meant to roll around and stimulate a woman as she moved, making them not dissimilar to a bell. The apartment reverberated with the sounds.
Having sex toys for decorations was embarrassing but not surprising. What was embarrassing and surprising, was the presence of Marianne Greene in her nurse scrubs. The single mother of three, with her reasonable job and reasonable problems grounded firmly in the ordinary struggles of ordinary human beings, was a living reminder of how deeply absurd my own life had become. I gave her a stiff nod but her gaze was elsewhere.
There was a mix of reactions to me bursting onto the scene in the buff. Maki was embarrassed and smoothing her eyebrows to cover her face. I had an immediate suspicion that she'd lied about how platonic our interactions had been last night. Ishida Ai, her mother, was the image of class, eyes locked onto my face exclusively, pretending for all the world like I was fully clothed. Susy meanwhile had turned a worrying shade of apoplectic purple and entered a state of pre-death rigor mortis, stuck staring at my dick like it was a basilisk.
Marianne was too horrified by my bandages to react to the nudity, which reminded me.
"Hey!" I said with a wave. "I'm uhhhh, gonna put on some pants."
I shot the room double finger guns, regretting it instantly, and darted back into my bedroom for a pair of boxers. While there I started my Circular Breathing, hoping to repeat some of the fire rolls I'd gotten when fighting the Hungry Ghost. It was one Success to heal two points of normal Damage, two Successes to convert Murderous Damage to normal, and you always healed at least two points of normal Damage on a Recovery check, regardless of what you got. The game had clearly been going for anime recovery times, the kind where a character could have every bone in his body broken and only be waylaid in traction for a few weeks at most. As someone committed to living the anime lifestyle, I appreciated it.
Lady Luck had enough of my bullshit it seemed, because it took eight of my potential ten Circular Breathing charges to heal my remaining nine Murderous Damage. Perhaps it was her way of telling me to pump the brakes on said lifestyle.
"Woo!" I shouted, returning to the living room, chest bare. I'd slashed myself free of the wraps with my Eagle's Talon. Balling up the soiled gauze, I threw it from behind my back into the kitchen trash bin. "Kobe! Check it out ladies, I'm back," I said, turning around to emphasize the word, "in action! How's the new scars? Sexy, scary, scary sexy, or sexy scary?"
I flexed and pointed with both thumbs at my back. Maki gifted me an exasperated sigh at the display.
"Good God, y'all were not lying…A ghost did those?" Marianne said, half-stunned. "You didn't have those scars last Friday so—" She looked nauseous, but it passed quickly, replaced by stoic acceptance of the new reality. "Ghosts are real, and they have claws. Well, shit."
"Oh, cool, you guys filled her in? Nice. What's up, Marianne? How you holding up?"
"You know me, living the dream." She broke into a little manic giggle. "Oh, fuck me, ghosts are real. Sorry, sorry, I might, I might need a minute. Am I going to have to start taking the kids to church? There goes my Sundays…"
Ai rubbed the nurse's back comfortingly and gently guided her to a stool. "Bring them to the Shrine, dear, much more fun. Hello, James. Thank you for looking after my daughter. I knew from the second you walked through our doors that I could count on you."
"No problem! Sorry for conspiring with her to exorcise a ghost against your wishes."
Ishida Ai practically floated across the room to me. The plump, middle-aged woman still had the same serene grace I'd seen from her at the Shrine, but seemed lighter, as though a warm breeze was carrying her along. Her smile, like the little priestess herself, was small and subtle but shined on me like a spotlight. She took both my hands in hers and held them together over her heart. They were cold in comparison to mine, and it brought me a special joy to warm them with my body heat.
"Don't apologize. You have blessed me a thousand times over with your defiance. I was being a frightened, foolish old hen by trying to keep Maki from her righteous cause. There was a veil of grief, I think, blinding me to our mutual suffering."
I laughed. "Get out of here, are you kidding? You were totally in the right. I nearly died like five or six times, maybe more, and Maki at least twice. I threw a fire tornado at that thing and all it did was piss it off and embroil me deeeeeeep into a gang war."
Maki rubbed the back of her neck. "Yes, sorry, okaasan. I've been very unfair to you and to everyone at the Shrine these past few years."
"Hush, both of you. All has been made right." Ai twinkled her eyes at me. "Tell me, James – or, should I say, Kenji, have you told your sister the good news."
"Kenji?" asked Maki, confused.
"Huh? Wait, Maki, Ken didn't tell you his plan?" She looked at me blankly, brow furrowed. I groaned. "Oh my god, of course he didn't. Your brother might own the record for posthumous pranks played on me, right up there with my paternal granddad." I paused. "Our brother, I guess."
"What?"
Ai's laughs were like little chimes. "He did say your face would be funny when you learned of it, Maki. I communed with Ken's spirit when I heard the news of your success, dear. He had much to say."
"Great," I cut in, "that means you can explain while I eat breakfast."
"Of course, my son. Eat, eat."
"What?" repeated a confused Maki. Her mother led her to the couch and they began a quiet conversation in Japanese.
I made myself a bowl of fried rice and settled in between Marianne and Susy, giving my neighbor a friendly shoulder bump. Susy had put almost all of the jade eggs she'd knocked over back into the bronze bowl they'd sat in, but my arrival made her freeze with the last two in each hand.
"Weird morning?" I asked Marianne.
"You could say that. Love what you've done with the place, by the way."
"You do?" I asked skeptically. I was neutral at best now that I wasn't overwhelmingly horny anymore.
"It's not what I would have done, but it's a hell of an improvement. Honestly, it looks like you hired a very expensive interior designer who was trying to fuck you."
Fuck with me, more like, I mentally grumbled towards the Producers. "Thanks. Not that I'm not glad to see you, but what made you stop by?"
She chuckled. "I woke up this morning and saw your post, 'Broke my new phone lol, totally chill, swing by if we had plans, I guess.' And I thought, James broke his phone at three thirty in the morning on a Wednesday; what are the chances he got himself into trouble? Lo and behold."
"Yeah, well, what are you going to do, right? Couldn't let a ghost menace the old neighborhood."
"Yeah…" Marianne sighed and shook her head. "God, some days I just want to lock the kids inside and never let them out. Makes me think back to the last messages I got from my ex-husband before he died. I thought he was going mad talking about witches and devils."
I bumped her elbow. "Don't beat yourself up about it; I don't think it's a coincidence that no one believes in magic despite seeing martial artists do wild shit all the time. Something's up with that – I can practically taste the conspiracy. Plus, I mean, what would you have done differently if you believed him? You didn't know me back then, and it doesn't sound like you had anyone else to turn to either."
"Started saving up to move to the suburbs, probably." She quirked her head and raised an eyebrow at me. "Wait, you would have stepped up for my ex-husband if I asked you to?"
"Of course. Come on, I'm James Li, badass youxia hero. I'm like, contractually obligated to help single mothers with their problems."
Marianne fluttered her eyelashes dramatically and rested her chin on her palm. "And here I thought was special."
I spun on my stool towards her, conveniently blocking Susy's view, and put my hand on her inner thigh, giving it a gentle squeeze. "Just 'cause I'm a staunch defender of moms, doesn't mean you aren't special. You're very special to me, Marianne Greene."
Marianne smirked and dropped her voice to a whisper. "I don't believe you. Maybe if you showed me how special I am…" She craned her neck to look past me and gave Susy an apologetic smile. "Sorry, sugar, did you want to say something?"
Susy was clutching her phone to her chest, watching us with a wide-eyed, dreamy expression. She did have the air of a student right before raising her hand, I thought. The teen stuttered into life as we waited patiently for her to respond. "Um, you two look really cute. Could I take a picture of you?"
"Aww, that's so sweet," said Marianne beaming. "Only if you send it to me! Come here, James."
"Should I put a shirt on?"
"Boy, don't even play. Like you ain't the biggest ho on the block."