The next day, at the organization…
The first thing that Shirane Nakagiri noticed when he walked in the doors of the building that morning was the lantern lying on the floor in the middle of the hall.
Shuda Yagari and Tsurayuki Senryū and the girls arrived just behind him.
Curious, the red-haired boy approached the lantern, wondering out loud, 'What is this doing on the floor?' He couldn't remember having seen it around here before. He was about to pick it up when, unexpectedly, the lantern became animated- an eye popped out of the upper half of the lantern, legs and arms sprouting from its body, with a wild tongue lolling from the gaping mouth formed from the split along one of its wooden ribs- spooking the redhead and the others.
There was an explosion of fume in that instant and when it dissipated, the chōchin-obake rolled its eyes and tongue at them, laughing as it scooted away.
'WHAT THE HELL!' shouted Shirane, pulling his collar apart, breaking the buttons of his shirt to stare down at his body- a body he couldn't recognize.
He was utterly mortified and the others gasped out in shock too, but not at him, but at their own bodies, as the redhead wasn't the only one to have transformed.
'Are these BOOBS?!' he shouted, looking like he was about to burst a vessel.
'You pervert!' Cho Kururugi cried out, shutting her eyes and hitting the redhead with her harisen. The words were hers but she couldn't recognize the loud masculine voice saying them.
She couldn't believe what was happening and neither could anyone of them.
The boys had transformed into girls and the girls into boys!
They cried out in hysterical panic.
'Oh no! No! This can't be happening! This must only be a nightmare and I'm going to wake up!' they repeated to themselves again and again.
It took them a whole moment to calm down enough to think properly.
'No! Not now! I'm truly jinxed!' exclaimed Tsurayuki Senryū, holding his face in his hand. 'I need to pee!'
'Control yourself, will you?!' Kururugi, Tsudzuri and Hakushū shouted at him, together, hysterically.
'What do you mean "control yourself"?! If I don't go right away, my bladder's gonna explode!' he shouted back.
They gave him a threatening glare, looking, as if, they could kill if he insisted.
The pony-tailed boy broke into cold sweat.
'Boy, these things are heavy!' complained Shuda Yagari as he groped at his new-grown breasts.
A death glare from the girls shut him up.
Clearing his throat, he said, then, 'Alright! We need to find that chōchin-obake, capture it and force it to give us our normal appearances back! Let's split up! It couldn't have gone very far!'
'What if somebody sees us like this? I'm a guy dressed up like a Gothic Lolita. I'd be humiliated forever,' Yanagi Hakushū moaned, holding herself on all fours on the ground, utterly floored.
'Hey, don't worry! We're going to fix this!' Hakushū and Tsudzuri told her, reassuringly.
'I remind you that you're wearing girls' kimono and white leggings!' she pointed out at them and all color drained out of their faces.
They cried out hysterically again, holding their heads in-between their hands.
'If somebody recognizes us in this appearance, our virility risks taking a serious blow!' Shirane said and Yagari, Senryū and he screamed their lungs out at the horrific vision.
***
We reached Mount Seki at noon.
This marked the most crucial moment of this voyage.
All the ingredients were on our possession.
I poured some saké into a chōshi and setting the bottle down, I picked the small doll up, holding it with my two hands.
The doll was made of a piece of white cloth bound together with a bit of string and I had tied the bell around its neck.
I glanced at the Amefurikozō, nervously.
This was a decisive moment.
Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath and began singing the customary warube uta.
'Teru-teru-bōzu, teru bōzu. Ashita tenki ni shite o-kure. Itsuka no yume no sora no yo ni. Haretara kin no sozu ageyo. Teru-teru-bōzu, teru bōzu. Ashita tenki ni shite o-kure. Watashi no negai wo kiita nara. Amai o-sake wo tanto nomasho. Teru-teru-bōzu, teru bōzu. Ashita tenki ni shite o-kure. Sore de mo kumotte naitetara. Sonata no kubi wo chon to kiru zo.'
'Hm, this saké is good!' declared a mature masculine voice, suddenly.
My eyes snapped open and what greeted my sight was a monk seated on the ground across of me, drinking the saké from the chōshi. He was in his mid-twenties in appearance, with tanned skin and crow black hair.
Hiyoribō!
He licked his lips, his hand going for the bottle of saké.
I snatched it away before he could touch it and he looked up at me with half-narrowed eyes.
'The rest of the saké is for when the job will be accomplished!' I stated, firmly.
'By job you mean "making it stop raining", isn't it?' He looked at the bottle of saké longingly before he sighed heavily and announced, 'I'm sorry but you're going to have to find somebody else. I've retired.'
'Retired?!'
'Che! What a fainéant! The rumors weren't false, after all!' muttered the Amefurikozō.
'You can call me by all names if you want, I don't mind,' the yōkai shrugged. 'It's like this, that's all!'
He started to get up and my heart accelerated in my chest. If he refused to help us, everything was over; Ameonna was dead. I had bet everything on him.
'No, please, wait! I understand that you've retired. But I beg of you to make an exception for this time. It's a matter of life and death. If you don't help us, somebody's going to die!'
He stopped to stare at me, my words seeming to strike a chord in him.
'Is it so?' he asked, very seriously.
'Yes.'
***
On the other side…
Shirane Nakagiri watched Cho Kururugi from the corner of the eyes as they scoured the forest on the domain of the organization together, tracking the chōchin-obake.
'I wanted to tell you,' said Shirane, blushing slightly, 'Even as a boy, I find you very attractive.'
Cho swung around to face him, her eyes throwing daggers at him. 'Don't talk nonsense! It's really not the moment!' she snapped and changing her foldable fan into an harisen, she hit him with it on the head.
Being in the skin of a girl, the red-haired boy got knocked down by the blow.
He held his spinning head, whining.
Just as a fuming Cho Kururugi was turning back around, unexpectedly, the chōchin-obake jumped at her face coming out of nowhere, spooking her.
Both Shirane and he became caught in an explosion of fume, which dissipated slowly.
Past his surprise, Shirane jumped at the Tsukumogami to catch it where it was floating in the air, laughing at them.
But his arms didn't reach it and he landed face flat on the ground, not understanding what just happened.
Why did his arms look so short? Why did he feel so small suddenly?
'Wah!' cried Cho Kururugi as she struggled to keep her balance, unable to withstand the size of her harisen. 'How did it grow so big?'
Shirane stared at her in shock.
'It's not your harisen which has grown bigger. WE have grown smaller!'
The Tsukumogami had transformed them into children!
'He-he! If you don't catch me before sunset, the next appearance that you'll take will be that of animals and you'll be forced to live like that for the rest of your lives!' the yōkai said, in a childish male voice, rolling its eyes and tongue at them, before it scooted out of sight.
Shirane and Cho stared at each other, mortified.
***
After a short while, in the hall of the organization...
'A child! A small child! I'm reduced to a child!' Shirane mumbled to himself, seated at one of the tables and staring at the ceiling vacantly, feeling like he was going crazy.
'Get a grip on yourself!' Cho shouted at him, grabbing him by his collar and shaking him violently.
But the boy remained totally spaced out.
The others weren't taking the fact that they had grown younger any better. Even Tsurayuki Senryū who usually appeared indifferent was acting out of character today.
Thankfully, the girls had changed back into girls, the boys into boys. But this present state, was probably even worse than the transformation into the opposite sex. They were trapped into minuscule bodies. Their bodies had reverted to how they were ten years back.
'I can't hold it anymore! I absolutely need to pee!' cried Tsurayuki as he dashed for the bathroom, puzzling the girls.
'Did I dream or he was weeping like a toddler?'
'That's enough! No more tears!' exclaimed Agasa Tsudzuri as she jerked to her feet, with a decided look, putting a fist up. 'We're going to capture that Tsukumogami! We're members of Gushiken Paranormal Organization and it's not a little chōchin-obake who's going to get our skin!'
'You're right!' seconded Yanagi Hakushū. 'I don't want to be transformed into a fish and spend the rest of my life in an aquarium!'
Everyone's mouth went agape, their new-found spirit crushed. They had completely forgotten about that part. If they didn't catch the Tsukumogami before sunset, they'll be transformed into animals with no chance of taking back their normal appearance ever again.
In a way, this condition seemed better than the impending one.
***
Later…
The sun was probably setting by now.
It was hard to tell the time in the outside world when we were in the realm of the gods.
The sky was gray, the lake utterly calm.
Everywhere that we looked, our sight was greeted only by water and I wondered how the young spirit could find his way.
'Why did you retired?' I asked Hiyoribō, timidly, shattering the quietness.
He was sitting across of me in the small boat, facing me.
'Do you have any idea how long I'm on this earth? How many times humans have summoned me and I have made the rain stop?' he said, lost in his thoughts. 'You don't know my story, do you? I'm going to tell you about it.'
The Amefurikozō opened his ears, listening too while he continued to row.
'I was a monk who traveled from villages to villages, pretending to have special powers, and conning people with my mumbo-jumbo to steal them. This had become my mode of life and I had no scruples about it. And then, one day...'
He paused, his expression melancholic.
'I arrived into that small village; the village of Sugano. It had been raining incessantly for months in the area and the villagers were desperate. One of them recognized me as the weather monk and they begged me to help them. I accepted, but as you might have already guessed, I was faking, of course. I learned by coincidence that the village possessed a golden bell of priceless value which was considered as a treasure at the time and all that I wanted was to get my hands onto it.'
He shook his head once.
'I promised the villagers that I will perform a prayer on the following day at daybreak. They lodged me for the night and fed me. I waited for everyone in the village to be asleep to steal the bell and run away with it. But I didn't take enough precaution and the bell went ringing, alarming the villagers as I was fleeing with it. They captured me; becoming aware of my little plot. They realized that I have no special powers, that I'm a con, and it was decided that I'll be executed the next day itself.'
He swallowed the obvious lump in his throat.
'Just before my execution, I learned that there had been a landslide at the extremity of the village and that a few houses had gotten buried. All the people who lived there have survived, except one. A young woman named Kohime. I had spotted the latter upon my very arrival at the village. She was an orphan and she took care of the children in the village.'
He looked down, his elbows resting on his knees, his expression tortured.
'It was only at that moment that I truly opened my eyes at last. I saw the pain of the villagers. I saw their distress. I realized how much I was despicable; in their misfortune, I had only seen my interest. Because of me, somebody died. If I hadn't pattered them, they could have tried to find somebody else, someone who could have actually been able to help them; and Kohime wouldn't have died. I was afflicted with remorse and I guess that's why I became a yōkai upon my execution. I found myself capable to stop the rain in the village, but it didn't make me feel better. In fact, no matter how many times I make it stop raining, I don't feel any relief.'
He sighed.
'My soul is forever tainted by the crime I've committed and I've resigned myself to the fact that there's no salvation for me. Kohime must be watching me from the heavens right now and finding me pathetic.'
He smiled, grimly.
When I had mentioned that Ameonna's life was at risk, it was this that had stroke a chord in him. Maybe, unconsciously, he still hoped to find forgiveness.
'I don't approve what you did,' I told him, sincerely, 'but you know, what happened with Kohime was just an unfortunate accident. You've said it yourself that the villagers were desperate, which means that they must have tried everything that was possible. You were their last hope and I doubt that they would have miraculously found a solution within the time of a night. It's true that you have deceived and disappointed them, but you had no intention of killing anyone. You couldn't know what was going to happen. You didn't kill her with your own hands. And even if you don't feel any relief, know that your help is greatly appreciated. It doesn't erase everything but I'm sure that Kohime must be happy to see you helping humans instead of conning them.'
I giggled at myself nervously, wondering if I hadn't said a little too much.
He stared at me a minute with a puzzled expression before he said, 'Well, that came out quite awkwardly but... thank you.'
A small smile appeared on his lips.
***
In the meantime, at the organization…
'Oh no! The sun is about to set and we've still not caught that little monster!' gibbered Agasa Tsudzuri, having lost all her spirit of before.
She was sitting in a ball under one of the tables in the hall, holding her head in between her hands, like the other girls.
Everyone was on the edge.
'And yet, we have tried everything!' grumbled Shuda.
'These little bodies are a big handicap!' Tsurayuki muttered, holding himself on all four on the floor, floored by their helplessness.
'What are we going to do?' mumbled Shirane Nakagiri. 'What if I become transformed into a cat? I'll be licking myself all day long!'
'Will you shut up, you pervert!' snarled Cho, who slapped him with her harisen, forgetting about her small size a minute.
She lost her balance and fell on her behind.
'Living in an aquarium, alright, but fishes aren't reputed for having a strong memory!' gibbered Yanagi.
'Why are you so sure that you're going to be transformed into a fish?' Agasa wondered, bewildered.
'The countdown is over. Over. Over. OVER!' exclaimed the Tsukumogami who showed up, at the foot of the staircase at that moment.
Everyone perked up, their eyes widening at the small yōkai. Their hearts pounding in their chest, they all sprung to their feet and dashed at the chōchin-obake in one last desperate attempt to catch it.
But it was too late.
They became caught in an explosion of fume in the hall and fell to the ground while the yōkai swirled onto itself, mimicking a victory dance, laughing at the petrified members of the organization.
Time seemed to stand still for a minute. No one moved, too scared. And then, slowly, their minds began to register the change.
'What the-' started Shirane, as he picked himself up on his two feet and stared down at his body.
Then, he glanced at the others who picked themselves up too from where they had been on all fours on the floor.
They were as stupefied as him.
They hadn't been turned into animals and they had recovered their normal appearances!
'Burabura!' a familiar voice called at the yōkai and the latter hurried up to the person.
The six members in the hall lifted their heads up and their eyes landed onto the person holding himself at the head of the staircase.
'Master Kagami!' they exclaimed together, in confusion. 'You were there all along?'
The Doctor Tsunan Hitachiin was there too, standing at the side of the older male.
'Thank you, Burabura!' Kagami Gushiken said to the animated lantern, patting its head in a fatherly manner. The yōkai swirled onto itself happily and disappeared in a small puff of smoke.
'What does this mean, master?' demanded Shirane, speaking for everyone.
'You didn't think that I would let that whole story of fake mission slip away, did you? I hope that the punishment was up to the fault you've committed and it will keep you from starting again.'
They were all speechless.
So, all of this, all that they've endured since this morning, was their punishment?! It had been original, embarrassing and so effective. They had lost all their means upon the first minutes of the punishment itself.
'Oh, and Shirane, for the swimming pool incident, your punishment is that you're charged of the cleaning of this whole propriety for the ten years to come.
Shirane's mouth hanged open.
'For the ten- ten years to come...'
'Also, you are to resume training Shun when she's back.'
That was the icing on top of the cake.
Thank you for reading!
Glossary
Warube uta - a folksong