Volume 6, Chapter 3: Mai & Illness Magic User

Part 1 (3rd person)

Roppongi, Tokyo.

Perhaps due to the influence of TV, that land itself seemed to have a brand image. Among the many high-rise buildings there, a man used the entire top floor of a fifty-story building as his second home.

His name was Banjou Akira.

He was turning forty-five this year and he was often introduced on TV as a philanthropist. He would donate money on the level of lottery winnings to individuals or groups afflicted with various social problems or that worked to resolve those problems. It could be midsized or small corporations developing caregiving robots, a production company making ads to reduce the number of littered cigarettes, or a housewife giving out food to the homeless.

Every inch of the soundproofed walls of his home theater room was covered in newspaper and magazine clippings and printouts from online articles. They were all praising Banjou. As he smiled gently in the media’s eye, he was actually incredibly concerned about how others viewed him.

Also..

One wall reflected a bright white light. A projector displayed the personal information of murderers and kidnappers who had troubled the world in the past few years. Specifically, they were those who had used a Youkai and thus could not be judged by the law or were reduced to a lower crime that could be judged. Deadly muggings were treated as theft and abductions were treated as deceptive obstruction of business.

A few of the photographs had big red Xs over them.

A cause of death was written next to those ones: a traffic accident during transport, beaten to death in their cell, or an attack from a hornet or poisonous spider.

In the end, he had funded those kinds of actions just as much as his official donations.

Banjou Akira only ever thought about social problems.

And both officially and in secret, he would spare no expense to help anyone who was working to resolve those problems. Even if he ended up taking someone’s life, he felt not a twinge of guilt.

But his fat body tilted sideways in his leather chair. He fell right to the floor. Banjou Akira would never move again and a woman stared down at his unmoving form.

“It’s over.”

Her name was Hishigami Mai. The beautiful woman wore a tank top and hot pants and she used a large satellite cellphone to call the ten year old girl named Hafuri who led Hyakki Yakou.

The small canine Youkai at her feet, the Sunekosuri, was trembling in fear. His teeth had been chattering and he had not been able to speak a word.

“I just dealt with t Shinshou Hitsubatsu’s sponsor. His bank account will be frozen when news of his death gets out, so even if he’s set up automatic transfers, they won’t be getting any more money. I just hope this stops their work.”

“How did you do it?”

“High-quality brandy and sleeping pills. People really need to read the warnings before they use those things. Everyday life is full of dangers.”

“But that’s his second home, isn’t it? Since it’s a celebrity’s secret home, his family isn’t going to find him. Couldn’t it take over a month before he’s found?”

“That’s why I’m calling emergency services on the home phone once I finish speaking with you. I’ll have the corpse hold the receiver and never say a word on the phone. I can mess with the humidifier’s settings to throw off the estimated time of death, so it doesn’t matter that the order was backwards. His body will be found faster than a coin locker baby.”

With that comment, Mai glanced over at the home theater’s screen.

The man must have enjoyed the limelight because he had filled the screen with the photographs that acted as twisted trophies of his targets. One photo in the center was especially large.

The photo was of a ten year old genius girl named Ranzono Sachi.

She was a criminal who had constructed an Oomukade Package on her own. The Youkai-related crime and her young age had made her difficult to charge in court, so she had been a double punch for the justice-obsessed owner of the room.

And currently, she was the top target of an organization named Shinshou Hitsubatsu.

“We will monitor Shinshou Hitsubatsu’s actions,” said Hafuri.

“Sure, sure. But if this doesn’t stop them, the situation might get a little tricky. If it comes to that, maybe I’ll see if I can get his help.”

“I doubt he would help us now.”

“Don’t be so sure. I bet you could convince him right away if you gave him a teary-eyed puppy dog look.”

Mai sounded like she did not really care.

“That Illness Magic User is super easy to understand. I’m sure he’s still running full speed down the path of the fleeing soldier with that gloomy look on his face!”

Part 2 (Illness Magic User)

“Miss, miss! Give me an udon! A kitsune udon!! I’m starving!”

“Oh, my. Should the Inugami Gyoubu tanuki really be ordering kitsune udon? Won’t Osakabe-Hime laugh at you?”

“G-gulp!! N-no! I’m a human, I swear. Look, no tail or anything!”

“Well, you can order whatever you want as long as the money isn’t actually leaves. Here’s your kitsune udon!”

The supplied soy sauce had lost some of its flavor, so I used a type of Illness Magic to ferment it while listening to those energetic voices.

It seemed like everywhere served udon in Shikoku. That wasn’t isolated to Kagawa. If you walked into any restaurant, you were bound to find udon. I wasn’t that picky about cooking or food, but I felt like I had been eating nothing but chilled zaru udon recently.

Some said the texture or the water used was the real heart of udon, but I hadn’t chosen this restaurant for anything like that. Its simple flavor had no noticeable positives, but any unpleasant points had been thoroughly removed. That fit my tastes pretty well.

My Illness Magic did not rely on Youkai. It was born from the stress I created myself. Those “unpleasant points” could do far more damage to one’s internal organs than people thought.

Take this newspaper article for example:

“The water has been cut off throughout Hakata, Fukuoka. Did a mistake in the water purification plant contaminate the water supply?”

Or this TV news report:

“The fire that began yesterday at an Aomori oil reserve site is showing no signs of being extinguished. The government has sent in a hyper rescue squad to assist the local firefighters.”

Or this gossip:

“Hey, miss, had you heard the Shikoku Bridge has been blocked off since morning? Truck accidents sure are scary. And there’s no way to prevent it when the driver has a sudden stroke. Tremble, tremble.”

It didn’t matter whether it had any connection to me or not. I knew it made me a difficult person, but whenever I heard things like that, it filled me with displeasure and shortened my lifespan.

Basically, I was covered in beads of sweat that looked too small for my two meter frame. Even now, I could see a meaningless scowl on my face in the polished table.

So as I did whatever it took to protect my lifespan, people started treating me like a hero. When I started getting a little carried away, the organization named Hyakki Yakou took me in.

Of course, my connection to Hyakki Yakou had already ended.

I had lost anything to guide my life and yet here I was. I had no idea where to go.

“Hi, Illness Magic-chan!! I haven’t seen you since Kyoto, but how’ve you been?”

My thoughts were cut off by a scantily-clad woman plopping down in the seat across from me. To be honest, I felt like this alone took years off my life, but she didn’t seem to care. She looked around the restaurant instead of checking the menu and she stared at the large man who had apparently copied the restaurant worker’s outfit when transforming.

“Oh, a tanuki’s eating kitsune udon. Miss, give me a kitsune udon too!!”

“N-no, I’m a human!! My tail’s hidden and everything!!”

The restaurant worker ignored the rioting tanuki general and carried a bowl over to our table. She then gave the frivolous woman named Hishigami Mai a curious look.

“Sigh, I never would have guessed this guy knew someone so beautiful. Who is he to you?”

“Eh heh☆ What do you think?”

Hishigami Mai smiled and gave a disturbing wink.

The restaurant worker put her hands on her hips.

“Well, it doesn’t really matter as long as he has some kind of friend. This gloomy-looking outsider kept showing up at the same time to eat this plain zaru udon, so rumors are going around he’s here to commit suicide and is trying to build up his resolve.”

She laughed as she left, but the small canine Sunekosuri was spotted as she did. “Miss, I’m afraid of dogs!” “I am not a dog! I am a Sunekosuri, you tanuki!!” “Help!!” The woman had to go calm down the two arguing Youkai.

Now that we were alone, I asked a quiet question.

“Why are you here?”

“If you feel like fighting, wait until after I’ve eaten. Waiting until after you’ve heard what I have to say would be even better.”

Hishigami used her chopsticks to dig into the kitsune udon. I casually observed that she seemed to be the type that saved the fried tofu until the end and she finally looked up again.

“I have a job for you.”

“A job?”

“Yes. But make no mistake here. This job isn’t from me. Hyakki Yakou’s young lady is asking. Interested now?”

“..”

“Well, I’ll drag you into this even if you aren’t.”

She grabbed the bowl in both hands and splendidly gulped down the broth.

“Ever heard of an organization called Shinshou Hitsubatsu? They’re a bunch of assassins that claim they only kill people because they don’t like how Youkai-related crimes aren’t getting judged properly. A few high-level Hyakki Yakou members were taken out by them, so they’re being hunted down for revenge.”

“Then why not get started? Even without me, you still have four of the Top Five. What about the Venom or the Heirloom?”

“Unfortunately, we can’t do it that way. To be blunt, their fighting force is too unique. A straightforward attack isn’t going to cut in. It’s to the point that we want the opinion of someone with a similar job.”

..Don’t tell me.

At my silent urging, Hishigami smiled and continued with a slice of green onion (it had to be intentionally) still stuck to her cheek.

“That’s right. The enemy this time is a Byouki user.. They’re an expert in disease and curses, just like you.”

Silence fell.

A Byouki was a variation of the kodoku created by having poisonous insects kill each other in a jar. That cat Youkai had its origins on the continent and it would possess its target on the command of the user. From there, it would spread the disease and transform the infected into killers.

We were both glaring at each other, but our expressions were polar opposites. The Hishigami woman had a delighted smile on her face. Or was that just how she looked when ready to fight?

“Now, what will you do? Of course, if it comes to a direct fight between Hyakki Yakou and Shinshou Hitsubatsu, Hyakki Yakou can win by force. But the losses would be pretty high. It would be like a group of scissors trying to defeat a rock in a rock-paper-scissors battle. And if Hyakki Yakou’s power is worn down, other hostile organizations might jump at the chance. ..And most importantly, the young lady would look pretty sad if more people died.”

“..”

“Besides, you’re just wandering around without anything to do, right? Did you come to Shikoku for a pilgrimage? Or for a cucumber sealing? Either way, an individual’s power isn’t enough to manage a curse on the level of a grudge that can destroy Kyoto. I think you should let go of your sour grapes, bow down to Hyakki Yakou, and borrow some of their incense.”

Hishigami sounded entirely carefree.

“Also, if a curse of your level was forced onto them, every shrine and temple in the country would be in trouble. I won’t get mad, so tell me the truth. You were the one that nearly destroyed the Togenuki-Jizou at Sugamo, weren’t you? When the young lady went out to inspect it, she bowed down to the chief priest. He was shocked, let me tell you.”

..Nhh.

“Honestly, shaming your master like that would normally be worthy of seppuku, you know? So pay back your debt, umbrella-making ronin! Heh heh heh. You’re not some virgin girl, so you can pay it back with your body!!”

Nhhhh!?

“Almost there, huh? Then I’ll just leave some completely unrelated documents right here!”

Hishigami placed a few A4-sized pieces of copy paper on the table. They seemed to be the results of an investigation into someone, but I didn’t recognize the child in the photograph.

“What is this?”

“Shinshou Hitsubatsu’s primary target at the moment. She’s Ranzono Sachi-chan, ten years old. ..And she’s a criminal involving a Package. Left alone, the Byouki’s disease will attack her first. A group of adults – and professionals at that – will torment her to death.”

“So what? She has nothing to do with me.”

“Don’t even try, samurai. I can tell from here you’re itching to do something. You have approximately three days, but that’s the most you’ll get. If you ignore this, a professional will kill a ten year old girl. Although it’s true she has nothing to do with you.”

She grinned and continued speaking, knowing perfectly well what would reach me the best.

Yes, she had said she would drag me into this.

“I did some research into Ranzono Sachi. She’s a pitiful genius girl who put together a Package on her own and fought back against the entire world to protect the homes of an Oomukade and Tsuchigumo. Oh, but for better or for worse, she apparently hasn’t killed anyone yet. She was stopped before she could.”

“..”

“And the whole deal with the Oomukade and Tsuchigumo’s home smells fishy to me. Sachi-chan was raised in Tokyo, but a Yamanba Package driving old people to a lonely death was active at the time. It’s possible someone messed with that Package to give themselves some secondary income. They just had to turn the hatred toward Youkai.”

“In other words, this Ranzono Sachi would never have strayed from the proper path if not for someone from our industry?”

“Most likely. She was dragged into our industry and now she’ll be killed by it. ..Those are the circumstances Sachi-chan found herself in. So what’ll you do, Mr. Samurai? Wouldn’t it be fun to save the village girl who was manipulated by a misguided revenge story and will now be executed for the crime?”

This was my business. She did have something to do with me. We had dragged her into this.

I silently clenched my teeth while looking at the papers on the table.

“Incidentally, Sachi-chan is being taken from the Intellectual Village named Noukotsu Village and through the neighboring Bozen City on the way to be prosecuted. She’ll probably be attacked on the way. If we knew the exact route being used, it would be easy to kill or protect her, but the world never makes it that easy.”

In other words, she was hoping Bozen City would become a battlefield between my Illness Magic and the Byouki as I hunted down the main fighting force of Shinshou Hitsubatsu.

historical

“Fine.”

A slight sticky sound could be heard.

As soon as a black stain appeared on the papers, they disintegrated and vanished from this world.

“As soon as I confirm this request really is from Hyakki Yakou, I will begin. But if you are lying, I will dispose of you. Got that?”

“Sure. I’ll act as your backup. I’m looking forward to working with you, Illness Magic-chan. Let’s do our best to save Hyakki Yakou and Sachi-chan☆”

Part 3 (Illness Magic User)

The rural Bozen City had developed from a mountain truck depot that supported Noukotsu Village’s mail-order network. It had a population of about one hundred thousand. I arrived by train, shoved some balled-up banknotes in the white feather donation box in front of the station, and received a call on my modified cellphone.

“Welcome to Bozen City, Illness Magic-chan.”

..Is she watching me from somewhere?

I glanced around, but didn’t see anyone like her in the crowd.

“I want to share the bare minimum of information needed to provide backup, so could you at least tell me where you’re going to attack?”

“For Illness Magic, a Byouki, or any other disease-related paranormal power, the targeting is what matters most.

As I slipped a memo containing an extremely simple chemical formula into the hand of a young supporter who had apparently hit a road block in developing an ALS treatment, I walked through the crowd and continued the conversation.

“If they can acquire the location of Ranzono Sachi, they just have to let their disease spread endlessly from a remote location. That means the Byouki user or one of their pawns must be building a personal search system. They’ll be rushing around gathering material for that, so I can capture them if I cut them off. If it’s the user themselves, I’m done. If it’s a subordinate, I just have to get them to talk.”

“In other words, you have to see your target to attack?”

“Of course.”

“Hm? But Illness Magic, wasn’t it said you could fill half of Europe with disease if you wanted to? That seems well beyond what you can see with the naked eye.”

“I had satellite support when I worked for Hyakki Yakou. I had about four hundred of those thirty-centimeter civilian satellites they make in shopping districts anywhere.”

“Ugeh!? You make that sound simple, but that’s even more than America’s GPS network! If I could’ve used that, I would have noticed what was going on at Goldmine Island a hell of a lot faster!!”

“That’s nothing compared to what I could do if I worked with the Venom Clairvoyant of the Top Five. But without any of that support, my abilities are limited.”

I had gotten off topic.

“Anyway, I will pursue Shinshou Hitsubatsu’s extremities and use them to find the head. That’s standard operating procedure.”

“Sure thing. ..But I have on piece of advice for you. Be careful how you handle any prisoners you take. Get careless and they’ll melt away.”

“?”

“I mean that literally. The Byouki person has put something inside their subordinates. I’ve tried threats, negotiation, bribes, and brainwashing, but their body always melts away as soon as they choose betrayal. That’s the real problem that’s kept me from getting any information.”

“I see.”

There were countless types of mold and germs that would grow in the human body. The Trichophyton fungus that causes athlete’s foot is a good example. If they were given an extreme boost with paranormal power, they could become a biological weapon that dissolved the human body to the bone.

“Does that mean you have a list of people you want to interrogate, but can’t do anything with it? Then hand it over. I’ll seal the disease and get them to talk.”

“That’s why I called. I’ll start by giving you the biggest name on the list, as far as I know. They probably have some important information, so I was afraid of making them melt.”

“Who is it?”

“A well-known person. Ever heard of the Arson Thief?”

Part 4 (3rd person)

The young woman may or may not have reached twenty yet. She had straight blonde hair long enough to reach her waist, thin-lensed glasses that gave her an intellectual appearance, a tight-skirted dress colored rouge red, and stockings with a black garter belt. The outfit resembled a suit, yet she looked nothing like a productive member of society. Even a flashy announcer would hesitate before standing in front of the camera in that.

She was the Arson Thief.

She was sitting in a window-side seat on the second floor of an Italian restaurant while speaking with someone on her cellphone.

“Yes, yes. It’s all going according to plan. Ah ha ha. It’s already on the news? Don’t worry. All the evidence will end up as ashes or charcoal. The police and firefighters won’t be able to tell what was stolen there.”

Simply put, she provided supplies for the organization named Shinshou Hitsubatsu.

She would gather anything needed for a job. And she would do so safely. She was very careful to make sure she never handed over something that could be traced and land her comrades in trouble.

“If you want to lose pursuit, going over the top is actually better. A half-assed attempt at hiding the evidence will only leave more for them to find. Even if this ends up like one of the great fires of Edo, they can’t track us down if they can’t find anything.”

She was that kind of thief.

She would break in, kill, steal, start a fire, and escape. She specialized in one of the greatest criminal occupations that had been especially hated and despised for three hundred years.

“Once we have what I’m here for, we can search for Ranzono Sachi’s location. Even if she’s a minor, we can’t allow an acquittal when a Youkai was involved. Afterwards, you take care of the rest with your disease, Byouki. Just like always.”

The Arson Thief showed no sign of noticing the contradiction of committing a crime to punish a crime or using a Youkai to defeat a target who had protected Youkai.

In the end, that was the sort of organization Shinshou Hitsubatsu was.

After hanging up, she put her cellphone in her handbag. In its place, she pulled out a device larger than an SLR camera and placed it on the table. It was an electric circular saw that looked horribly out of place with her suit that was colored the red of a sports car. The saw’s exterior was pink, so it was oddly humorous.

“Hm? Oh, some of the teeth have come off. Is it about time for some new ones?”

She traced her glove-covered fingertips across the edge and slowly stood from her seat. After looking around the empty restaurant, her eyes stopped on one corner in particular.

There, a pitiful family of three lay on the floor with their arms, legs, and mouth tied or covered with duct tape.

Again and again, the second year middle school girl named Sakashita Sou blankly asked herself how this could have happened.

Her father was a chef. He had moved to Italy to train and had returned to Japan after finally earning that title. She had often been lonely when her whole family could not come to her sports festivals and parents’ days at school, but she had still rooted for her father’s dream. When he had celebrated like a child after finding a way to raise the money he needed to start his own restaurant, she had smiled and known she had made the right decision. Today, she and her mother had come before opening day to inspect the restaurant and be served as the very first guests.

So how had this happened?

“Sorry about this, but my paranormal powers lose their luster without some periodic maintenance to my tools. So I like to have some parts in reserve just in case. And this gives me an impromptu hideout, so that’s two birds with one stone.”

The woman in a red dress lifted her brutal circular saw. The pink weapon almost seemed comical. Even with their arms and legs bound, Sakashita Sou’s parents lay on top of her to protect her. For a moment, she thought she was going to be chopped to pieces by the power tool like a scene from a gruesome horror movie, but she was wrong. A closer look revealed the truth.

Specifically, a closer look at the circular saw’s teeth.

The round metal edge was covered in actual human teeth.

“W-wah!? Mghah!! Mghoh!!!???”

Five or ten teeth were not going to cut it. There were at least ten times that many. How many people had been sacrificed to create and maintain a tool like that? And that maintenance was held periodically and constantly. Sakashita Sou felt like her view of the world was being fried.

The beautiful woman placed a metal set of pliers on the table and smiled.

“Don’t worry. I’ll keep you alive until I’ve pulled them all out. It’s like blood donations. The materials have an expiration date. I’ll just take one at a time and, once I’ve taken them all, I won’t need you anymore.”

“..!?”

“Oh, don’t worry about this place. No matter how much evidence is splattered around, I can just burn it all away at the end. You can’t take the police’s forensic investigations lightly, but if you get all the important bits and manage the furnace properly, the heat will wipe everything clean.”

They would be used like a flowerbed to grow teeth, their teeth would be pulled one at a time as parts for this woman’s tool, and once their teeth were gone, they would be chopped into little pieces and disposed of.

And the restaurant her father had dreamed of since he was a child and that had received his family’s support would be burned down to complete this woman’s system.

(Why..?)

Sakashita Sou understood all that, but she could no longer feel anger.

The overwhelming sense of unfairness and fear drowned out all else. Even if she was ashamed at herself for yielding, she could not stop the very core of her body from trembling in the face of this madwoman.

(Why is this happening!?)

Her repetition of that unanswerable question was proof that she had stopped thinking. She and her family’s situation was simply that hopeless. They had no way of breaking free and no help was coming. But she could not bear to accept that simple fact, so her thoughts entered a meaningless infinite loop.

But then, she heard a loud noise.

The door to the stairs was forced open and a young man flew in like a bullet.

The Arson Thief narrowed her eyes slightly.

The man was one of the guards she had placed around the restaurant. He bounced along the floor a few times like a ball, plowed through the chairs and tables in the way, slid past the woman in the red dress, and finally stopped after crashing into the window.

Had he been punched or kicked?

Next, a large, gloomy man stepped in and glared at the Arson Thief.

“Who are you?” she asked.

“At the very least, I’m not the same as you.”

That was all he said.

As soon as the man grabbed a charm between two fingers, something like a pitch black mist erupted from his entire body. It swirled around, but before it could take concrete form and attack, the Arson Thief used her thumb to flick the switch for her human tooth circular saw.

A tremendous roar burst out. She slammed the blade against a nearby table and orange sparks cascaded out.

A moment later, the sparks absorbed something and flames swelled explosively outwards. No, this was not a mere fire. It may have been a deluge of red-hot melted metal. The mysterious hellfire devoured the oxygen in the air as it surged toward the large man and swallowed him whole.

“Are you a disease-type like the Byouki?”

The Arson Thief mocked the newly-made human torch. She then attached a heart-shaped carabiner to the grip of her pink circular saw and attached a synthetic fiber leash to that. She swung it around. The ferocious morning star whooshed around as it tore into the floor, walls, ceiling, and furniture. Each time it hit something, sparks would burst out, producing further scorching hellfire from a variety of angles. The orange flood rushed in from every direction.

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