Volume 2, 4: ??? @ The One Who Covers Up a God(1/5)
Part 1 (Jinnai Shinobu)
I need to head toward cover. I need to head toward somewhere with plenty of places to hide behind and protect myself.
Fleeing toward the mountain with that in mind may have been a mistake. I was being led toward an area with no people where illegal violence could be employed without issue.
What is going on?
How could this happen?
I was in the Intellectual Village known as Noukotsu Village. Packages involving Youkai would occasionally happen here, but it was still an easier place to live than the city. That remained true even if the rural scenery was faked by various types of technology.
And yet...
“Shinobu!!”
I heard my uncle’s shout make its way through the gaps of the forest’s trees.
But I did not respond. I couldn’t!
Several people were tied up in this messed up situation, but each person’s survival was based on the same condition: To survive, you must kill one of the other participants. It was a simple, clear, and unavoidable rule. Both my uncle and myself had been closed in by that framework.
In other words...
My uncle and I were destined to try to kill each other.
And when it came down to pure violence, a normal high school student like me did not stand a chance against a professional police detective like my uncle. He likely outdid me in pure unarmed combat, but he might also have a handgun.
I could not trust anyone.
Given the situation, we could no longer work together.
However...
I still did not want to kill my uncle and the others. My mind stubbornly worked to find a way to get around the rules, find a loophole, or otherwise reach a conclusion where no one had to die.
But then...
The true disaster that arrived was enough to make me forget all about the rest of the horrible situation.
“Shinobu!! Don’t go that way! She’s coming!!”
I had forgotten to wonder why my uncle would be calling for me in this situation of mutual suspicion. When I thought about it, letting the others know his position in this thick forest would only put him at a disadvantage.
And then something happened.
A sound exploded out from my body as if something solid had been knocked out of place.
I had been struck from behind. I tried to turn around, but my head would not turn like I told it to. I twisted my waist around while lying collapsed on the grassy-smelling dirt and managed to roll onto my back. Only then did I catch a glimpse of who had attacked me.
It was a woman with the sort of Japanese paper used for calligraphy forcibly pasted all over her body. She was like a monster created by spell words congealed into a human form. Something had been skillfully written on the Japanese paper with black ink, but the papers were so crumpled up to perfectly match the lines of the woman’s body that the words were distorted.
I could not read what was written on them.
I somehow managed to squeeze out a voice while barely breathing at all.
“...Hishigami...Mai...?”
If that monster was taking part in this killing game where blood was washed away with blood, then it was much too obvious who would win in the end.
This paper-covered Hishigami Mai crouched down as if to peer at my face. Her hands reached out for my neck. I tried to twist my body around to escape, but I could no longer move properly.
She mercilessly brought her hands in as if to strangle a chicken.
And then my heart literally stopped beating.
Part 2 (Uchimaku Hayabusa)
After finally getting a day off, I visited an indoor fishing pond that had opened in Ikebukuro. Even when I had lived in Noukotsu Village, I had preferred playing by the river instead of the mountain.
The fishing pond’s greatest feature was its large tank for migratory fish that functioned like a lazy river at a water park. The pond’s tagline was “the leisure spot where you can catch a bluefin tuna”. The tank ran through a donut-shaped circuit in a building the size of fair-sized aquarium and the customers paid to fish in it.
The reception area was one floor below and the inside of the tank could be seen through tempered glass. The tuna I could see swimming through it were only about 70 cm, but they still technically qualified as a small type of bluefin tuna.
According to the smiling receptionist girl, “If they were any larger than this, normal fishers would have difficulty catching them. Even if you are wearing gloves, there would be a danger of losing a finger to the line.”
Any tuna you caught would be prepared for you in the facility’s restaurant and (if you were willing to pay) you could still eat tuna if you did not catch one, so I had not eaten anything despite this being my day off. As I drank some vegetable juice to tide over my empty stomach, I rented a fairly thick fishing pole and some spear squid for bait and headed in for the challenge.
“Hey, detective.”
“What? Why are you here even on my day off, mystery freak? Don’t you know that people need to periodically perform maintenance on and refresh their minds?”
“Heh heh heh. Now I get a fishing pond date with you. ...But what’s with that vegetable juice? Aren’t you drinking that as an excuse rather than for your health or its nutrients? Are you trying to look good?”
“Shut up. Let me enjoy my time alone.”
“C’mon, detective. They may be small, but these are bluefin tuna. Do you really think you can eat one all on your own if you catch it? Look around you. It’s nothing but families and couples.”
“Shut up! It really hurts if you point it out!! I didn’t expect it to be like this before I got here!! I thought fishing was a man’s pastime. How casual has it gotten!?”
“Oh, look at your pole, detective. Something’s tugging really hard.”
That was a fishing pond for you. I frantically grabbed the fishing pole that was beginning to bend like a bow. Of course, the reel was electric and had a specialized program installed and a young instructor lady came running over when she saw I had caught something, so I did not actually need any real strength or skill to battle the tuna.
As the instructor reached for the fishing pole from behind me and gave me some literally hands on advice, the mystery freak glared at her.
“This system is not suited for couples. I just hope I don’t hear any of the same rumors as from those parks and amusement parks with famous ponds.”
As I ignored her nonsense and battled the tuna (or rather, enjoyed a recreation of battling it), something huge burst from the surface of the water with a splashing noise.
“Hyah!?” shouted the instructor woman in surprise.
She grabbed onto me from behind for some reason and the look in the mystery freak’s eyes grew even sharper.
I was surprised too.
But not because I had caught an unexpectedly large tuna.
This was not even a fish.
Hanging from the line was a girl wearing a short kimono and hagoromo who looked like something from an ancient picture book.
“G-gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?” I cried out as if I had done something horrible.
The girl in question’s expression did not change despite having a thick fishing hook in her mouth with her entire weight pressing down on it. She remained perfectly expressionless.
Wait...
“She isn’t bleeding? Wait, the hook isn’t even piercing her mouth?”
“Oh? She isn’t human,” said the mystery freak as if remembering something. “She’s a Youkai...or rather, a manmade Shikigami. I don’t know too much about that, so I couldn’t tell you how it works. But what I do know is she belongs to my sister. She’s the Deadly Dragon Princess.”
“She’s Mai’s?” I said in confusion.
The Deadly Dragon Princess gave little reaction. She simply swayed back and forth while hanging from the end of the fishing pole with the spear squid in her mouth. And for some reason she made the V-sign with both hands while still perfectly expressionless.
“But this is odd,” said the mystery freak.
“Everything about this is odd. I can’t think of a single thing about this that isn’t odd.”
“That’s not what I mean. My sister has a habit of saying she has 100% lost if she has to use the Deadly Dragon Princess.”
That monster woman said that?
I had never sensed the slightest weakness from Hishigami Mai, so I could not imagine her ever facing a situation she could not handle.
“It’s twue,” added the Deadly Dragon Princes while being dragged up onto land by the electric reel.
She had likely meant “true”, but she was talking while chewing on the squid.
It was raw and still had its guts inside, so she was quite the wild “person”.
Eventually, the Deadly Dragon Princess spat something out like used gum. It was the powerful hook used to land 200 kilogram tunas, but it had been horribly crushed.
“Detective, the hook is tied into a bow.”
“Now that’s a powerful kiss I want to avoid at all costs.”
The Deadly Dragon Princess ignored our exchange and spoke with the expression of someone following a program.
“Hishigami Mai has lost. I have been instructed to pass on an emergency message.”
“She lost...?”
“Yes.”
“What are you supposed to tell us?”
“It is quite simple.” With no change of expression, the Deadly Dragon Princess grabbed another spear squid from the cooler I had rented. “After she lost to them, an organization known as Akki Rasetsu took control of Hishigami Mai’s physical body. She has become their puppet to use as a weapon. If you wish to save her, you must head to the Intellectual Village known as Noukotsu Village.”
I sighed and covered my face in my hands. While looking over at the Deadly Dragon Princess who was eating my squid without permission, the mystery freak revealed an unnecessary piece of trivia.
“That’s your hometown, isn’t it, detective?”
“Why do you know my personal information?”
Part 3 (???)
A certain rest stop was located near an ordinary rural city.
The area’s economy had fallen into a slump so the public transportation facilities such as buses and trains had declined. This naturally made private automobiles a necessity to live in the area. Nothing could be seen but long runway-like stretches of road that naturally obstructed travel and further stagnated the economy. The stereotypical cycle of decline had kicked in.
An old black foreign car was parked at one end of a parking lot large enough to hold a soccer match on. It was a famous car from the ‘60s known as a Hitman Tuxedo, but a car like that would violate the exhaust standards if it was used as is on public roads. For that reason, the inner workings had been remade into a sanitary hybrid car. This was another of the classics businesses that also gave new life to old houses. The president of the custom workshop had claimed it took a lot of doing to produce such a deep noise of exhaust from such a thin engine. He had said the experience made him feel like an expert craftsman of brass instruments.
A man and a woman sat within the car.
The woman had her hair tied to either side of her head and was wearing a pink camisole, hot pants, and jacket. She was named Saijou. The muscular man had a blonde pompadour, wore a tank top and work pants, and had his shirt wrapped around his waist. His name was Nanjou.
Saijou Ai and Nanjou Kakeru were the two new leaders of Akki Rasetsu after they had taken control of the organization from the old leaders.
And...
A human sized piece of luggage was lying in the leg space of the backseat.
“Toujou-san is dead.”
“Yes, he is.”
One portion of the blue sky was blocked out by a long, narrow trail of smoke as if from a chimney. But in reality, this black smoke was coming from the remains of the prisoner transport vehicle carrying Toujou. It had been blown to smithereens while travelling along the highway.
They had not wanted to use something as flashy as a bomb in a country like Japan, but the vehicle had been armored. Anything that could be disguised as a natural accident would have no guarantee of killing their target.
While sitting in the left-side driver’s seat, Saijou nervously tapped her index finger on the steering wheel.
“And Houjou-san was hung from a tree after his project in Kyoto failed.”
“Does it really matter?”
“What do you mean?”
“Nature will decide the size of the organization. This is no different than how smaller groups of friends naturally form within a school. Those old idiots tried to expand the size of the organization to achieve their objectives, but they went too far. That causes internal rifts and makes it hard to come to agreement over anything. If you radicalize around a single objective, it is only natural for the organization to be automatically trimmed.”
“Eh? Then the same goes for Toujou-san and Houjou-san?”
“Both of those were accidents, but the organization would have grown more condensed either way. In fact, regulating the number of people will improve the purity of our focus on a single goal. ...We had become fat and bloated like Hyakki Yakou. They have 100 members at the level of leaders alone, which is just stupid. And I hear not even a third of them can even use the occult.”
“I see,” said Saijou with a less than satisfied expression.
She did think a problem existed as far as the percentages were concerned, but that was still 30 people who could wield the occult on a level feared as a natural disaster and with an exclusive shrine constructed toward suppressing their power. Even by the standards of their field of work, having that many of such people gathered in one group was not normal.
But she changed the subject instead of pursuing that further.
“What should we do next?”
“Houjou was an idiot who couldn’t even protect himself, but he did give us an interesting report. He found some interesting Youkai we can use in the Intellectual Village known as Noukotsu Village.”
“I kind of liked Houjou-san.”
“Well, you both work in similar ways. Not to mention that you managed to make Hishigami Mai your own after picking her up injured in Kyoto. He was the one that did that damage, so you should at least thank him. Not that it has anything to do with me.” Nanjou looked in the rearview mirror to observe the backseat. “Speaking of which, is this really safe?”
“Mai-chan will be just fine. Her entire body is bound by Kosode no Te.”
“That’s a kimono Youkai that curses anyone who wears it, right?”
“Exactly. I made plenty of copies of one and attached them all over Mai-chan. The controller is running properly, so there is nothing to worry about.” Saijou casually turned the conversation back on track. “So what are we going to do? Should we head to that Intellectual Village Houjou-san visited?”
“Well, if we find the Youkai he spotted, we should be able to assemble what we have been hoping for.”
Saijou spread out a paper map to check on the location of Noukotsu Village. She did not use a convenient GPS system because she did not want a third party using it to track their location. This hybrid Hitman Tuxedo was not a rental car or stolen car she was willing to abandon.
“Oh, right,” said Saijou Ai as she looked at the map like a father reading the newspaper at the breakfast table.
Nanjou Kakeru frowned and asked, “What?”
“You said those old men, Houjou-san, and Toujou-san were purged in the automatic adjustments to the optimal size for the organization, right?”
“What about it?”
“In that case, isn’t it a bit odd for Akki Rasetsu to have two leaders left? It seems to me just the Saijou group or just the Nanjou group would be enough.”
historical
“...”
“...”
The sound of something soft being crushed exploded out within the car.
Saijou Ai pulled out a sleeping bag, stuffed a human-sized mass inside, and threw it into the backseat.
She then said, “It’s getting a bit crowded back there, but bear with it, Mai-chan.”
That famous ‘60s car called the Hitman Tuxedo let out its low rumbling one could feel in the gut as it left the rest stop’s large parking lot. The black foreign car smoothly began its journey to the Intellectual Village known as Noukotsu Village.
Part 4 (Jinnai Shinobu)
Noukotsu Village is a bit of an ominous name, isn’t it?[1]
That thought about my hometown came to me thanks to a slightly belated summer greeting postcard. It had come via ridiculously expensive airmail.
Couldn’t they just send an email?
Oddly enough, the postcard was addressed to the Succubus rather than the Jinnai household. It just outright had “Succubus” written on it. And the sender was...unknown. It just had a weird string of numbers in that field.
At any rate, I made my way up to the attic and asked the micro bikini-wearing demon.
She smiled and replied, “It’s from an old friend. She’s an old demon, so she likes old systems. Of course this is an age where quantum computers could soon be a reality, so I’m amazed she thinks a simple numerical replacement for the letters would be enough to hide her true name. ...But I wonder how she figured out I’m here.”
“Hm. So who is she?”
“Tselika Wien Alpha Chely-...wait, stop that! Asking for a demon’s name will not end well for you. This is no fairy tale!”
It seemed the world of demons had its own problems. There was no point in asking further, so I quickly changed the subject.
“So where is this picture from?”
“A place not far from Paris. They have some wonderful catacombs there...”
The Succubus looked spellbound with the idea, but I was not entirely sure what catacombs were.
After reading the text, she handed the postcard back to me in disinterest. I walked down the long hallway and to the western style living room where I found the glamorous Zashiki Warashi lying on the floor watching TV with the Yuki Onna. There was a TV in her room as well, but it was hard to resist the draw of this larger screen.
They seemed to be watching a rerun of a quiz show.
“The topic is Australia’s circular farms. These green plains look quite mysterious in the middle of the vast desert. Now for your question. What percentage of the world’s wheat is grown on them!? You have three possible answers and those of you at home can play along with your terrestrial digital remote controls!!”
I tossed the postcard into a postcard storage box no one used much anymore. As I did, the overall flat Yuki Onna spoke to me expressionlessly.
“Listen to this. They’re horrible. They’re all so horrible...”
“What happened?”
“They have been using the remote to take part in the quiz game, but they won’t let me have a turn.”
“Isn’t this a rerun?”
“And that untidy Youkai lying there always says the answer right before the host does...”
“Like I said, it’s a rerun.”
But what fun is it to watch a quiz show if you know all the answers already?
“The answer is the biggest option: 25%! Surprising, isn’t it? But the people of Australia think it is not enough. There are a some problems such as cyclones and an outbreak of locusts, but with some help from Japanese technology...”
The Zashiki Warashi must have grown tired of teasing the Yuki Onna because she made me her new target.
“Shinobu, I want a popsicle.”
“What?”
“Carry me.”
I had no choice but to take that indoor Youkai to the kitchen by rolling her along the floor like a metal drum tipped on its side. This did some interesting things to the hem and collar of her Yukata, but she did not seem to mind showing off that much skin.
She calmly said, “We just can’t win with numbers alone, can we?”
“Are you talking about Australia? They use large scale farming where the seeds are sown from an airplane. A country like this where you have a hard time finding land where the horizon is visible has no chance of winning. Due to the race for the lowest prices, the beef, rice, and onions in the gyudon you buy will probably all come from Australia.”
However, it was hard to manually manage such vast amounts of farmland, so I had heard they would rent a farming infrastructure with technicians included that used precision equipment made in Japan and Korea. This created a strange situation where the Japanese were importing crops grown by other Japanese in foreign countries.
After complaining that the Zashiki Warashi got a yogurt despite saying she had wanted a popsicle, my overall small granny entered the kitchen.
“Shinobu, Shinobu.”
“What is it, granny?”
“I think there are more trees in the yard than usual.”
“...What?”
“I do not really understand, but it might be a Youkai.”
I was not sure what she meant, so I had her and the Zashiki Warashi wait in the kitchen while I headed for the yard.
I put on a pair of beach sandals and stepped off of the long porch.
“What is this giant tropical looking tree?”
There was indeed an extra tree. It was obviously a different type of plant from those around it and it was growing right in the middle of the small path between the parking spot and the yard, so it could not have been more in the way. Anyone would notice a tree growing here.
This out-of-place feeling and strange sense of caution I felt for an unfamiliar plant likely came from living in an Intellectual Village. Just as stocking a river with black bass could destroy the river’s ecosystem, a living thing that did not fit the village’s colors was a scary thing.
And then some cat-sized creature poked its head out from behind the mysterious tropical tree.
But the creature’s face was oddly stern.
“Good day. I am Shisa.”
“Eh? Shisa!?”
“This Chinese banyan tree is Kijimuna. He is my friend.”
“Wait, wait! Let’s go through this one at a time. Is a Shisa even a Youkai? I thought the term Shisa referred to the statues themselves and not some creature they were modeled after. Y’know, like the Komainu at a Shinto shrine.”
It was also possible this was technically not a Shisa but a Tsukumogami of a Shisa statue, but I had no way of knowing which it was.
However, the Shisa did not seem the type to listen to what people said.
“I am from Okinawa, so I have never seen snow. I heard from some travelling Youkai that I could find a Yuki Onna if I came here. Have her make it snow.”
“Hey! What the hell happened to our household’s privacy!?”
“Here is some awamori as a gift. Give it to your parents. ...It is not for children, okay?”
Having said that, the Shisa (?) jumped up onto the porch and entered the house without permission. He was so bold about it that I let it happen without thinking.
After being left behind, I looked up at that tree that was a type of mangrove.
“If you’re a proper Youkai, you won’t mess with the ecosystem of the normal plants around here...will you?”
The branches shook, making a rustling noise, but I did not know if that was a yes or no.
“At any rate, you’re kind of in the way here, so could you head further back in the yard while you wait?”
After more rustling, it began moving. But rather than walking on legs, the movement was more like all of its roots were snakes.
It may have gotten into a turf war with the Furutsubaki in the back of the yard because it began that odd rustling again. (By the way, the Furutsubaki would occasionally transform into a beautiful woman, but it was not the type that killed people. My Youkai-loving mom hand picked it up from somewhere.) But before I could focus on the two Youkai trees, I heard a commotion coming from the thatch-roof house.
In fact, the Yuki Onna ran out barefoot into the yard with Xs for eyes.
“Wh-what is this all of a sudden!? You’re making everything too hot!! I don’t know who you are, but I think we are horribly incompatible!!”
“I am Shisa.”
“I was not asking for your name!”
“I want to make an igloo. Make it snow.”
The Shisa (?) continued to not listen to anything anyone said as the Yuki Onna scurried over to cling to me.
“P-please do something about him!!” she begged me.
Yeah...
But...
“Apparently, he’s never seen snow before, so he came here all the way from Okinawa. Can’t you at least make it snow for him?”
“Kh... By any chance do you have a fetish for being NTRed away from people? A-and an animal fetish...?”
It seemed the Yuki Onna had made an incredibly rude misunderstanding, but she was in no state to be corrected while she was being chased around by that symbol of summer. She was running around the yard with the hem of her white kimono trailing along the ground behind her.
If she really can’t stand being around him, I need to create a way for them to talk this out...
But as soon as I had that thought, my cell phone rang. This was a brand new model because my old one had broken after being soaked in water.
“Eh? What do you need, uncle?”
After a short exchange, I frowned.
“I see. So you’re on your way here?”
Part 5 (Uchimaku Hayabusa)
Unfortunately, there was no way I had any paid leave left.
However, the Shikigami sent by Hishigami Mai did not care in the slightest about the problems of a working man.
“Please begin searching for Hishigami Mai right away. If you do not, I will kill you,” said the Deadly Dragon Princess bluntly.
No matter how unreasonable this seemed, I had no chance if it came down to a competition of physical strength. And I could hardly go into work with that Deadly Dragon Princess tagging along 24/7. I was ultimately forced to lie and say my wounds from the Jinmensou case had reopened.
Of course, I didn’t have any paid sick days left either, so this was eating away at my already low pay.
At any rate, I travelled to Noukotsu Village.
As I stepped out onto the platform of the village’s one unmanned train station, I looked up at the midsummer sun and grimaced.
“...So I’ve come back here yet again.”
The first problem facing me was the combination of having a lot of luggage and the station’s lack of a bus stop or taxi loading area. However, I had called Shinobu ahead of time, so the real question was who would be sent to meet me. My older brother was a man who focused 100% on his work, so he would never leave his brewing facility. With any luck, my old man would come pick me up in his car, but...
“Well, there’s not much chance of that happening. I guess I’ll just walk to the house.”
“S-so I will finally get to greet your parents, detective!?”
“What are you doing here, mystery freak?”
The girl-shaped Deadly Dragon Princess was clinging to my back and silently eating some squid snacks, but I had not noticed Enbi until she had spoken to me on the platform. Had she tailed me like a true mystery f-->>