by Unknown
The beings outside recoiled in terror and jumped back into the shadows, but I could finally see them clearly.
They looked like a bunch of average teenagers dressed in navy blue private school uniforms, but I wasn't going to be fooled again.
The creature who pressed his face to the window resembled a short middle school student with large eyes and an afro. He was anxiously hopping from one foot to the other like he desperately needed to use the bathroom.
The first guy I heard outside was a tall high school student with short brown hair and oversized glasses which slipped down his nose. He quickly pushed them back up, but they just fell down again as soon as he moved his hand away. He seemed like the sort of nerdy guy who would spend his days tapping away at a computer.
The second guy looked taller and older than me with curly dark hair, and he was even more obsessed with his phone than Taisei. Instead of jumping into the shadows with everyone else, he just used his hand to shade his screen from the porch light and continued pressing the buttons on his phone like there was no tomorrow.
The last student was a small pale sickly looking girl with long messy black hair and several holes in her clothes. She was nervously biting her nails, and she kept frantically looking back and forth between us like a hyperactive squirrel.
"You guys,” said Nina's brother.
"You know these guys?" I asked.
"Yeah, they're the noobs from the East Branch," said Taisei.
"Who are you calling a noob?" Cried the guy with the afro in a high pitched voice which could rival Souta. "We've been training just as long as you have."
“They’re trainee exorcists just like us Daisuke,” said Nina. “They train at another shrine near here.”
"So you've finally come to admit who's the better exorcist," said Taisei while leaning against the doorframe.
Itsuki coughed.
"I mean who are the better exorcists," said Taisei.
“Well if it isn’t Taisei,” said the guy on his phone who I assumed must have been their leader. "Long time no snapchat."
“Raisei,” said Taisei casually.
“Nice phone you have,” said Raisei. “That’s gotta be like what, six months old at least right?”
“I’m going to kill you!” Cried Taisei as he lunged forward to attack the other teenager. He had to be held back by Nina and Itsuki.
"Itsuki," nodded the guy with the large glasses as he pushed them back up his nose again.
"Yu," Itsuki nodded back.
“Hairi,” said Souta to the guy with the afro.
“I need to use the bathroom now!” Screamed Hairi. He pushed past us all and dashed into headquarters.
“Where were you guys when the fox monster attacked?” Asked Kurumi and she crossed her arms. “I heard that you were supposed to come as backup.”
“I’m sorry, but not all of us have the time to help others,” said Raisei.
“Yeah," said Yu. “We were all too busy helping ourselves.”
“Stabby, stabby stabby,” said the girl with the long black hair. She crouched on the ground and continuously stabbed the dirt with a small twig.
“Ah guys, what’s up with this chick?” I asked nervously.
“Just ignore Toni,” said Raisei while playing Tetris on his phone. “Her family was murdered by Obake in front of her as a child. She’s been that way ever since.”
“What! That’s terrible,” I exclaimed.
“Yeah,” said Raisei. “She doesn’t even come from an exorcist family, or have any spiritual powers, they just let her join because she enjoys killing things.”
“Hey, but you all told me that you needed to have spiritual power to join the organization?” I asked my friends.
“No we didn’t,” said Kurumi.
“You must have misheard us,” added Kiyori.
Even Souta was in on the action. “You must have gotten us mistaken with some other exorcists,” he said before Taisei quickly elbowed him in the ribs.
“What are you four doing here? Shouldn’t you be at the East Branch?” Asked Taisei in an attempt to change the conversation.
“Do you think we’d be here if we didn’t have to be?" Said Raisei. "We came to talk to Akito."
“It’s urgent!” Called Hairi from the bathroom down the hall.
“And what makes you think we’re going to let you in,” said Taisei.
“Because some crazy monster just murdered our teacher and kicked us out of our territory,” said Raisei.
“Sayaka go bye bye,” said Toni and she burst out into tears.
“What do you mean?” Asked Nina’s brother. “There’s no way that Sayaka would go down without a fight.”
“Well, there was a fight and now she’s gone,” snapped Raisei. “So can you just let us in already!”
I saw Nina’s brother’s face turn pale. He moved away from the door and beckoned for them to come in. Taisei opened his mouth to say something, but Mana stomped on his foot and he suddenly went silent.
Akito and Hugo were still sound asleep so I had to go wake them up. Akito’s age must have been bothering him, because I found my teacher sound asleep with cucumbers over his eyes and meditation music plugged into his ears. Akito argued that it was to help him deal with stress, but I had no idea what an old guy like Akito had to worry about.
We gathered in the kitchen once everyone was awake and watched Raisei, Yu, Toni and Hairi devour our left-overs like they hadn’t been fed in days.
“Maybe it’s all a scam so that they can eat our food,” hissed Taisei to Mana.
“Shut up,” said Mana. “There’s no way they'd lie about their teacher dying.”
“Really? Don’t you remember my sixth birthday party?” Retorted Taisei.
“Yes,” said Mana. “But that time he lied about his goldfish not his teacher. You guys probably just don’t get along because the two of you have so much in common."
“Are you joking,” Taisei hissed back. “There isn’t a single thing that Raisei and I have in common, the nerve of that guy. Ever since we were kids, that guy hasn't missed a single opportunity to make himself look better than me.”
“Nice pajamas you have there Taisei,” said Raisei in the middle of nibbling on a chicken wing. “I think my sister used to also own a pair.”
“Why you!” Taisei jumped out of his chair and tried to climb over the table to get to Raisei, but his sister and Nina’s brother grabbed him around the waist and held him back.
“This isn’t the time for fighting!” Said Nina's brother as he struggled to keep Taisei from strangling Raisei.
I thought Raisei himself wasn’t in the position to insult other people’s appearances. His uniform was stained with dirt, and twigs and leaves were poking out from Toni and Hairi’s hair. It wasn’t difficult to believe that they’d spent hours hiking through the mountains in the dark.
“Aw, I have to go pee again,” said Hairi as he anxiously fidgeted in his seat.
“Didn’t you just go? Can’t you hold it?” Asked Nina’s brother. “You’ll never make it as an exorcist if you continue on like this.”
“Don’t make him even more anxious,” said Yu. “You should have seen the last time someone did that. I never knew that one human being could hold so much water.”
“I need to use the bathroom!” Screamed Hairi as he jumped from his chair and dashed out of the room.
“Enough eating already,” said Taisei and he banged his fists down on the table. “Tell us why you’re here!”
"Taisei, that's not the way we talk to guests," said Akito. He then turned to Raisei and Yu. "We would appreciate it very much if you could tell us what happened to Sayaka."
Raisei put down his chicken wing and wiped his mouth with his sleeve. "It all happened when we got back from school," he said. "Yu and I were outside training, Toni was building a sand castle, and Hairi was probably in the bathroom. This crazy guy and his minions suddenly showed up out of nowhere. We'd heard all about this dude from Sayak
a and the main branch guys, but we never thought he’d come target us. Sayaka completely freaked and tried to take him alone. I always thought that nothing could kill her, but it was over so soon. He.. He ...He.," said Raisei as he struggled to continue. "He completely ripped her to pieces."
Toni suddenly began sobbing again, and Yu grimly lowered his head. Hairi slowly returned from the bathroom. He took a seat next to Toni and began sadly patting her on the back.
“He said that we had to deliver a message if we wanted to live,” continued Raisei. “He said that we have to tell all exorcists that the Raccoon King is coming for them."
Just hearing that name sent chills down my spine, but Kiyori burst out laughing.
“So you’re basically saying that you were kicked out of your territory by a guy calling himself the king of raccoons?” Laughed Kiyori.
“This isn’t funny!” Cried Raisei as he slammed his fist on the table. “He said that he's going to be the next king of all monsters. He killed our teacher and even we had no way to beat him!”
“He said he’d give us one chance to flee, or tomorrow night he will come eat us all,” said Yu.
“So you ran?” Asked Kurumi.
“What else are we supposed to do,” said Raisei. “We’re all still just training. Yu’s only good with books, Toni’s insane, and Hairi can't last more than twenty minutes without a bathroom. What chance do we have against some all-powerful monster? Running was the only thing we could do,” he sadly muttered.
“This isn’t fair,” said Yu while shaking in rage. “What I wouldn’t give to have a go at this creep.”
“Don’t worry,” said Nina kindly. “I’m sure that the organization’s best agents will get him soon.”
“You don’t understand,” said Yu. “He’s different from any of the Obake that I’ve read about. He could be worse than the fox monsters, the wolf monsters, or any other S-rank monster you've ever heard about.”
“And the evidence is right here,” said Raisei. He slid his phone across the table for everyone to see.
I leaned over to get a better look at the screen. The picture on his phone showed a large human like monster. He was wearing a strange mask which looked like a skull with bird feathers sticking out from the sides like a lion's mane. Only the lower half of his face was visible, and he was smiling so brightly that his sharp white teeth looked like they were glowing. He was also dressed in an assortment of animal furs which were badly sewn together and stained with blood.
Surrounding him were several furry half human half raccoon Obake. They had painted their faces white to match their boss, and they kind of looked like regular people with fur and claws. But the most surprising part of the picture was Raisei, Hairi, and Yu who were smiling and making peace signs in front of the monsters. Toni was the only one who looked like she was trying to resist, but Raisei held her in place with one arm, and Yu forced her fingers into a peace sign with his free hand. It looked more like a family outing instead of a terrifying monster attack.
“This is the all powerful Raccoon King?” Asked Kiyori.
“It kind of looks like our class picture,” said Mana as she tilted her head to the side to get a better look.
“Do you think that we honestly did this because we wanted to!" Said Raisei. “He said that he would kill us if we didn't pose in front of him.”
“You don't understand the humiliation,” said Yu as he covered his face with his hands.
“He even made me ask for his autograph,” said Hairi as tears began to well up in his eyes.
“Do you still have it?" Asked Nina's brother. “Maybe we can send it to headquarters for further analysis.”
With a sad nod Hairi lifted his jacket. I met the Raccoon King and all I got was this T-shirt was written across his white shirt in red paint.
“That's not so bad," said Nina gently.
“Not so bad?” Said Yu. “He wrote that in our teacher's blood!”
"Oh," said Nina. "I'm sorry."
“Taisei, you of all people should know that they have every right to be afraid,” said Akito as he took a sip from his mug of cocoa. “The Raccoon King has been slowly gathering power over the last decade by gaining support amongst weaker Obake, especially raccoons. He’s been challenging more powerful Obake for territory, and now he's finally decided to make his move against us while the organization is struggling. It was only a matter of time before he started targeting exorcist bases.”
“But if he's been gaining support for ages, how come you’re only telling us about it now?” I asked.
I thought it was a very reasonable question, but everyone suddenly went quiet. I could see Nina's brother, Taisei, and Akito looking at each other nervously across the table. Nina avoided my gaze, and it was when Souta started whistling that I realized something was up.
“Everyone? What's going on?” I asked.
“I guess we have to tell him,” said Nina.
“You’re all going to regret it,” sang Kurumi.
“No,” Souta cried and began to pull on his hair. “You can't do it!”
“Tell me what?” I asked.
“What I should have told you earlier is that we've all known about this current threat for many weeks," said Akito. “Didn't you think it was strange that Commander Watanabe was so determined to get you at first, but then backed off completely? Even though you've appeared in the local paper and done a terrible job at keeping a low profile.”
“You’ve only survived this long because the organization is now too busy dealing with this crazy raccoon guy to follow up on you,” said Nina’s brother.
“You all knew about this monster?” I asked while staring at everyone around the table. None of them looked surprised at all. "You all knew about this! I can't believe that you lied to me for this long!" I knew it wasn't the first time they'd kept a secret from me, but it still hurt all the same.
“You don't understand! We didn't have any choice,” said Taisei as he banged his fists down on the table. “We couldn’t go through hearing you freak out again. Last time it was fox monster this, fox monster that, aww I'm Daisuke and I'm terrified that the fox monster is going to come get me. Do you have any idea how much stress that was?”
“I couldn’t sleep at night,” said Souta.
“It's bad enough that there’s some crazy monster out there,” said Taisei. “The last thing we need is you reminding us every five minutes.”
“She tried to eat me!” I cried.
“She tried to kill all of us!” Said Taisei.
“What Taisei is trying to say,” coughed Akito. “Is that we all thought you had enough to deal with without this added stress.”
“So what?” I said. “You all think I'm so mentally weak that I can't handle a little stress?”
“My name's Daisuke Matsumoto and I'm a super exorcist!” Said Taisei in a high pitched voice while doing a bad impression of me.
“Shut up!” I said.
"Hey, let's just back up a moment," said Yu. "Are you saying that this is the Daisuke Matsumoto that everyone's been talking about?"
"Unfortunately so," said Hugo with a yawn.
Raisei was so shocked that his phone slid from his hands and fell to the floor with a bang. "No way, you've got to be joking,” he said.
“This guy is the famous Daisuke Matsumoto?” Screeched Hairi. “But I thought he was older, and dead."
“You have it all wrong,” said Raisei. “That was the nice Daisuke Matsumoto. This guy is an evil experiment created by Kousuke Matsumoto to get revenge for killing his son."
“Hey!” I protested.
“Are you serious, this guy's an Obake,” said Yu. He readjusted his glasses and leaned towards me. “He looks just like a real human.”
He grabbed my cheek and began to pinch it. I had to fend him off with my arm.
“What’s it like to be a monster?” Asked Hairi.
“What’s it like to eat people?” Asked Toni.
“I was an Obake," I said, and
I crossed my arms defiantly. "Now I'm living out my days as a regular human!”
"So now you're like a real boy?" Asked Raisei.
"That pretty much sums it up," said Kiyori.
"Hey!" I protested.
Toni had gone quiet and was silently staring at me like she was deciding whether or not to attack. I saw her slowly pull a knife from her pocket, but Akito grabbed her hand and forced her to put it back.
“Despite his beginnings," said Akito. "Daisuke is now a member of this branch and will be treated as such."
“He’s under house arrest until this whole Raccoon King thing blows over,” I heard Nina’s brother whisper to Raisei. “And then he’s going back to the main branch for an autopsy.”
“Do you know that you’re terrible at whispering?” I said.
“Do you ever get the feeling like we’re the one’s who are actually under house arrest?” Asked Hugo.
“Hugo!” Commanded Akito. “Call the main branch and tell them everything. Take Yu with you as well and don’t forget to tell them about Sayaka.”
“Suppose if I have to,” said Hugo with a sigh as he got up from his seat. He pulled his phone from his pocket and began pushing the buttons so slowly that it looked like excruciatingly hard work.
“And you,” Akito said to Nina’s brother who had pulled up a chair and was already asking Hairi if he had any important relatives. “Check the defenses, some of them still might be damaged from the last attack.”
“Are you saying that we’ve been defenceless all along,” I said. “What if the fox mo-”
“It’s already started!” Cried Souta.
“When will it end?” Asked Nina as she covered her face with her hands.
"There, there, it's okay," said Souta as he patted Nina on the back. Even Mana turned away and looked like she couldn’t take it anymore.
I crossed my arms and fumed. Everyone told me to shut up and stop panicking last time, and look where that got them.
“If the fox monster wanted to kill you she would have already returned," said Akito."So it’s safe to say that she no longer has an interest in this place."
