by Dave Ferraro
“It’s quite alright,” Mr. Mathis assured her. “My fault. This isn’t exactly an everyday situation. Thank you for your hospitality, though. I do appreciate what you’re doing for me.”
Nodding, Yumiko turned until he cleared his throat, and seeing that he was clothed, she unlocked the door to his cage.
He exited the cage with what dignity he could manage. “I hope I wasn’t too much trouble.”
“No, sir.”
“Good.” He scratched the back of his head. “I would like to see Madame Mori, if she has a moment, to check on any progress she’s made.”
“It won’t be much, I’m afraid,” Yumiko told him, then sighed. “Follow me. She should be in her library.”
He nodded and followed her through the love hotel and the Wadas’ sake bar. “I apologize for making you uncomfortable,” he said softly as they pushed past the beaded curtain.
“Not at all, Mr. Mathis.”
“Brian.”
“Brian.”
He smiled tightly, and let her usher him into the library, where Madame Mori was at her desk…and Shou was in the middle of the room, swinging a sword with confidence.
Forgetting Mr. Mathis all at once, Yumiko stepped forward. “Sensei? What is he still doing here?”
“He’s right here,” Shou said, swinging his sword and sending her a smile. “I know you missed me. You don’t have to pretend.”
Yumiko ignored him. “Sensei?”
Madame Mori looked up, unconcerned. “Yumiko, Mr. Fujiwara is to be an apprentice under me.”
Yumiko’s jaw dropped. “Wha…are you…what?”
“That’s what I said,” Tanuki said from the corner, where he was curled up into a ball on a pillow, recovering from his injuries. “I think your sensei’s going senile.”
Scowling, Yumiko stomped over to Madame Mori’s desk. “What is the meaning of this?”
“Just as I have related it,” Mori replied, voice confident. “And you need to remember yourself, Miss Sato.”
Yumiko swallowed hard and bowed slightly. “Sensei, may I speak to you for a moment…in private?”
“Who’s the foreigner?” Shou asked, gesturing toward Mr. Mathis.
“Brian Mathis,” Mr. Mathis replied, bowing, his eyes hard.
“Mr. Mathis is a client,” Mori announced. “Perhaps you could serve him tea in the other room, Shou?”
Shou stopped swinging his sword and frowned, but complied, ushering Brian into the antechamber with little ceremony.
As soon as the door slid closed behind them, Yumiko turned to Mori with crossed arms. “You’re going to teach that spoiled pretty boy? Why on earth would you condescend to such a thing?”
Madame Mori watched her for a moment. “Yumiko, sit.”
Yumiko closed her mouth and sat across from Mori, ready to hear her sensei laugh at the practical joke she’d played. Anything but admit to its truth. Unfortunately, Mori looked quite serious as she leaned over the desk and spoke in low tones.
“Yumiko, Mr. Fujiwara felt helpless last night. He realized that this is the path he wants his life to take, and what right do I have to tell him otherwise?”
“Sensei-“
“No. Listen to what I have to say.”
Yumiko grumbled, but sat back.
Mori, satisfied, continued. “He has studied yokai his whole life. He is well-versed – I’ve even cross-examined him. And his swordplay is advanced. He could be a real asset to you.”
“He can’t even see yokai.”
“You forget that neither can I.” Mori sighed. “Yumiko, I am getting old. I can’t teach you techniques with weapons. I can’t go into the field with you to ensure your safety. We need to think of the future. Shou, under my tutelage, can be formed into a strong yokai hunter, one who will be able to assist you in battle. He’s strong and confident.”
“And arrogant.”
“Perhaps. But that doesn’t eradicate his assets. We need this, Yumiko. You know it, even if you don’t like admitting it to yourself.”
Yumiko looked away. “He begged for you to take him in, didn’t he?”
Mori chuckled. “He said he wouldn’t leave until I agreed to take him on as apprentice.”
“I figured as much,” Yumiko said, looking back at the door to the antechamber. “Alright. But we cut ties if it ends up not working out. If he’s a danger to either of us, he needs to go.”
“Of course.”
“Then I guess I have no choice but to reluctantly go along with this.”
“That’s how I see things.”
They grinned at each other, before the sliding door opened, Shou appearing with a wide smile. “Did you want a cup of tea as well, sensei?”
Mori glanced at Yumiko. “We could both use a cup, I think.”
Shou glanced at Yumiko uneasily, then nodded and disappeared back into the room.
“I expect you to play nice,” Mori said softly.
“Sensei, I don’t play nice with anyone.”
“That’s my girl,” Tanuki piped up, cheerfully.
Shou returned a moment later with two steaming cups of tea. He bowed, then looked up at Mori, unsure. “He transforms into a fox? He could be a kitsune.”
“He is not a kitsune. His situation is…unique, but we help with any and all supernatural threats, if we can,” Master Mori told him. “That includes Mr. Mathis’s affliction.” She glanced at Yumiko. “Even if we’re not fully versed in the supernatural threat, the same rules generally apply to them. You need not worry about your safety.”
Shou stiffened. “I’m not worried.”
Yumiko hid a smile. “It’s alright if you are. Just know that I’ll protect you.” She took a sip of her tea and smiled over at him. “Well, Mr. Fujiwara, at least you make a good cup of tea.”
Chapter Seven
The next day, Yumiko sparred with Shou for the first time. They used wooden swords, and Shou bested her nine out of ten times. She suspected that if he’d been the one battling Kuchisake-Onna, he could have defeated her without resorting to tricks, as Yumiko had. But she would never admit that to him. If anything, his successive wins made him even cockier. When Mori left to run an errand, they had lunch together, and Shou studied her carefully.
“What?” Yumiko asked, shoving aside her bowl of ramen.
Shou shrugged. “I was just thinking that if you didn’t have that gift for seeing yokai, Mori may never have given you the time of day.”
“What do you mean by that?”
He shrugged. “I just mean that you’re adequate with a sword, but nothing special.”
“Well, there’s a lot more that goes into hunting yokai than stabbing things.”
He chuckled. “I know. And word on the street is that you’re hot stuff. You’re almost an urban legend – the girl who hunts yokai. Fearless and brave.” He shook his head. “Maybe you are. But you just seem like any other girl to me.”
“And you’ve seen plenty of girls, I presume,” Yumiko said.
Shou winced. “Ouch.”
Yumiko smiled sweetly at him. “Don’t mistake me for the girls you’re accustomed to charming.”
“No, I wouldn’t do that.” Shou looked her over lazily. “You’re far less refined.”
“If you’re trying to insult me, you’re going to have to do better than that.”
“Then I’ll keep at it.”
“Will you two give it a rest?” Tanuki asked, sauntering slowly over to them. “Some of us brave warriors were injured in battle, remember?”
“That was rather brave of you,” Yumiko agreed.
Tanuki perked up. “Brave enough to warrant some sake?”
“Don’t push it.”
She looked up to see Shou studying her. “What?”
He shook his head. “What I would give to be able to see them like you do.”
“It’s overrated,” she assured him. “And don’t let Tanuki fool you. He’s usually just a pest.”
“A heroic pest,” Tanuki gr
umbled, shimmering briefly as he made himself visible to human eyes.
Shou blinked at him. “How’s your head?”
Tanuki sat up and shrugged. “Feels like it was slammed into a wall.”
Shou sat back. “How do you ever get used to this?” He gestured to Tanuki. “He talks, and you act like it’s nothing.”
“I think your talking is more distressing to her,” Tanuki said with a grin as he grabbed the remains of Yumiko’s bowl of ramen.
“Yumiko?”
Yumiko looked up to see the sliding door being pushed aside. Reina stepped in and smiled at her, then narrowed her eyes. “What’s he doing here?” she asked, accusingly, pointing at Shou. “Oh, my god. You guys are seeing each other!”
Shou sat back, beaming. “The doctor’s office brought us together. She plays a mean nurse.”
Yumiko rolled her eyes. “He’s…Madame Mori is teaching him.”
Reina’s eyes widened. “She’s teaching a host?”
“Tell me about it.”
Reina pointed past Yumiko. “And what is that thing doing in here? Is that a raccoon-dog?”
Tanuki looked up briefly from his ramen. “Howdy, toots.”
Yumiko watched Reina’s eyes widen even more, the color draining from her face. “Now you’ve done it,” Yumiko murmured.
Tanuki looked up again, unconcerned. “It’s what she gets for being so nosy. She’ll deal with it.”
“Is that a…” Reina’s eyes darted to Yumiko. “A yokai?”
“Guilty.”
“He is,” Yumiko said, glaring at Tanuki. “But he’s harmless. Don’t worry about him.”
“So, all this stuff is real?” Reina asked. She dropped onto a cushion and leaned back against the wall. “And here, I thought you were just weirdos.”
“Yumiko is a weirdo,” Shou helped.
Reina rolled her eyes. “And you’re, what, learning the trade now too?”
“Something like that.”
“Wait,” Reina pressed a hand to her cheek, as if to make sure she wasn’t hallucinating from a fever. “So, all of those stories I’ve been told as a little girl…like all of them…” She looked at Tanuki, who paused to stare back at her. Reina shook her head as he resumed eating. “No.”
“Suit yourself,” Shou shrugged indifferently.
Yumiko turned her knees so that she was facing Reina. “Reina, I know this is hard to accept. It took me a long time to accept it too.”
“How long?”
Yumiko hesitated. “That’s a story for another time.”
“One I would like to hear,” Shou interjected.
“Quiet.” Yumiko shot him a dirty look before turning back to Reina. “You see evidence right in front of you. You have to believe your own eyes.”
Reina glanced over at Tanuki again. “Can he sing too?”
Shou turned his head and laughed into his hand while Tanuki pretended to look offended.
“I’m a big fan of Lady Gaga,” he said with a sniff.
“Really?” Reina looked doubtful.
Tanuki decided to ignore her, and turned his back on the inquisitive girl.
“So, Betobeto-San is real?”
Shou looked up at that. “When you hear the sound of footsteps on the pavement behind you, following at a distance, in the dark of the night, but no one’s there. Or is there? You stop, you listen, and don’t hear a sound, but the moment you start walking again, the sound resumes. Betobeto-San is following you in his sandals.” He smirked.
Reina looked uncertain. “So, he’s not real?”
“He is real,” Yumiko confirmed. “Just as Shou described it.”
“Really?” Shou frowned.
“Really.” Yumiko tilted her head. “A lot like Greek mythology, our ancestors in Japan came up with their own creatures to give reasons for unexplainable phenomena. The footsteps that follow you in the dark when no one is there is Betebeto-San. The squeaking sounds in the house at night when no one could be up are yanari. Those sandals that you neglected that you can no longer find? They turned into yokai – Bake-zori.” She paused. “Like with most legends, there is truth in them. In the case of yokai, I have seen most of them with my own eyes and know them to be real. Some would even argue that humans gave yokai strength to exist through their imagination, and through their beliefs as they were handed down from generation to generation.”
“Like, we willed them into being?” Reina’s nose scrunched up.
“Very philosophical,” Shou said, looking unimpressed. “I take it that Mori ran that one by you?”
Yumiko rolled her eyes.
Reina sat up and looked at Shou. “Hey! How come you get in on this?”
“He begged,” Yumiko said.
“I did not,” Shou protested loudly, scowling her way. “I was a logical choice.”
Reina didn’t look convinced. “Logical to who?”
“I’m clearly going to make a better yokai hunter than her,” Shou snarled, sticking his thumb in Yumiko’s direction. “I’m a natural warrior. I’m smart on my feet. I have a face that people trust.”
“You’d stick out too much,” Tanuki chimed in. “You’re too pretty.”
“So’s she,” Shou protested.
Yumiko fluttered her eyelashes at him. “You think I’m pretty?”
“What about me?” Reina asked, sitting up and leaning toward Shou. “Do you think I’m pretty?”
Shou threw up his hands. “I am so sick of everybody asking me that.”
“She’s not a yokai,” Yumiko said, crossing her arms. “Am I going to have to start pointing them out to you now?”
“What is this?” a voice asked as the door slid open.
Yumiko sat up straight and bowed as Madame Mori entered, face stony.
“Hello, Madame Mori!” Reina greeted cheerfully.
Mori nodded to her and looked around the room, taking in Tanuki at the table. “So, Reina knows too.” She shook her head. “We must be discreet in this business.”
“I’m sorry, sensei,” Yumiko said, automatically dipping her head low again.
“I just sort of barged in here,” Reina admitted.
“She did,” Shou agreed, earning a glare from her.
“What’s done is done,” Mori said, taking a seat. “Reina, how would you like to assist in research in addition to your chores at the desk?”
Reina blinked. “Really?”
“Really?” Yumiko echoed.
Madame Mori smiled. “I could use some help on my end of things. In fact, Mr. Mathis is going to be helping build our resources with some contacts he has who are experts on rare texts. We must be better prepared to address the uncommon problems that find their way to our door.”
“Is he the one you brought to the dungeon?” Reina asked Yumiko.
“The dungeon?” Shou asked, smirking.
“I know, right?” Reina tossed back her hair.
“Yes, that was Mr. Mathis,” Yumiko said, ignoring their implications.
“He will be here shortly,” Mori said. “I expect you to assist him in any way you can. If he’s going to be in Japan for the foreseeable future, until we find a cure, he wants to help us.”
Shou glanced at his watch. “Oh. I have to go.”
Yumiko raised an eyebrow. “Where?”
“Work.”
She blinked. “You’re keeping your job at the host club?”
He paused at the door. “Some of us have to earn a living, Miss Sato. But don’t worry, I’ll be back.”
“I wasn’t worried.”
He winked at her, then disappeared.
Reina turned to Mori. “Why is he here?”
“Why are you here?” Yumiko asked her.
“I was invited.”
Madame Mori chuckled. “It’s certainly getting lively around here. It’s going to take some getting used to.”
***
“Research is boring,” Reina whispered to Yumiko as she flipped a page in the huge tome that lay on th
e desk before her.
“You’ll get used to it,” Yumiko assured her.
“That doesn’t mean it’s going to get any less boring.”
Yumiko looked up as Mori approached Brian’s desk. He was leaning over two books and seemed to be cross-referencing something. Mori held an object out to him, and Yumiko leaned forward, squinting to make out a silver wolf’s head. It looked like a paperweight.
Brian accepted the item and turned it over in his hands, examining it briefly before he handed it back to Mori, clearly not giving the item much weight. Mori, however, looked troubled.
“So, he’s kind of like a werewolf,” Reina said.
“Kind of. His situation certainly seems to have more in common with lycanthropy than anything we’ve dealt with before.”
“Maybe vampires are real too,” Reina mused aloud.
Yumiko blinked as she glanced back at her friend. “What?”
“Vampires. You know…Twilight?”
“What’s that?”
Reina stared at her for a moment. “Honey, I know that you don’t get out much, but…you really don’t get out much.”
Yumiko shrugged. “I keep myself busy. As for vampires, don’t you expect that they exist now, after what you’ve seen and heard?”
“But have you fought any?”
“No.”
“Oh,” Reina looked back down at her book, disappointed.
“But in yokai lore, there are vampire trees. Allegedly. Jubokko. I’ve never seen them, and from what I gather, they must be rare, if they even exist.”
Yumiko glanced up at the sound of a zipper, to see Madame Mori packing up her things. Yumiko stood. “Are you leaving?”
“I think it’s time we call it a night,” Mori answered. She sent a look in Brian’s direction. “Wouldn’t you agree, Mr. Mathis?”
Brian looked up, distracted. “Hmmm? Oh, we’re leaving?”
Mori nodded, a smile in place. “Walk me out?”
“Yes,” Brian agreed, scrambling to leave placeholders in his books. “Let me just…” He quickly arranged his desk, then stood, looking around at his mess with some satisfaction. “Alright. I think that will do until tomorrow.”
Mori smiled and led him out the door. “Don’t stay up too late, ladies.”
