How I was Murdered by a Fox Monster Page 13

  “Oh I see,” the excitement died from my voice and I glared at the box like I was focusing all my resent towards it. I had a feeling these were the materials Sis had promised Akito.

  I dumped the box on the verandah and stared inside. It was a while since I saw Grandpa's collection, and I soon realized that if these were his possessions it meant the book he showed me as a child was also hidden amongst them. I momentarily forgot my angst, shoved my arm into the box, and began searching through the moldy volumes.

  “It should be around here somewhere,” I muttered.

  “What are you looking for?” Asked Souta.

  “You'll see soon,” I said. My hand finally landed on a certain volume and I held it above my head like a trophy. “It's the book with all the naked pictures!”

  I opened the cover and flipped through the pages. As a kid I used to think it was a picture book, but it was actually a textbook with accompanying diagrams. I scanned my eyes briefly over the text, but the language was old and difficult to understand. Eventually I found the page about the fox monster and held it up for Souta to see. It was still as terrifying as I remembered.

  “Man, I used to have nightmares about this chick as a child,” I said. “I would dream that she would come into my bedroom and attempt to rip my heart out.”

  Little did I know that my childhood fear was soon to become reality. Maybe I was psychic all along and everyone else had been foolish for refusing to believe me.

  “Akito said that fox monsters are really rare,” said Souta. “There's only about one or two left, so you don't have to worry.”

  “That's a relief,” I sighed.

  “What's this? A naked girl,” said Taisei as he ripped the book out of my hand. “This is certainly one for the wall!”

  He pulled out his cell phone and began taking snapshots. We continued digging through the box for more naked pictures (or Kousuke Matsumoto's secret porn collection) until Sis returned and scolded us. My sister then made us all go to the car and carry the remaining boxes before she returned home.

  I didn't think the rest of Grandpa's materials were that exciting (It was mostly illegible gibberish) but Akito was over the moon when he returned. He immediately began leafing through the boxes on the verandah like Christmas had come early. I'd never seen Akito that focused unless he was giving one of his never-ending Obake lectures. Taisei, Kiyori, and I even had a water fight before him, and he didn't even react until Taisei accidentally splashed his book. We were then subjected to a fifteen minute lecture about the importance of not ruining exorcist property. He was also yelling about a few other things, but I had already tuned out.

  It was obvious that the fun was over so we took off our shirts and let them dry on the handrail. I didn't think much of it until I heard Kiyori yell the familiar words of “shit! What happened to your back!”

  “Oh,” I said. I peered over my shoulder at the scars which adorned my back. I was overcome with a familiar feeling of dread. “I was in an accident as a kid.”

  “Must have been one nasty accident,” said Kiyori while taking a closer look. “It looks all carved up and everything.”

  “Maybe, I don't really remember,” I muttered.

  I could feel all their eyes on me and I regretted taking my shirt off. I turned to go find a towel (so I could cover myself up) but Akito was suddenly behind me taking a look.

  “Hmm,” he said. “It could be signs of a potential Obake attack, but it doesn't appear like claw marks or someone was attempting to kill you. It looks more orderly and planned, like there were trying to inflict pa-” he suddenly realized what he was saying and stopped.

  “What did you just say?” I asked in a shaky voice.

  “I'm sure it was just an accident,” said Akito in an attempt to make me forget his previous words. “If it worries you I'm sure it wouldn't be too difficult to fix in the future,” he said with an awkward laugh like it was all just one big joke.

  Akito's words gave me something new to worry about. Not only did I have to worry about being the victim of child abduction, there was the possibility that I'd experienced torture as well. Child abduction and torture, life really couldn't get much better than this, I thought. Child abduction and torture by Grandpa? No it didn't seem plausible. I may have discovered that Grandpa had a shady side, and he didn't seem like the sort of guy who would go that far, but it was impossible to shake my doubts.

  * * *

  I spent the evening sitting in my bedroom looking over the photos I had of Grandpa and I. There was also one of Sis and I way back when she didn't know how to deal with children. She was looking at me in horror like I was a slug clinging onto her neck. I laughed and placed it beside my bed.

  I picked up another framed photo of Grandpa and ran my fingers over the cold glass. I was five years old and he had taken me out to a festival for the first time. I was smiling happily while waving a candy apple around. Grandpa had his arm over my shoulder and was making a peace sign towards the camera. His smile looked like that of a loving Grandpa, not a crazy sadistic child abductor.

  “You wouldn't have done anything bad? Would you?” I asked the photo.

  I didn't have any bad memories, or even any unpleasant ones like him yelling or scolding me, but I'd been so young that there weren't many memories left at all. I wouldn't have been aware if he suddenly abducted me off the street and forced me to forget my previous family.

  It didn't seem like I could gain the answers I wanted from the pictures, so I placed all the photos carefully back into the box and opened my wardrobe to put them away. That's when it suddenly hit me. Something I had forgotten from long ago. I grabbed onto the handle and opened the door, then shut it, then opened it again. Yes, something did happen once, something in a place like this. I thought.

  I wasn't sure what I had done but I knew I was in trouble. I was standing inside a wardrobe, no maybe a cupboard, and Grandpa was standing outside blocking my escape. I looked up at his face which was stoney and solemn, and nothing like the cheerful man in my dreams who told me about Obake.

  “You have to stay in here for a while Daisuke,” he said sternly.

  “Why Grandpa? What did I do?” Asked my five year-old self.

  “You need to think about your actions Daisuke.”

  “Actions? What actions?”

  “I'll let you out when you're ready.”

  That's when he began closing the door. The ray of light from the outside began to shrink until it was eradicated with a bang and I was surrounded by darkness. I was suddenly blind and terrified, and I wanted nothing more than to leave immediately.

  “Grandpa!” I yelled. My tiny fists banged against the door. “Let me out! It's dark! Let me out!” But all was silent and nobody came. I felt like I cried forever until I eventually became tired and slumped against the door. My small exhausted eyes looked out at what lay before me, and I sat there and stared at the never-ending darkness.

  “Is this what death feels like?” My small voice said out loud. It was the first time I could recall having such morbid and unchildlike thoughts, but maybe my five year-old self could already sense what was coming.

  Chapter 18

  “Over here!”

  “What!” I yelled as I swung sharply to the left and knocked the head off the statue beside me. “Shit!” I swore as the chunk of stone went rolling away out of reach. Taisei's pole was heavier than I imagined, obviously designed to combat Obake, and I had just discovered that rock didn't stand a chance either. I just hoped that no one else was nearby. I didn't want to be around when the graveyard attendant realized I was demolishing his cemetery.

  “Quit making so much noise you're only making it run away faster,” scolded Kiyori.

  “Sorry!” I yelled back before I realized I was doing what he requested me not to.

  “Now you're taking your eyes off the target!” He yelled.

  “Sorry,” I whispered and returned my gaze to the front.

  I watched as a small white cat bo
unded over the crumbling grave markers as though they were nothing. I thought that being chased by exorcists would be enough to make it revert to its true form, but so far nothing. I stopped to catch my breath and looked down at the piece of paper in my hand which was glowing a brilliant blue.

  “Hey Taisei is this really an Obake?” I asked.

  Taisei stopped and stared at the paper from over my shoulder.

  “Yeah, but from the way things are going it seems like a pretty weak one, but this makes it perfect for you Dai-chan,” he said with a smile.

  “What's that supposed to mean?” I muttered under my breath. I wasn't usually so angry, but I'd been quite moody since I discovered the truth about Grandpa.

  “Hey you're the one who wanted to be an exorcist so there's no point stopping now,” called Kurumi from the front. I didn't know why she was yelling at me when Kiyori was still behind. He'd spent most of his time lying around since Akito stopped harassing him, and his fitness was beginning to suffer.

  Ever since my sister brought those boxes he was completely transfixed. I felt like I should have been upset that he wasn't training me, but I was already well accustomed to people obsessing over dead people, I was named by one after all.

  I could walk freely around headquarters and lie on the verandah without fearing that Akito would scold me for not working hard enough. I wasn't in the mood for school, so I frequently skipped class and told Sis that I was exorcist training, or running errands with Akito, but I was really just sun-baking on the verandah. Taisei, Kiyori, and Kurumi even took me on a secret exorcism behind Akito's back and he didn't catch on. The way things were going it seemed like years before I would see any hand to hand Obake action, but Taisei and Kiyori both agreed that experience was the fastest way to learn.

  The Obake hunt took us to a small shrine and cemetery which existed in the mountains behind headquarters. The whole mountainside was littered with grave stones and small statues of children and gods. I wondered if their stone eyes were watching as we frantically pursued the cat. We spent the afternoon clambering over crumbling rocks, and I accidentally tripped several times until the palms of my hands were scratched up and bleeding.

  The cat Obake in question had apparently been running amok in the town attacking kindergarten students. It hadn't caused any serious damage yet, but Taisei assured me it wouldn't be long before it grew bolder and began eating their faces off. I wasn't sure if the cat was truly a danger, or Taisei wanted to make me feel important, but I was sternly told that this was a very important mission.

  After what seemed like an hour we finally had the cat corned before a cluster of grave markers. The Obake saw that its chances of escape were zero and it turned and hissed.

  “OK, just have a go,” huffed Taisei as he leaned up against a grave marker to catch his breath. “Just remember what we taught you before and the rest shouldn't be too difficult.”

  “Roger!” I nodded. I felt like I'd climbed up in the world when I could finally say roger to Taisei. I took a large breath and encroached on the monster before me. This was the moment that I'd long been waiting for. The moment where I, Daisuke Matsumoto, was finally going to exorcise my first Obake.

  “Demon cat you've finally met your match, today you shall fall by the hands of the great Daisuke Matsu- Hey!” I yelled as the cat suddenly jumped the stone and began bouncing away into the distance.

  “No, not again,” moaned Kiyori. “We've been going at this for hours already.”

  “You two, go after it!” Yelled Taisei. “Kurumi and I will go to the other side and try to head it off.”

  Kiyori didn't bother to hide his annoyance and almost knocked over five grave stones on the way. We dashed frantically after the cat until we emerged back into the open forest. I almost had the Obake within my grasp until Kiyori yelled “stop!” Like his life depended on it.

  Thinking that something terrible was going to happen, I stopped dead in my tracks.

  “What! What's wrong?” I yelled. The cat had suddenly disappeared out of sight behind the trees and if we didn't continue the pursuit immediately we were going to lose it.

  Kiyori pointed to the patch of forest before us. “Our area ends here, everything beyond those trees is managed by a different branch.”

  “So we're forbidden from going into that area?”

  “No,” he shrugged. “It's not our problem anymore.”

  It's not our problem anymore? What was that supposed to mean? I was convinced that I must have misheard him before he turned to leave.

  “Come on, we better start heading back,” he said with a smile.

  “Hey! You're not seriously going to leave it are you?”

  “Why not,” he shrugged. “It's not our responsibility anymore.”

  I felt anger rise up inside me and I wanted to punch him in the face. Suddenly all the things which I had overlooked and brushed aside for the past few months came flooding back. The way that he treated Souta, the way he left things half done, the way he always ate all the good snacks as soon as Akito returned from the supermarket so I never got any chocolate chip cookies.

  “But what if it hurts someone!” I yelled.

  “You don't have to wet your pants over it, the guys on the other side will probably get it.”

  “But what if they don't, I thought your responsibility as an exorcist was to get rid of Obake!”

  I thought that may have been enough to get through to him, but those words were enough to really set his temper off.

  “Hey you, I never asked to be an exorcist, I never asked to live out here. I'm only doing this because they make me. I don't have to take this from someone like you who didn't grow up the way we did!”

  “I way not have grown up the way you did, but at least I give a damn about people other than myself!”

  “What did you say?” He raised his fist.

  I wanted to stand firm and tell him what was on my mind. That his attitude was bad and his actions would lead to innocent people getting injured. I also wanted to say that he was lazy, treated others like crap, and needed to invest in deodorant, but I couldn't. Kiyori was twice my size and saying such things would only lead to me being beaten to a pulp.

  “Nothing,” I muttered. I stared down at the leafy foliage beneath my feet and suppressed the urge to set fire to it.

  I felt angry at myself for backing down but there was nothing I could do. I didn't want to get my face punched in like the first year who called Kiyori fat.

  I fell silent and refused to say anything, but I was seething on the inside. I stared out into the forest and considered pursuing the Obake on my own, but Kiyori turned to leave and I suddenly realized I was in the middle of a dense dark forest and I didn't know my way back. I turned and followed his large figure, but I made an effort to remain at least three feet behind. As we kept walking my feelings towards him got worse and worse. I began to wonder why I was even friends with a guy like that who bullied people at school and took their lunch money. What had I been thinking?

  We found Taisei and Kurumi chilling out at the gate to the shrine. Kurumi was re-touching her make-up while Taisei was frantically wiping something off his mouth with his sleeve. He rolled up his jacket arm once he was finished, but I caught a glance of something red.

  “Did you find it?” Taisei asked.

  I was tempted to tell the truth, but one glare from Kiyori was enough to make me shut my mouth. “No, it got away,” I muttered.

  “It went into Yu's territory,” added Kiyori. I felt my fist clench as soon as he opened his mouth.

  I expected Taisei to be angry at us (like I was on the inside) but he was unexpectedly happier than when I saw him only moments earlier. “I suppose they'll take care of it, next time don't do any speeches Daisuke, it's best to get the job done as quickly as possible.”

  “But I was so fired up and everything,” I muttered.

  “Getting fired up won't get you anywhere, the only thing which really works is hard work and good concentrat
ion,” said Kurumi. It was the first time she'd said anything nice, and it was probably the last, because within the next few minutes she was back to complaining about Nina.

  “I can't take it anymore, she always goes around telling everyone what to do,” Kurumi ranted. “She thinks she's so great, but she can't even aim straight.”

  “But Nina isn't such a bad person, there's no need to fight all the time,” said Taisei.

  “So you're on her side now?”

  “No, you're cousins, you should try to get along.”

  “Shut up, what do you know!” Kurumi yelled. She then refused to speak to Taisei for the whole journey back.

  I also wanted to tell Kurumi more about Nina's good points (to help bridge the gap between them) but I didn't feel confident doing so while she was holding a bow and arrow. I haven't told anyone this, but Kurumi used to scare me. I think it was because she never smiled.

  The atmosphere on the way back was pretty depressing. I wasn't talking to Kiyori, Kurumi wasn't speaking to Taisei, and Taisei looked upset because he was being shunned. I didn't think things could get any worse until a police patrol car pulled up beside us. I always thought a bunch of teenagers carrying poles, bows, and arrows, looked pretty conspicuous, but his main interest was something else.