How I was Murdered by a Fox Monster Read online

  “Really?” I asked while squinting at the picture. To me it just looked like a bunch of men hunting deers with spears.

  “And this one,” he indicated to a small stone statue behind a glass case.

  “An Aztec goddess of oceans, rivers, birth, and the patron of women in labor, ” I said while reading the small name plate below it.

  “No, an Obake,” Akito replied.

  “And this Australian Aboriginal painting?” I asked.

  “Clearly an early record of an Obake infestation.”

  Akito then proceeded to lead me around the room criticizing half the artifacts and how humanity had misinterpreted them. After an hour I finally began to catch on to what he was talking about.

  “I get it now! So this stuffed wombat is also an Obake,” I said. “I always thought these guys were weird.”

  “No, that's just a wombat Daisuke.”

  The museum attendant followed us everywhere we went. Staring at Akito oddly like he was crazy. It made me realize why the man at reception gritted his teeth as soon as we entered the foyer.

  * * *

  Once we got back, Akito laid out a calligraphy set and a large stack of paper. I recognized them as being similar to the ones I previously saw in Mana's bag.

  “What sets exorcists apart from regular people is our ability to use spiritual energy. This energy can be channeled through special charms and used in the fight against Obake,” he took a sheet from the pile and wrote some illegible symbols with the calligraphy brush.

  “Using different combinations of characters you can create charms with different physical effects such as fire, water, and paralysis. They can also be arranged in combinations that create larger effects, such as barriers or sealing charms.” He put down the brush, picked up the paper, and waved it in the air a few times to help the paint dry. “I will now demonstrate.”

  Akito held the charm between two fingers and closed his eyes. He appeared to be in some sort of deep meditation. Suddenly the paper became damp and began to drip water. Within half a minute it completely disintegrated. It wasn't as cool as the one which caught fire, but it still looked pretty awesome.

  I sat there transfixed. “Wow! Can you teach me how to do that?”

  “Well that is the point of you being here.”

  I was expecting that we'd play around with the cool charms. Maybe even go out and throw them at some Obake, but I spent the afternoon practicing calligraphy on sheets of paper while Akito continued to lecture me.

  “As effective as exorcist charms are, they need to hit the target before the charm is spent. Sometimes you may need to utilize arrows, or weapons, to make sure it hits the enemy in time. The strength of the charm depends on how much spiritual energy you use, but the stronger the charm the faster it burns out.”

  “But when I watched Itsuki he was chanting something, and then this giant ball of lightning came out of no where.”

  “That's the more advanced form, there's no need to get ahead of ourselves.”

  Every time I finished, Akito would glance at my paper, twitch his lip, and then command me to practice another hundred times. I tried making the paper catch fire, but nothing happened. Apparently the charm was only effective when you used a special type of paper which Akito wouldn't let me touch until my writing was perfect.

  It wasn't just calligraphy practice. The rest of my time was dedicated to Obake research. Akito would give me various topics, and I would have to research them and present my results to him in person. I felt like I was presenting news to the emperor.

  “Daisuke, name the four Obake levels,” Akito commanded.

  I sighed and looked down my piece of paper where I had hastily written some notes.

  “Obake can be divided into different levels based on their strength, and danger to humanity. Level four consists of harmless Obake who pose no threat. Level three Obake are capable of human speech and often trick people for fun. Level two Obake can change their form into more dangerous monsters, sometimes growing ten times their normal size. Level two Obake also attack and devourer animals and humans. ”

  I paused to make sure that I hadn't made any mistakes. Akito nodded so I kept going.

  “Level one consists of Obake who are capable of human form and coexistence with humans. They are especially dangerous because they're capable of tricking people for money, or luring them away to be eaten. Level S,” I paused because this level really freaked me out. “Is a new level created to distinguish the most dangerous Obake who were previously in Level one, such as the fox. Level S Obake should be treated with up most caution, and be avoided if possible. One should not engage with a Level S unless there is no other option.”

  I exhaled and thought I was done for the day, but Akito also gave me little quizzes such as what's the weakness of a cat Obake? How can you tell a snake Obake from regular animals? And what element is most effective against wolves?

  I thought becoming an exorcist was my escape route from school, but I soon realized that I had agreed to subject myself to a different type of hell.

  One day I arrived at headquarters only to find a large set of books awaiting me. Akito was using it as an elbow rest as he scrolled through the morning paper.

  “Your next assignment is to write a two thousand word report on raccoon Obake,” he said without taking his eyes off the page.

  I felt like screaming. I chose my words carefully to try and suppress my rage.

  “Ok,” I said through gritted teeth. “I'll just type it when I get home.”

  “No, hand write it, people these days rely too much on computers,” Akito said while handing me a giant stack of paper.

  “But my spelling is bad, I use the computer to help me write.”

  He handed me a paper dictionary.

  I tried to protest once in the first week, but Akito just shrugged his shoulders and said “well if you don't want to do the work, then there's no need to be here.”

  I spent a good hour contemplating quitting, but after Taisei arrived home and showed me the pictures of his latest Obake adventure, there really wasn't a choice.

  The only advantage to all the study was that I got to spend a lot of time with Nina. She was often in the library researching, or practicing archery outside. Apparently her injury was worse than she was letting on, and Akito ordered her to rest for the next month. She gave me small tours around headquarters, and showed me the library and how to search for different materials.

  “Raccoon Obake huh?” She said after I told her the torment that Akito was subjecting me to. “There should be a book somewhere around here,” she brushed her fingers over the titles, much like how Grandpa had when I was a child. She found what she was looking for and handed it to me.

  “This one has most of what you need to know, its one of Akito's favorites so you have to be careful.”

  “Wow you sure know a lot about these books,” I said in awe.

  “No, not really, Akito made us all write the same assignment when we were in elementary school.”

  It didn't surprise me that Akito was forcing me to do things the others had completed as children, but it ruled out plagiarizing their work.

  I often heard Akito chewing Nina out about her progress, and encouraging her to work harder. I once caught sight of them in deep conversation in the hall. Nina's face was stony and emotionless, like she was doing her best to suppress the urge to cry.

  “You really need to start training harder, you're beginning to fall behind the others,” said Akito.

  “Yes, I know,” said Nina while staring at the floor.

  “I don't mean to sound mean, but this is for your sake more than anyone else. I don't want to send you home to your parents in a body bag.”

  I once asked Taisei about Nina. He told me that Nina had the skills, but lacked the heart for killing things. She was a decent person, and even consoled me when I felt like pushing Akito off the side of a mountain.

  “He's not trying to be mean,” she said. “He's ju
st pushing you to learn faster. I'm sure he just wants you to be a good exorcist.”

  “Yeah, maybe,” I muttered. I didn't want to admit that the torment Akito inflicted on me was actually for my own benefit.

  I'm not one of those guys who dates multiple women, but I was considering Nina in case Mana didn't work out. She may have been two years older and resembled my sister (which was slightly creepy) but I could live with that.

  While I was researching Obake, I also spent some time investigating my older brother. He was pretty famous amongst the exorcists, and even had his own books in the library. I scanned my finger down his long list of achievements until it finally came to an end by the hands of the fox monster. He was twenty six when he died, which meant his death must have happened about fourteen or fifteen years ago. I wasn't certain if I was even alive at the time. I sighed, shut the book, and placed it neatly back on the shelf. I pulled out another and began my composition on cat Obake, without any idea that all my research would amount to nothing.

  I should have spent less time studying Obake and more time reading up on other exorcists. Maybe then I would have realized that over half of them died before their thirtieth birthday.

  Chapter 9

  I thought I would have to hide my new secret identity from my family (just like they did in comic books), but Sis had me ratted out fast. I forgot I was dealing with the daughter of Kousuke Matsumoto.

  “What's this? Sealing charms, why do you have sealing charms in your bag?” She waved the paper in my face before she dived her hand into my backpack for another look. “And what's this? Anencyclopedia of Obake! Have you,” she paused for breath, “been exorcising?”

  I wasn't sure how I could save myself.

  “Maybe, perhaps,” I stuttered. “I met some kids at school who are exorcists and they let me join their club.”

  “What do you mean they let you joined their club? Since when has there ever been an exorcist club at high school?”

  “You know. The one they have after school, at school, where you learn about mystical stuff which doesn't exist, because there's no such thing as Obake.”

  I thought I'd done a great job at saving myself, but Sis was not fooled.

  “Do you take me for an idiot? I know what this is! It even has Property of Miyake South Headquarters printed on the cover. Is this where you've been spending all your time after school?”

  “Yes. Maybe. I could have been there. Once or twice.”

  “What were you thinking!”

  “Come on Sis, please! Please let me be an exorcist. They're all so cool and get to fight Obake,” I decided to omit the part about skipping school. “You always said I should do more after school activities.”

  “When I said after school activities, I meant basketball or soccer. You didn't even think to consult me before running off to join the exorcists.”

  “Come on Sis, it's really not that dangerous, I don't even have to fight anything until I complete training.”

  “There's not going to be any completion of training.”

  “But it could be useful in the future. What would we do if we were suddenly attacked by Obake? We wouldn't be able to defend ourselves would we? But if I learned how to be an exorcist-”

  “Forget it!” She snapped.

  “Why?” I pouted.

  “I don't think you understand what being an exorcist really means. This isn't some computer game or cartoon, you could actually die.”

  “I know that!”

  “No you don't! Do you have any idea how many friends and family members I lost to Obake for just being exorcists?”

  “I know, I know. I promise to be extra careful. I won't fight any Obake until I'm ready,” and because Akito wasn't going to let me. “If I see an Obake who looks even remotely scary I promise to run far far away.”

  “The answer is still no.”

  “Please Sis.”

  “You're not going there ever again, and that's my final word!”

  In the end it was impossible to sway her decision. I really wish I'd listened to my sister because she was right in the end. I discovered that even Shuro knew about Obake (Sis had probably told him) and claimed to have seen one in real life.

  “I was once walking home with your sister,” he said. “We were going through the park when a strange animal emerged from the bushes and glared at us. It had blood red rabid eyes, and the biggest teeth I ever saw.”

  “That was a rabbit,” Sis corrected.

  She continued to be mad at me for the entire evening, and even threw my lunch box at my head the following morning.

  I finally gave in and yelled “fine, I won't be an exorcist! I won't go anywhere near them if you'll just be nice to me again!”

  ***

  Despite my sister's protest, I decided to ignore her and still go to headquarters the following afternoon. It was my first observation and I wasn't going to miss the chance to see an Obake again. I was still slightly afraid, but I was also hoping that it would be as big and scary as the last one. Maybe they would even let me have some shots in.

  Everyone used to call me an idiot back then and I can finally understand why. I was so naive and stupid, I treated Obake like they were some cool new toy, and it all came back to bite me in the end.

  The other exorcists and I gathered in front of the shrine as Akito lectured us on exorcist safety. The others stared at him with spaced out eyes, and I assumed they'd been subjected to the same lecture a million times before. Taisei had his head down, and I assumed he was in a deep contemplation about Akito's words until I noticed he was just playing on his cell phone.

  When Akito pulled out a charm and began meditating, I began to wonder if he had tricked me into thinking we were going to have fun.

  “What is that?” I hissed at Taisei.

  “It's a location charm,” he said. “It begins to glow when there's an Obake nearby.”

  “But it's already glowing,” I said as I noticed the faint glow that the paper was omitting.

  “That's because we're all here, exorcists gain their spiritual powers through a deal our ancestors made with Obake, so all of us have a little Obake blood.”

  Obake blood? I thought in shock. No one had told me that before. I never realized that I was part monster.

  “Hey, Taisei, does that mean that any one of us could go crazy and start eating people?” I looked around nervously. Kiyori certainly looked like he would eat someone if he got hungry enough.

  “Don't be ridiculous” Taisei hissed. “It's barely anything, just enough to channel into the charms.”

  “Oh,” I felt relieved

  Akito then proceeded to walk around the perimeter searching for any hint of an Obake nearby. I followed behind to see if the paper would really glow brighter, and for some reason Souta also decided to accompany me.

  “It could be hours before we find anything,” said Souta. “Most of our time is taken up by searching for Obake, sometimes we don't find anything until five or six in the morning.”

  “What!” I yelled. Souta had the tendency to over exaggerate everything so I looked at Kiyori to confirm if it was true, he nodded.

  Akito did a few more laps of the perimeter until he finally announced that he had found a trace.

  “This way!” He commanded.

  We spent half an hour climbing over the mountain until we finally located a small raccoon Obake. Akito told me the town was full of them and they were currently in the middle of fighting off a raccoon invasion.

  Akito stood beside me and attempted to explain what was happening, but he spent most of his time yelling out commands to the others.

  “Watch your form Nina!”

  “Stop taking pictures and pay attention Taisei! No Mana will not take them for you!”

  “Stop standing there Souta! Do something. Put up a barrier!”

  “Good job Itsuki!”

  Much like what I saw the previous day, the others fought it off until Itsuki hit the raccoon with a lighting charm
and it was reduced to a smoldering pile of ashes.

  I asked Taisei what their strategy was, only to be told “it's simple, we steer the Obake in a certain direction and then Itsuki does all the work.”

  “Hey I'm not certain that's really fair,” muttered Itsuki.

  “Shut up you,” said Taisei. “Who was the one who said they didn't like getting close to the Obake?”

  “Yeah, but,” Itsuki suddenly went silent. It was the first time I'd seen him unable to think up a witty retort. I decided to celebrate the occasion by laughing at him until Akito whacked me over the head.

  “This isn't something to laugh about!” Akito scolded. “You all still have a long way to go!”

  * * *

  The sun was setting by the time we finally made it back to the shrine. Akito spent a good half hour lecturing the others on their mistakes, so none of them were particularly happy. Akito was only there for my sake, so it wasn't hard for them to conclude that it was all my fault, and I was given the cold shoulder all the way back to headquarters. Taisei also spent the trip grumbling about all the perfect photo opportunities he'd missed.

  “Did you see that guy's teeth Kiyori,” said Taisei. “We're never going to find one like that again!”