How I was Murdered by a Fox Monster Read online

  “Cut it out!” Yelled Itsuki from his room.

  Even Taisei looked annoyed, he huffed and slid all his photos into the desk draw. “Those two used to get along well when they were children, but recently they've been intolerable.”

  “Maybe it's because of a certain someone!” Yelled Mana from her room.

  “Mana! Isn't it past your bedtime!” Taisei yelled back.

  “What do I look like, five!”

  “I don't know, sometimes I really can't tell the difference!”

  “Can everyone please just shut up!” Yelled Itsuki. “I have a math test tomorrow!”

  I peered out the door just in time to see Nina emerge from the bathroom. Her face was covered in green goo and she was brandishing a hair drying in one hand. She threw it, aiming from Kurumi's head, but luckily Kurumi ducked in time and it went through the wall. I stared in horror, unable to move or say anything. Although Nina wasn't as skilled at exorcising as the others, her aim became dead on when she was mad enough. I really hope those skills kick in if the fox monster steps over my dead carcass and comes gunning towards her.

  Chapter 11

  Nothing eventful happened until a few weeks later when I arrived at homeroom one Monday to find my classmate, Yuto Murakami, had attracted himself a large group of students. He was sitting on top of his desk while everyone else crowded around. On Friday he was just another quiet nobody, but that day everyone was looking up at him like he was the messiah. I was puzzled how a boring guy like him could pull in such a crowd, so I approached Keira for the answers.

  “What's going on here?” I asked.

  “Just go over and listen,” said Keira without taking his eyes off his cell phone game.

  “I was walking home late last night,” said Yuto in a hushed voice. “You know, after club activities and stuff. The moon was really bright, and the streets were dead, dead as a graveyard. The wind blew through the trees, creating an eerie noise which was like," he paused. "Ghosts calling out to me from beyond the grave. I walked quickly, trying to get home faster. My shoes echoed on the pavement like this,” he did an impression of stamping. “Everything was fine, fine I tell you, until all of a sudden I saw someone else in the distance strolling towards me. His hair was bleached blonde and he was clad in a leather jacket and sunglasses. There was also some sort of tattoo on his face. He looked pretty sketchy so I guess he may have been in a gang. I panicked and dived behind a nearby garden fence. I decided the best thing to do was to wait until he passed by. The grass was cold and wet, but I refused to move until that shady guy was out of sight.” Yuto paused, the classroom was dead silent and we all waited for him to continue. “It looked like he was going to walk by, but as soon as he reached my fence he stopped. I was afraid he'd seen me, so I peered through to see what he was doing. I was prepared to run for help if I had to, but that was when it happened.”

  “When what happened?” Asked someone from the crowd.

  Yuto took a deep breath. “Hair grew from his face, his figure bent and shrunk until he was standing on all fours. He shed his clothes and howled at the moon,” Yuto raised his hands for dramatic purposes. “And before I knew it, he had transformed, into a werewolf!”

  One of the girls even screamed and had to be consoled by a nearby friend who wasn't too happy.

  “Don't be ridiculous, you're making it up,” she said.

  “Yeah! Who would believe such a stupid story,” said a guy in the front row. “It is just a story right?”

  “I swear that it really happened,” protested Yuto. “I was there, I saw everything. It's still out there even as we speak.”

  “His story gets better every time he tells it,” said Keira. “The first time wasn't nearly this exciting.”

  “Did you hear that!” I exclaimed. “For all we know there could be rabid werewolves running around town. Aren't you worried?”

  “He's just trying to get attention,” Keira suddenly gritted his teeth and his fingers stopped punching the screen. “Damn, I lost my game.”

  Mana was also standing off to the side, she gave a small nod to Itsuki and he got out of his chair and left the classroom. I had a feeling he'd left to find Taisei. Maybe werewolf extermination was one of their many exorcist skills.

  It was difficult to concentrate for the rest of class when there was a werewolf invasion on the horizon. What if Yuto's mysterious wolf bit one person, who then bit another person, and before we knew it, the whole town was infested.

  I attempted to find Taisei during lunch, but unfortunately he had just hit the realization that the girl he liked, Yui Murase, had been flirting with most of the school's male population. He was lying down on the bench in the courtyard, obviously wallowing in misery. He was surrounded by his fellow third year classmates who were attempting to console him.

  “Yui. Why, why, why,” Taisei moaned. “That university student, the electrician, and even Daiki Souma.”

  “It's not so bad man, you didn't know, the rest of us only just found out too,” said one of his friends.

  “There are plenty of girls out there. What about that first year you always hang around with?” Asked another. “The cute one with the short hair and pigtails.”

  “That's my sister!”

  I eventually found Kiyori at the back of the sports shed with a group of friends.

  Kiyori and I had been getting along quite well, and I often hung out with his group of friends in break time. His posse and I didn't hit it off at first (they were tall, large, intimidating, and one of them even had a beard) but I thought they were cool, despite their habit of pushing the first years around. The only small snag in our friendship was when the guy with the beard attempted to extort me for my lunch money without realizing that Kiyori was my friend.

  The advantage of being friends was that no one tried to mess with me anymore. There was once a stage where it looked like the Daisuke Matsu-morron nickname might spread like wildfire, but luckily hanging out with Kiyori's group helped put a stop to it.

  “Hey Daisuke,” called the guy with the beard. “What's up?”

  “Hey..You,” I said. I always called him the guy with the beard in my head so I couldn't remember his real name. “I just wanted to ask Kiyori something.”

  “Hmmm,” said Kiyori. He was halfway through munching on a bread bun.

  I knew it was probably best to ask later when we were alone, but there was only two minutes left of break time. I could not take another hour of dealing with werewolf anxiety (the term I invented to describe my current feelings) and Kiyori's friends were pretty cool, so I decided to just say it.

  “One of my classmates was almost attacked by a rabid werewolf, and soon the entire town could be in the mist of a werewolf infestation.”

  “Wow, that's intense bro,” said one of Kiyori's friends, a pale guy who attached bro to the end of every sentence. “Someone should really do something about that bro.”

  “Ha, Ha,” laughed Kiyori nervously. “He's so funny isn't he?” Kiyori quickly grabbed my arm and pulled me aside. “We'll talk about it at home later,” he hissed before pushing me back out into the yard. I spent the rest of the day anxiously biting my nails until school was over and we could finally go to headquarters.

  Chapter 12

  “It's not a werewolf,” said Akito. We were all gathered before him in the front room. All of us were anxiously sitting seiza style on the tatami floor (or in Taisei's case, lying on his back) as we waited for Akito's verdict.

  I felt a sense of relief wash over me. “At least there's no longer any need to worry about a werewolf infestation right?” I asked.

  “It's worse,” said Akito.

  “Oh, I knew it was too good to be true,” I muttered.

  “Wolves are high level Obake who are capable of transforming into human form,” said Akito. “It's no difficult task for them to trick humans, lure them back to their lair, and then eat them alive.”

  “But you don't have to worry about them sneaking up on you and ri
pping your heart out right?” I Asked.

  “No,” said Kiyori in a spooky voice. “They eat the body whole.”

  “Eh,” I felt a cold shiver run down my body.

  “Are you really sure it's them?” Asked Taisei. “What if this first year was just making the whole thing up, didn't we already go through this with the big foot scare?”

  “I'm not spending another week searching the city for nothing,” added Kurumi. “My skin became so dry last time.”

  “Always you and your skin,” Nina muttered under her breath. Kurumi mustn't have heard, because they would have both been arguing too loudly for me to hear what Akito had to say next.

  My teacher continued. “There's been a string of violent attacks in a nearby city that I've been following for weeks. Muggings, shop windows, smaller Obake suddenly leaving the area. These are all signs of a wolf gang presence.”

  Kiyori raised his hand. “Hey Akito! When you made me write that composition on wolf Obake, the textbook said that the organization made a truce with them not to attack humans.”

  “Hmm,” nodded Akito. “That was true when I was your age, but things have changed. Ever since the old pack leader died that truce has be rendered invalid, and most of the wolves now run around doing as they please.”

  “Err,” Kiyori ground his teeth. He was obviously annoyed that he had to write a report which was a lie.

  The look on his face was enough to make me laugh until Akito turned around and said “that reminds me, I think I've found the subject for your next composition Daisuke.”

  I began to imagine what Akito would look like if he was stabbed with a thousand pins, and I began to consider making my own Akito voodoo doll.

  “That's why we need to treat this with up most caution,” said Akito. “We don't know their intentions. They could be after fun, money, or aiming for new territory. The organization even assigned a special task force to combat this insurgency. They requested that we don't make a move until their agent arrives. Until then we will scourer the town and try to discover their location, but we are forbidden from doing anymore, understood?”

  “Looks like another sleepless night,” sighed Mana.

  “What are you talking about, there's no way you're going,” said Taisei. “She's not seriously going right Akito? This looks dangerous and stuff, and if Mana dies my parents are going to kill me.”

  “But I hunt Obake all the time!” Mana protested.

  “These aren't low level Obake,” said Taisei. “We're dealing with level one now!”

  “Mana's going it's part of her training,” said Akito.

  “Ah hah!” Mana stuck her tongue out at her brother.

  Taisei scowled. “Itsuki, it's your job to look after Mana!” He snapped.

  I asked if I could also join in the hunt for the wolf monsters but Akito only laughed. It was the first time that I'd ever seen him laugh. He then directed me straight to the library and made me start reading up on the wolf Obake.

  I skimmed through the pages while spending every moment wishing that I was outside with the others.

  I was beginning to feel disheartened with the whole exorcist thing. Everyone had made it out to seem dangerous and exciting, but until then I hadn't done anything except read books.

  I decided to build a fort out of the library books to kill time while the others were gone. I did a pretty good job, but then the encyclopedia of 100 cute but deadly Obake wasn't as stable as it seemed and the whole thing came crashing down. I realized while picking up the pieces that the answer to all my problems had been sitting in front of me all along.

  It was simple, I would use the information from the books to go find the wolf Obake on my own. I grabbed the closest volume, and flipped through the pages until I found what I was looking for.

  It was as Akito claimed. They were apparently very dangerous Obake who many exorcists had died attempting to defeat. The book must have been old because it claimed that all wolves served under one pack leader, who once had central Japan under his control. Akito did say that he was dead now, so even all powerful Obake had to die eventually.

  Of course I had no plans to fight them. I didn't want to be eaten alive, but if I managed to locate them and tell the others, then they would finally take my skills seriously and allow me to go on more exorcisms.

  I picked up the rest of the books and shoved them randomly back on the shelves. I collected my book on wolves and readied myself for my first ever Obake hunt. Looking back on it now it was comical how eager I was to find a dangerous level one Obake, especially after the terrible situation I got myself into.

  * * *

  I searched the obvious spots listed in the textbook. Caves, empty houses, and I even hung outside a bar in case someone suspicious emerged. I tried to be extra cautious not to run into the others as well. If our paths crossed, I was planning to tell them that I was out on my evening jog.

  “Hmm, if I was a wolf Obake, where would I be?” I asked myself. I tried to get my mind into the zone like Taisei had once advised me. I had attempted it before with cat, raccoon, and pry-mantas, but I'd failed up until now and apparently wolves weren't any different. After searching the town for a least three hours I still had nothing.

  I was beginning to wish I had brought a detector charm along to help me, but I never imagined it would be so difficult to find an Obake, my ordinary and mundane classmate had managed it after all.

  “That's it! The school!” I said to myself. If Yuto had seen a wolf Obake on his way home, it meant they had to be hiding out somewhere near his commute to school. I began jogging in the direction of my high school with a renewed sense of hope. I felt like I was a master exorcist stalking his prey. I was ready to take down monsters and free the world from evil.

  I was still only halfway to school when I spotted a house which caught my attention. The plot of land was bigger than the houses beside it, and it was surrounded by overgrown trees which blocked out the sun. The grass was overgrown, but the house was still in good condition, so I assumed the owner was just a lousy gardener.

  I couldn't help thinking that if I were a man eating Obake, this was where I would want to hide. All I had to do was knock on the door and confirm that the people behind it were human.

  I ran my fingers over the wooden fence nervously. I was suddenly unsure if I wanted to plunge headfirst into a potential Obake infestation.

  As eager as I was, I still had no experience when it came to eliminating Obake, and the only charm I knew wasn't anymore useful than a candle. I was beginning to doubt my plan. Maybe it was best just to call it a day and go home. I continued staring at the house with no idea what to do. If I had just returned straight home instead of lingering to mull over my inner torment, things wouldn't have ended so badly.

  “Hey kid what are you doing?”

  A gruff voice made be jump. I spun around to see a short stocky man carrying a pair of hedge trimmers over his shoulder. He must have been the house owner who had finally given in and decided to tame the garden.

  He must have thought I appeared suspicious and looked me up and down. “What are you doing here kid?” He asked.

  “I..I,” I stuttered. I wasn't sure how to voice my intentions in a way that wouldn't sound strange, so I just bowed by head and attempted to quickly walk away.

  “Hey kid wait up,” he put his arm in front of me to prevent me from fleeing. “I suppose you'll do.”

  I was about to ask what he was talking about before I felt a sudden pain in the right side of my head, and everything went black.

  Chapter 13

  Cling.

  Cling.

  Cling.

  Cling.

  Was the first sound that reached my ears when I finally fazed back into consciousness. It sounded like someone was repetitively throwing coins at the ground, and it reminded me of the time I dropped all my change as a child, and I could do nothing more but watch as my pocket money rolled into the drain.

  Cling.

  Cl
ing.

  Cling.

  Cling.

  It continued until all of a sudden the noise finally came to a halt. I became aware that my head was throbbing, but as hard as I tried, I couldn't remember why. Had I fallen? Had someone hit me? I could remember staring anxiously at a large house amongst the trees, but after that everything became hazy. I had a feeling I'd been talking to someone, but I couldn't remember who. A face didn't come to mind.

  I moaned and cracked my eyes open, but everything was a blur. The room was pitch black so a few hours must have passed since I remembered being conscious. Indistinguishable shadows moved around the room before me.

  One of the blurry shadows spoke.“Have you found anything over there?” It asked.

  “Sorry boss,” replied another.

  “What are we dealing with, an orphan?” Asked the first shadow. “This is why I told you not to target children.”

  “Oi! He looks like he's coming to!” Yelled someone I couldn't see.

  Slowly everything swirled and came into focus. I was sitting in what appeared to be a living room. The only light was from a TV in the corner which cast a blue glow. It was playing some sort of game show, but no one was watching except for a large dog lying on the carpet before it.