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Yokoburi

Hinkley Correia


Gray skies pressed down on the city, threatening Tokyo with an inevitable downpour. Most people moved quickly, doing their best to get to shelter, lest they get caught and soaked. Some walked slowly, already hiding under their umbrellas. It was quiet, at least as quiet as a place as crowded as Tokyo could get. Normally, Ao Hikubo liked weather like this, and the ability to stay home and read, but unfortunately, she had work to do.

For not the first time, and definitely not the last, she found herself at the Boiling Note. The bar fit in with the rainy atmosphere perfectly. Soft jazz hung in the air, just loud enough to be heard over rare conversations, mingling with the smell of alcohol and cigarette smoke. Dust clung to everything it could reach, gathering in corners and cracks, of which there were many. The place had seen better days, but Ao couldn’t say exactly when those better days were. Even so, the food was cheap and so was the booze. Not that she’d know, still being a highschooler and all. From what she’d seen, Japan cared less about underage drinking than America did, but if either her sister or her uncle caught her, they’d kill her. And then they’d call her parents, who’d fly all the way from wherever they were this week and kill her too.

It was a good place to get information, though. She had first heard about it from Uncle Kazue, who went there whenever he had trouble with a case, and she had come by with a hunch and a problem. The bartender was a cryptic old bastard, but his information was reliable, and he didn’t look down on her detective work just because she was a young lady. One of the rare places that served both humans and yokai, all kinds of people gathered there.

Tonight, though, the Boiling Note was empty, leaving her with just the bartender and the wretched little creature in front of her. Out of all the horrific monsters that she’d had to face off against in her time as a junior exorcist, this thing had to be the worst. Cold, lifeless eyes stared straight into her soul, like a god of death measuring her sins before she could pass into the afterlife. Ao was pretty sure it was supposed to be a cat, one that had been squished around and warped beyond recognition, covered in glitter and forcibly marketed to every girl under ten in the country. Supposedly, it was the mascot character to a popular magical girl anime, but she had never been a fan of cartoons, so she never paid attention. Even in the safety of her own home she was subjected to its dead gaze, as her twin sister Yui had several of the plushies in their shared room, but even those had the advantage of being well kept. The one sitting across from her had been touched by the same charm the rest of the bar had.

Was it common to set up a stuffed animal like that? Just another cultural thing she wasn’t familiar with? It had been six months since she moved to Japan from America, and she still didn’t know what was going on. She had been hanging out for close to an hour, waiting for her client to show up. After about twenty minutes of sipping on cheap coffee and people watching, the bartender plopped the stuffed animal across from her, like some kind of mockery of a date. He smiled while he did it, too, as if he didn’t know she was waiting on someone.

It wasn’t like she could pull out the invitation she got just to prove it. The note was written using magazine clippings, and if she didn’t know exactly who it came from, she would have assumed it was from a serial killer. It was a good thing her family was out that night, because she had no idea how she was going to explain it.

Ao ripped her gaze from the stuffed animal back to the door. Technically, she was twenty minutes early, but he was still half an hour late. Some gentleman he was. Maybe he had gotten caught up in something, and he was in a jail cell or lying face down in a ditch, depending on who it was. Maybe she really was getting stood up.

Fingers tapped the table right in front of her, startling her out of her thoughts. A young man with bright red hair, only a few years older than she was, had stolen the stuffed animal’s seat. He’d grabbed the glitter cat thing, and was holding it in front of his face, waving its hand like it had come to life and wanted to be her friend. She really didn’t need that mental image in her head at the moment. “Hello, Tantei-chan!”

Little Miss Detective. She hated the nickname. “You’re late. It’s rude to keep a lady waiting, you know.”

The Phantom Thief of Tokyo put the stuffed animal down, his usual foxlike smirk cracked across his face. It might have reached his eyes, but she could never tell, thanks to the mask he wore. The reflective gold material made him look like a cartoon villain, but at least he had ditched the top hat and cape for this outing. It wouldn’t have mattered to anyone else, anyway. He was a master of illusion magic, and she just happened to not see illusions at all. If she really wanted to, she could gather her magic and see what his disguise was today, but she didn’t want to accidentally shatter something and get kicked out.

“Sorry, sorry. Trains were delayed. So how are things at the agency?”

Ao sighed into her coffee, blowing steam into her glasses. “Busy. Uncle’s been helping out at the Ministry a lot lately. Supposedly, a Rift opened up in Ginza, so it’s been all hands on deck trying to keep it under wraps. Can’t exactly use the costume excuse in the luxury district.”

If anyone could see them, see through all the illusions and masks, they would see quite the odd couple. The Phantom Thief, one of the most infamous criminals in the entire country, known for his flashy heists and perfect escapes, and Ao Hikubo, the apprentice detective and junior exorcist who publicly had made it her goal to catch him. They had known each other for less than a year, but it felt like they had been rivals for eternity. He had been there when she was first thrust into the world of the supernatural. Things changed a couple of weeks ago, when she deliberately fumbled turning him over to the authorities because one of the local officials had pissed her off.

“So, why did you call me here?”

His smile flickered for just a moment, but it was enough to tell her that things were bad. “I was wondering if you were taking on any jobs at the moment.”

“That depends. I don’t have any real authority, so unless you need help looking for a lost pet, I can’t help you.”

“No, it’s a bit more complicated than that, but I’m not exactly looking for real authority here.” The Phantom flipped open his bag and fished out a plain manila folder. He looked down at it for a moment before tentatively handing it over.

There were photos of nine girls. Seven were college age, but the other two were clearly younger, probably not yet high school graduates. Most of the photos were from social media, selfies showing off hair and makeup, although there were a few almost risqué full-body shots. All the girls were pretty, but Ao couldn’t tell if there was anything special about them at a glance.

“If you’re looking for a matchmaker, you came to the wrong place.”

He tapped the folder again. “Every single one of these girls has gone missing.”

“So, why aren’t the police doing anything? Nine people is a lot to just disappear.”

“All of them were engaged in compensated dating. Almost everyone’s assuming that they ran off with their boyfriends.” His smile flickered again, and the dim light made it easy to see the bitterness behind it. “And besides that, they’re all half-yokai. Their families can’t go to the police without being banished.”

That made sense. Regular people didn’t know about the supernatural, and the government was convinced that if the secret got out there would be war. Rifts where the boundary between worlds were thin were closely monitored. Yokai and spirits were usually forbidden from interacting with humans, but if everyone followed that rule she’d be out of a job. The Ministry of Supernatural Affairs always prioritized humanity, everyone else just fell between the cracks. Hikubo Psychic Investigations had a reputation for taking cases that the police didn’t, but they weren’t the only ones.

“Why do you care, then? Last time I checked, your entire schtick is disappearing, not finding people.”

He looked around the bar, as if there was anyone else but them, and dropped his voice. “The Phoenix Clan and the Turtle Clan are both blaming each other for the disappearances.”

The Phoenix Clan and the Turtle Clan had been at each other’s throats for longer than either of them had been alive, always looking for a good excuse to wipe each other off the map. Back in the day, their influences reached throughout the entire city, but since the police started cracking down on yakuza they were stuck playing nice.

“Normally, we’d wait for this to calm down, but things have been tense since the whole Shiro Tsubaki incident. Nobody wants to deal with the anti-human death cult, especially since nobody knows who their leader is. Everyone’s been paranoid. My boss thinks this might be the tipping point, and believe me, nobody wants a real fight to break out.”

Ao took another slow sip of her rapidly cooling coffee. “Do you think it could be the Shiro Tsubaki again?”

Phantom shrugged. “Maybe.”

“Do you even have any leads? I know I’m good, but this sounds like we’re working on a time limit.”

“There is. Takeda Emiko was friends with one of the girls that went missing, Shiroma Aiko. She was supposed to go to the meetup with her, but she had to cancel because of her dad’s business. When Shiroma-san went missing, it wasn’t exactly hard to put two and two together.”

“If you have a main suspect, why aren’t the clans taking care of it?” Then it clicked. “Unless you don’t have any evidence.”

He heaved a sigh. “Unfortunately, no. My job is to sneak in and steal any evidence related to the disappearances. I have a plan, but I don’t know where their base of operations is.”

Another question went off in the back of her mind. “Why does your boss care about what the street gangs are doing?”

His smile dropped, just a little. “You know I can’t tell you that.”

“And you know I can’t take on a job without knowing who I’m working for.”

“To be honest, I don’t know. All I really know is that someone has to help these girls because no one else will, and if they don’t then there’s going to be a street war.”

Something in his posture told her to drop it. She trusted Phantom enough to hear him out. “You want me to find out where they’re hiding?”

“Well, that’s not the only reason I want to hire you.”

She set her coffee down. “Oh? What else do you need?”

A crooked grin broke along his face, like a crack in concrete. “How do you feel about undercover work?”

✧ ✧ ✧

Dammit, Ao. How do you keep ending up doing shit like this? She scanned the crowd again. Waves of people washed through the subway station, uncaring as to the problems outside of their bubbles. Small clumps of teenagers gathered in stores, while adults wound through looking at their phones or for their next meals. She watched Phantom out of the corner of her eye, dressed like a normal person this time, as he wandered around the shops. He was definitely using an illusion, but she wondered if he even needed to. He had a knack for fitting in, remaining unnoticed. It must have been nice.

Maybe if you weren’t such a damn bleeding heart you’d be doing something productive with your life.

Absent-mindedly, she tugged her far too short skirt down again, as if it would magically grow a few more inches if she kept at it. In an ideal world, she would be flaunting it, using her feminine wiles to seduce the information she needed out of her targets. Unfortunately, nothing about her was very feminine. It was a miracle that she hadn’t been mistaken for a clown with the amount of makeup that she caked on her face. Instead she just had to hope it would be enough to be mistaken for Takeda.

Phantom’s plan was simple: Ao looked a bit like Takeda, so she would dress up like her and agree to meet up with the suspect. The suspect would take her back to his hideout, while Phantom would use illusion magic to travel along invisibly. Once there he would sneak around and scour the place for clues, while Ao acted as a distraction. If/when she was attacked, he would cast an illusion on her, and they would sneak out together. Failing stealth, Torimodosu was stored in a seal in her pocket.

Apparently, Phantom bought a burner phone for this case, and he had been texting her the entire time. By the way he acted about it, she would have thought that it was his first phone. Then again, it might have been. She didn’t know much about his home life, but she was pretty sure someone well-adjusted wouldn’t end up as one of the most wanted men in Japan. He was in the middle of discovering the joys of emojis when her “date” finally showed up.

Suzuki Fumihiro was, as far as she could see, a regular, but large human. His hair was unkempt, and the barest whispers of a beard graced his chin. If he was a yokai, he was something that could change his appearance. Illusions didn’t work on her, so she knew that this had to be his real face.

He looked her up and down, a sneer on his face. “Are you Takeda Emiko?”

“Yep! Are you Suzuki Fumihiro?” Ao inwardly cringed. Hopefully her half-formed pop idol impression was enough.

His face twisted into a smile. “Nice to meet you. We’re meeting up with a couple of my friends downtown.”

“Sounds exciting! Where are we going?”

He swung his arm around her waist, and she had to bite the inside of her lip just to not let her magic out. “Just a little local place. I know the owner.”

“Oh? Is that where you take all the girls you meet?”

Suzuki laughed. “What can I say? I’m quite the lady charmer.”

He led her into a part of town that she had never seen before, not that it meant much. Tokyo was big enough that if Ao wandered the streets everyday she wasn’t sure she would be able to see all of them before they completely changed. She had only been there for a couple months and never had an excuse to explore. She made sure to memorize as many of the stores and signs as possible, so she could make her way back if she wanted to. In fact, Ao focused so hard on the buildings she didn’t notice any of the people until they walked around a corner.

Time froze, and so did she just for a moment as she made eye contact with Ishida, who looked like he just saw a pile of rotting garbage on the street, disgusted and confused. He and his buddy, Motonao the oni, were muscle for the Phoenix Clan, and the last people she needed in her life right now. Uncle Kazue’d had a run in with them before she had moved here, and even got them arrested, but she didn’t know the details outside of that. What she did know was that Ishida was a massive asshole. They fought almost every time they ran into each other. When Ishida’s boss put his foot down and told them to knock it off, they’d worked around it by challenging each other to a Mage Duel.

Normally, they’d be trash-talking by now, pushing the other to throw a punch, but that didn’t exactly fit with the ditzy party girl she was trying to be. Even dressed like this, there was no way he didn’t recognize her. Blue eyes weren’t exactly common in Japan, so two people with them stood out. Ao buried her face in Suzuki’s arm and prayed that Ishida wouldn’t start anything. He didn’t, thankfully; he just looked at her like she was completely nuts.

Suzuki scoffed. “Look at them. Thinking they’re hot shit just because they’ve got that new nightclub.”

“Nightclub?” Not that she really cared what the Phoenix Clan did, but she was going to take any information she could get.

“Yeah. DUSK. It’s opening tomorrow night. Everyone knows that the Phoenix are the ones bankrolling it. We’ll see who’s laughing when it blows up in their face.”

“Why do you think it’ll blow up in their face?”

He petted the top of her head, and she wanted to throw up. “Don’t worry your pretty little head about it.”

✧ ✧ ✧

Azuma’s Pachinko Parlor was grimy. The kind of grime that gathered over years of neglect, collecting the dirt of everyone that came in, and stuck itself to everyone that tried to leave. It was the bottom of the barrel, home only to those who were thrown out of everywhere else. For once, Ao was glad for the stench of marijuana because she couldn’t smell anything under it, and she really didn’t want to. One side was filled with older pachinko machines, with clattering and sound effects loud enough to give her a headache. The other side was a restaurant with tables crowded with men talking under the noise and watching everyone that came through the entrance. A counter sat square in the middle, acting as both a bar and a place to exchange the balls. There were two doors on the back wall, and a staircase to a second floor. Ao assumed the office would be up there, and sure enough, out of the corner of her eye, she watched Phantom stalk up and disappear.

Suzuki led her over to the restaurant portion, where a larger group of young men were sitting around. All appeared to be around college aged, maybe a little older. Almost all of them appeared to be yokai. She couldn’t tell whether they were bothering to hide behind illusion magic or not. Something in her gut told her that these guys didn’t care to follow the law all that much, anyway.

An older woman came out of what must have been the kitchen door, holding a small notebook. Before she even opened her mouth, Suzuki waved her off. “Just get the usual.”

The woman rolled her eyes, but quickly returned to the tired, impassive look she had earlier. It was the look of someone suffering from bone-deep exhaustion. She had been treated like that before and would be again. Again and again, until the stress finally killed her. Orders in hand, she disappeared through the kitchen door.

While they waited for food, the conversation was painfully boring to listen to. Just more trash talking, with no real information. No one spoke to her, and while some of the gang members kept leering at her, no one cared if she talked or not. Checking her phone every two minutes didn’t seem to bother them, so she focused on the texts Phantom sent her.

His investigation seemed to be going better than hers, at least. According to him, the office lock had been easy to defeat, but there was nothing out in plain view. There was a safe, which was slightly harder than the door but still came apart without trouble. The last text she saw before the waitress came back with the food was a casual “How much trouble would I get in if I took the money from the safe?”

She barely had time to send a short “don’t” before the plates were on the table. Suzuki leaned over at her. “Takeda-chan, where did you say you were going to college again?”

What? Was Takeda going to college? Ao never got that much information. Suzuki presumably just hired Takeda to be eye candy. Did he have that much information? His fake smile only widened while he watched her flounder. She fluttered her eyelashes as much as she could and tried to think up a good lie. “I’m not in college yet. I’m still taking entrance exams.”

He leaned in closer. All the shadows in the room seemed to get darker, and she could taste something acidic. Dark magic pressed down on her. “What colleges?”

Her phone buzzed twice. A goblin caught Suzuki’s attention, just enough time to look at the message. Shiro Tsubaki. Run.

Ao slipped her phone back into her pocket just before Suzuki returned to staring her down. Neither of them were smiling anymore, the facade of a normal date dropped into the gutter. “So tell me, human, how did you find me?”

She scanned the room. Most of the gang stared at both of them now, just waiting for a signal. They were getting between her and the front door, but the back door was clear. “If you tell me where the girls are then I’ll get out of your hair.”

“Why don’t you find out for yourself!” Suzuki lunged at her.

She didn’t think. She just moved. Her hands found their way under the table and she threw all her weight into flipping it as she sprang to her feet. Dishes of greasy diner food clattered to the floor, but she already made a break for the back door. There was shouting, but all words melted into the chaos that broke out behind her.

The door slammed open with ease, sending her careening into the back alley and straight into a puddle. Her gloves protected her hands, but her tights and knees weren’t so lucky. Sharp gravel shredded through both. Ao didn’t feel any of it. Not the pain, not the freezing cold water, only the desperate need to keep pushing forward. If there was one thing she was good at, it was getting back up. She pushed it all down and started running again.

And not a moment too soon, as a crash rang out from somewhere behind her. Her feet pounded against the dirty pavement as she dodged back and forth between trash, ducking into whatever side paths she saw. The second she stopped or slowed down, she was screwed. If she could get out to one of the main streets there would be people, hopefully enough to scare the gang off. But how? Tokyo’s back alleys were a maze on a good day. She had no idea where she was, the rain was getting worse, and it was getting harder and harder to breathe.

Another crash echoed through the streets. Someone yelled, though she couldn’t tell who or where. She put more energy into running. They didn’t know where she was, either. As long as she kept moving, and stayed out of sight, she might just make it. Hopefully, she’d find the exit before someone found her corpse in a trash bag.

There wasn’t time to text Phantom back, but if Ao trusted him to do anything, it was weasel his way out of sticky situations. It had taken her months to track him down and capture him. He had probably slipped out after she flipped the table. If he was smart, he’d be halfway to his boss with whatever evidence he grabbed. Fortunately, he had a strong moral compass for a professional con man. He could have been anywhere, but something in her gut told her that he was nearby.

She took another turn. A wall loomed ahead of her, blocking her path. A fire escape climbed up to the upper floors of the building it was attached to, but the ladder was locked up. If she could get ahold of the bottom rung, she could hide out on the roof. Unfortunately, she couldn’t see anything to climb up on. Just jumping didn’t cut it, and the bricks of the building were too packed together to get a good fingerhold.

Fuck. It really was a dead end. Either she could hide there and hope that they would pass her by and give up before they found her, or she could make a break for it and hope that the gang wouldn’t notice. She fished through her pockets until she got ahold of the crumpled seal. Rain already soaked it, but the ink and magic stayed firm. Normally, she’d have to cut her hand to use it, but the blood on her knees would work well enough. Touching the scrape stung. Blood sank into the paper, and then glowed into a bright white. The seal folded until the light paper shifted into solid metal.

Torimodosu was a familiar and welcome weight in her hand. Those that chose to become exorcists received a named weapon, enchanted to help fight evil spirits. Most chose something traditional. Some chose weapons that had belonged to their families for generations. Uncle Kazue used a sasumata, a two-pronged staff thing used to keep people away. Ao chose something a little closer to home. A Springfield 1911 Range Officer. One of her colleagues called her a typical foreigner, but they still gave it to her. Granted, she was still a junior exorcist, so if she fired it she would probably be in more trouble than the gang, but she would much rather deal with the legal trouble than whatever they had planned for her.

Her bright moment darkened quickly when another shadow stretched across the ground. The goblin found her first. His shrill voice threatened to burst her eardrums. “I found her!”

The others appeared immediately, eyes alight in either amusement or anger. Suzuki shoved his way to the front of the crowd and flashed her a smile with way too many teeth. “Looks like you got nowhere to run, now. So why don’t you come back with us, and we’ll sort this out, hm?”

Nope. No way in hell. She flipped off the safety and leveled it at his head. Outside of ghosts, which were already dead, she had never killed anyone before, and she wasn’t excited to change that. But if it was kill or be killed, she knew what her choice was.

“Now, that’s no way to talk to a lady.” Phantom’s voice, the same one he used when he made a dramatic escape from a crime scene, came from the fire escape above and behind her. When she turned to see him, he threw his arms wide. A tiny flame sparked in between her and Suzuki, before it exploded into a wall of fire.

Suzuki smirked, and the air dropped from cold to freezing. It wasn’t just a trick of the nerves, either. Shadows intensified to a suffocating point. Air felt like it was being sucked straight out of her lungs. The wall of fire went out just as quickly as it ignited. Phantom keeled over the railing with a gasp, just barely catching himself. Ao forced her stiffening joints into position. Suzuki clearly thought it must have been a bluff, as he took another confident stride forward.

“And what’s going on over here?”

For the first time in her life, she was thankful to see Ishida, in all his smarmy, assholish glory. Even better, he was flanked by Motonao and several of their Phoenix Clan friends.

Any false kindness dropped from Suzuki’s face. “What are you doing here, old man?”

Ishida took a step forward, and the shadows got more intense. Suzuki must have been more nervous than he let on. Ao felt her own magic rumble in her chest, looking for any material use.

If she didn’t know any better, she would have thought that Ishida had more teeth than a regular human should. “Suzuki Fumihiro, right? You’ve pissed a lot of really important people off.”

Ishida clapped his hands together, and slowly pulled them apart. Sparks of volatile blue electricity danced between them, barely illuminating his growing grin. It reflected in the water that flooded the streets. The water that they were all standing in. Ao made eye contact with him, and slightly shook her head no, but his smile only grew. She took her finger off the trigger.

For one brief, terrifying moment, Suzuki and Ishida stared each other down. The type of stare-down that American Western movies were made around. The type before duels that would go down in legends.

Some unknown, unseen signal flared and the tension snapped. Shadows shifted toward the yakuza. Electricity burst out and jumped between the puddles. It was beautiful, pure white, arcing around like tree branches. The next moment, it felt like hundreds of wasps decided to sting her at once. Next thing she knew, she was flat on her back, staring up at the dark sky.

Distantly, she heard the telltale sounds of a fight and footsteps. Her fingers twitched slightly, but the rest of her body refused to move. She’d live. It wasn’t the first time Ishida had shocked the living daylights out of her. It still hurt like a bitch. She could also do without lying in a dirty puddle. At least she wasn’t lying there for long, as Motonao grabbed her by the shirt and lifted her to her feet with one hand. From this angle, she could see the hangure thugs were all knocked on their asses, stunned from the electricity.

There was a splash as Phantom dropped to the street. “Hey! Put her down!”

Motonao obliged, though it was less of putting her down and more of tossing her to Phantom. He slung her arm over his shoulder, but her legs started to get feeling back, so she didn’t have to lean on him very long. The second she let her full weight touch the ground, the temperature dropped another twenty degrees. She managed to glimpse Suzuki forcing himself to his hands and knees, shadows forming into a huge blob around him. They condensed into a black hole, before it dissipated with a rush of air, leaving nothing behind, including Suzuki.

What was left behind was the rest of his gang. Most were still stunned, but the ones who had gotten their wits back were clearly starting to panic. Especially at the sight of an entire squad of Phoenix thugs. She decided that for legal purposes she wasn’t going to watch, as much as she wanted to.

She stumbled, still halfway leaning on Phantom, out into the wider alley. Motonao returned to Ishida’s side, who was now glaring holes into her. “You’re welcome.”

Ao straightened up and put her hands on her hips. “Thanks for the assist.”

Phantom lightly whacked her side and bowed. “Thank you for helping us out of that situation, Ishida-san.”

“What are you two even doing here?”

Phantom fished around his jacket and pulled out a folder. “Nine girls have gone missing in this area, and we’ve been trying to track them down.”

“Why?”

“Because we’re model citizens.” Judging by the way his glare only intensified, her sarcasm wasn’t missed.

Nevertheless, Ishida tucked the folder under his arm. “You know what? No. I don’t want to know. Go home. I don’t care what the boss says, if I catch you in this part of town again, I’m going to kick your ass.”

Phantom bowed again, and she gave them a mock salute. She couldn’t guarantee that she would never be in that part of town again, especially considering her job, but she would avoid it for as long as possible. The ass kicking wasn’t an empty threat, but he practically worshiped the ground his boss walked on. As long as she didn’t do anything to piss his boss off, he couldn’t kill her . . . 

The look on his face said otherwise, so she figured getting out of there now was a good idea.

✧ ✧ ✧

The golden lights of the Yokocho, a side street lined with restaurants and bars, seemed to laugh at their exhaustion. Heavy rain did nothing to dissuade people from enjoying their weekend. They gathered under the awnings and packed into restaurants no bigger than a booth. Unfortunately, that meant that there were too many eyes on her as she trudged through the tight streets. At least nobody wanted any part of her, with the soaked clothing and bloody knees.

They stepped into one of the restaurants to get out of the rain for just a few minutes. Her umbrella was back at the pachinko parlor, where it would probably live out the rest of its plastic days. She was not about to put in the effort just for something she bought at a 500 yen store. Phantom offered her his jacket, but she made him keep it, since she wasn’t a coward. He also offered to carry her bridal style, but that had gone over even worse.

The restaurant was tiny, just big enough for two tables and a kitchen. A man and a woman stepped around each other, helping each other get the dishes out. From her angle, it almost looked like a dance. Maybe it was because she was sopping wet, but there was a certain warmth about the whole place that reminded her of home. It had been six months since she’d seen her parents in person, and almost a week since she’d been able to call them.

She ordered a fried dish with a name she didn’t recognize, with kanji she couldn’t read, and claimed a seat at one of the tables. Luckily, her phone still worked and had a charge, and even more luckily, the only text that she got was from Uncle Kazue saying he would be home late. Her socials were dead, but that wasn’t anything new. Back in America, she didn’t have many friends, and none she really kept in contact with. Now, in Japan, everything was different. Social cues were different, and everyone was so polite in a way she couldn’t be.

A heavy weight on her shoulder distracted her from the tragedy that was her social life.

“Knock it off.”

“Sorry.” Phantom’s voice was quiet and strained. She finally turned toward him. Any annoyance she felt toward him melted away. His posture was terrible, and she was pretty sure that she was the only thing keeping him from planting face first into the couch and passing out then and there.

“You look like shit.”

He laughed softly. “Flattery is not your strong suit, Tantei-chan.”

Understatement of the century. “Are you . . . okay?”

“I’m fine, just tired. The weather’s bad enough, but didn’t those shadows seem off to you?”

Her experience with magic was still pretty limited, but she hadn’t come across anything like that before. “Hm. Yeah. What do you think that was?”

“No idea.”

“Suzuki had perfect control of it, too.” Typically, the more magical power someone had, the more difficult it was to control it. Most mages didn’t have a lot of power, but they could control it perfectly. Ao was considered a freak of nature with how much power she had, but she had almost no control over it. She had to wear gloves enchanted to repress power just to live normally. Of course, over time people with more power could learn to control it, but that took decades, and Suzuki didn’t seem that old.

The Phantom hummed. “Maybe he got it from someone else.”

“Is that possible?” If power could be transferred just like that, then somebody would have to know.

“A lot of scammers certainly like to say so.”

Ao filed that idea away. The chef placed their dishes in front of them, and all sensible thought went straight out the window. It might have been the stress, or the idea of warm food after running around all day, but she knew deep in her heart that this was the type of food that could heal spiritual wounds. It reminded her of the types of stuff her mom would make.

They both fell silent in order to tuck in. The two of them only left the restaurant once the warmth in their stomachs cooled down.

✧ ✧ ✧

Hikubo Psychic Investigations. To most, it was a PI firm that dealt with paranormal cases, but to Ao, it was home until her parents returned from overseas. The place was dark by the time she got back, the normally bright neon sign sad and cold. At least Uncle Kazue had remembered to turn the open sign off. Getting her key into the lock felt like a herculean task with how slick the rain made everything, but she made it inside eventually.

She slipped her wet shoes off and dumped them on the rack. “I’m home.”

Nothing but silence. She stumbled her way through the office and up the stairs, dripping water the entire time. Normally, she’d feel bad and try to clean up behind her, but she was exhausted, and there was still a crack in the floor from a rowdy customer, so it would be fine in the morning. Her first stop was the bathroom, to clean the scrapes on her knees and slap a couple of bandages on them. The tights were a lost cause, so they went straight into the trash.

She and Yui shared the room behind the second door. It was small, just barely enough room for two western-style beds and nightstands, but it was enough. Decoration was split down the middle, Yui’s bright colors and anime merchandise on the right, Ao’s darker colors and music posters on the left. Her sister sat on her bed, illuminated by the only light in the house: her computer.

Yui barely glanced up from her laptop screen and flashed her a smile. Her fingers danced along the keyboard faster than Ao could possibly keep up. She must have been in the middle of a game, so that was all the acknowledgement she was going to get from her sister for the rest of the night. At least that hadn’t changed.

Ao flopped onto her bed and stared at the ceiling. Neon lights from the street outside softly filtered through the curtains of her room, and soft patters of rain hit her window. Tokyo never slept, and she already knew that she wasn’t going to tonight. Adrenaline had kept her awake for this long. Most of it had left, but the amount that lingered meant her alarm would be going off before she passed out. Her headphones were on her nightstand where she left them, and they sat comfortably on her head when she put them on. Heavy metal music wasn’t the best when she was trying to fall asleep, so she chose a more chilled-out playlist and tried to relax.

For all intents and purposes, her job was done. The Phoenix were taking care of the gang, and even if Suzuki got away for now, there probably wouldn’t be any more disappearances. One of his little cronies would squeal—Ao bet money that it would be the goblin—and the families would get some closure. Phantom could go home and tell his boss that he completed his mission. The gang war was put off for one more day, and she didn’t have to write a report on the event.

And yet, something in her head buzzed. Why? Why go to all the trouble of kidnapping and potentially murdering nine people? The Shiro Tsubaki’s entire goal was to reveal the truth of the paranormal to the rest of the world, but Suzuki had targeted people that wouldn’t attract much attention outside of their limited social circles. It might have been a statement about yokai and half-yokai being considered lesser by the law, but if that was the case, why not take the credit for it or try to publicize it? If their plan was just to get the clans to fight each other, then they got close, but that didn’t feel like something the Shiro Tsubaki would do. It would hurt both humans and yokai, and it wouldn’t cause massive exposure to the supernatural world.

Ao scrambled for her phone and punched in the number of Phantom’s burner phone. Hopefully he hadn’t gotten rid of it already. It rang once, twice, three times before Phantom’s groggy voice answered. “Hello?”

“What do you know about DUSK?”

“Tantei-chan? Do you have any idea what time it is?”

“Sorry.” She hadn’t checked the exact time, but she knew it was late. “But hear me out, this is important.”

It was quiet for a moment, before he heaved a sigh. “You mean the nightclub that opens tomorrow?”

Leave it to Phantom to know what’s going on in the criminal underworld. “That’s the one.”

“Okay? Why are you asking me this?”

“That’s where the girls are!”

“What do you mean?” By the tone of his voice, that woke him right up.

“You found evidence of the gang working for Shiro Tsubaki, right? But if this was one of their attacks, they were being really quiet about it. And Suzuki talked a lot of shit about how both clans weren’t going to last much longer, and that his gang was going to run the city.”

“So you think they did all this just to start a fight?”

“What if it’s both? Suzuki could have taken the girls for some kind of ritual. Something that needs at least nine lives has to be big, right?”

Phantom hummed, and she could almost hear the gears turning in his head. Somewhere in the back of her head, she wondered if that was what he was like when he was planning one of his heists. “Yeah, and there’s going to be hundreds of people there, including some higher-ups in the Phoenix Clan.”

“All he would have to do is pretend that he was a Shiro Tsubaki sent by the Turtle Clan—”

“It would be complete anarchy. Phoenix and Turtle would be at war, and the police would be too busy dealing with the public to do anything about it.”

“And he’d get the leftovers.”

The line went silent again, the weight of the words settling on her shoulders. Phantom broke the silence, sounding tired, like the rope of tension was the only thing holding him up. “Do you think he’d really try something like that without his gang to back him up?”

That was the million-dollar question, wasn’t it? “I don’t know. But if he does, someone has to stop him.”

“I’ll meet you at the subway station tomorrow night.”

✧ ✧ ✧

Ao stood in the middle of the station, waiting for the Phantom. Minutes dragged on as the meeting time got closer, but at least this time she was wearing real clothing. Her jacket was warm, and it hid her from the ongoing rain, and Torimodosu from sight. It would’ve been awkward to ask her uncle to seal it again, and she had absolutely no talent for it, so her gun was tucked into a holster on her waist. She watched as people walked past, watching for red hair. Someone covered her eyes from behind her, and that same someone nearly got an elbow to the stomach before they dodged out of the way.

“Guess who?”

“Someone on time for once?”

Phantom stepped in front of her, giving her the first genuine smile she had seen all week. “Last chance to go home, Tantei-chan. Are you ready?”

“Born ready. Let’s go.”

Saturday night was in full swing. The streets were filled with people, finally done with their workweek and ready to let their hair down. It didn’t calm down even as they made their ways through the winding side streets. They heard the nightclub well before they saw it. Powerful bass pounded through the street. As they turned a corner, they could see purple lights flashing through windows. A small crowd of partygoers that pre-gamed a little too hard had gathered outside the door. A few big men in suits were blocking them from going in. Phantom, with his perfect illusions, was able to walk in with no problem. One of the bouncers stopped her and looked her over, and for a moment she was worried that he would just throw the obviously underage girl out, but he let her through.

As they crossed the threshold, the fast-paced electronic music was loud enough to drown everything else out, pass right by her ears and play straight into her soul. She would have to look up the DJ before they left. Purple light bathed everything, making the whole place look like it was black lit. Phantom grabbed her hand, and she had the briefest sensation of intense heat, even through both of their gloves, before he tugged her into motion, winding through the crowd of people. There was a definite monster theme, and even Ao, with her ability to see through illusions, had a hard time telling what was a real yokai and what was just elaborate cosplay.

They made it to the balcony, and Ao finally got a glimpse of the sheer size of the place. The repurposed warehouse had three floors, with the main, multicolored dance floor on the bottom. The DJ booth sat right at the edge of it all. Right behind that a tarp covered some huge mass. Shadows danced behind it and judging from the shape and the way the fabric draped, it was some kind of cage stage where live performances would play. She couldn’t see much of the third floor, but it seemed way less crowded than the others. If she had to bet, that was where she’d find the executives.

Picking the girls out of the crowd—if they were even in the crowd—would have been impossible at that angle. The floor was pretty open, and as far as she could tell the only side rooms were bathrooms and custodial closets, and maybe an employee break room. None of those seemed to fit, as they would either be too small or too public. The third floor might’ve had private rooms, but she couldn’t exactly go upstairs and check. Any goodwill with the Phoenix would go straight out the window. As well as herself. Ao had been thrown around enough in the past twenty-four hours and just a hunch wasn’t enough to do it again.

She tapped Phantom with her elbow. “I’m going to go downstairs. See if I can find anything from there.”

“I’ll go with you.”

The stairs were thankfully wide, with more bars of LED lights on the railings. Only a few people lingered on the stairs. Some draped over the railing, and Ao genuinely couldn’t tell if it was some sort of artistic expression or if they were just high. Maybe they were watching the pulsating mass of dancers. She watched as well. People busily cut loose, moving wildly and loudly without any regard to the eyes on them. She was so focused on the dance floor that she didn’t notice the person in front of her until she shoulder-checked him.

“What the fuck are you doing here?”

Uh-oh, Ishida was pissed. It would have been so easy to push him over the edge and get him to start a fight, but unfortunately, they all had to keep their guards up.

Phantom stepped in front of her, either to keep her out of sight or to keep the peace. “We think Suzuki might be here to kill your boss.”

Anger dropped from Ishida’s face, replaced by a mask of impenetrable calm. “What?”

She had to lean past Phantom to see him. “We don’t know if he’s actually going to show up, but we’re pretty sure that he kidnapped the girls for some kind of ritual, and he’s going to use it to kill your boss and start a gang war.”

The gangster’s eyes flicked up to the third floor, then back down to her. “Stay here.”

He took off up the stairs, but Motonao stayed next to them. Ao didn’t know much about the oni, except that he was Ishida’s friend, and the calm one in their relationship, but aside from that, she’d never really bothered to ask.

She didn’t get a chance to, either. One by one, all the lights in the building flickered out, and a hush settled over the building. All at once, all the spotlights in the house turned on the cage. The curtain dropped, releasing all the smoke from behind it. Through the bars she could barely make out a few collapsed figures.

Ao whipped around to see her own shock reflected on Motonao and Phantom’s faces. “We need to get over there, now!”

Motonao started to shove his way through the crowd, who were getting out of the way of the massive oni, even if he looked human to them. Ao squished in behind him, trying to get ahead before the mass of people swallowed her up again. Phantom just dodged forward, slipping through with ease.

The black hole Ao recognized from the alley fight coalesced again, directly on the stage. Suzuki formed from the shadows. The crowd went nuts, screaming at what they thought was a sideshow. He spread his arms wide. “For years, the supernatural have lived under humanity’s boot, slaving away in secret, while you live in the sun, stealing the fruits of their labor! No more! Tonight, it ends! Tonight, you see the truth! Welcome, humans, to your new reality!”

Something tore through the thin fabric of reality between the world of the living and the dead. Thick, black ropes of shadow ripped through, forcing its way out. Ao had seen monsters before. She had seen spirits of the damned, and the worst curses magic had to offer.

She’d never seen anything like this. This was a demon. It was formless, shapeless, with tendrils that stretched and twisted up and out into the room. It had no face, but it seemed to stare right at her, right into her soul.

The crowd went crazy.

Panic. Her heart pounded impossibly fast, and none of her breaths seemed to take in any air. All she felt was magic buzzing in her stomach, in her chest, in her head. Her magic exploded outward, shattering the screens and lights and showering everything with glass. Sparks scattered everywhere. The crowd screamed and surged away. There was a rush on the exit, but all of that faded into the background. The creature shrieked and Ao tumbled to the floor.

Suzuki locked eyes with her, and she realized that his eyes were completely fogged over. He took a stumbling step forward. “You!”

Ao felt the magic around her and dragged it in. Shards of glass slid across the floor toward her, glowing bright hot. A single, unbroken sake bottle rolled next to her, and she heard a voice, not her own, hum in the back of her mind. Use it, child. She grabbed the bottle by the neck and let her magic flow into it. It popped like an overcharged lightbulb, sending drops of alcohol everywhere. The bottle neck stayed mostly intact, though the ragged edge of it did slice into her palm, making her grit her teeth.

In one fluid motion, she leapt to her feet and slashed. Suzuki screamed as the broken bottle cut deep. The shadows around his body rescinded a tiny bit, but they didn’t reform. Ao swung again and again, cutting away the darkness every time she connected.

A tendril whipped around and hit her square in the ribs, throwing her to the ground. She lost her grip and sight on the bottle, as it rolled somewhere into the abyss of the battlefield. A line of fire bloomed in front of her, protecting her from another attack. Suzuki was too far away. Torimodosu was still securely in her holster. Years of practice took over and everything stilled. She rolled until she could draw Torimodosu and fire twice.

Both bullets hit his chest, in the small area empty of shadows. Suzuki dropped. The creature shuddered, then stopped, like it had been frozen in place. Like it finally felt the cold it spread to others. Phantom muttered a spell, just loud enough for her to hear, and another ball of fire, hot enough she could feel it from where she was, formed. His hands made a symbol, and the fireball flew straight into the creature. With one final, horrifying screech, it vanished. The nightclub was silent, then everything else went black.

✧ ✧ ✧

When Ao came to, the police and the ministry had arrived on scene. Uncle Kazue was there too, and he hugged her as soon as her eyes opened. She’d get a lecture on the way home, but for now it seemed that he was just glad no one had died. According to Motonao, Phantom stayed until the police showed up.

The official story was that the special effects failed, causing a small explosion. They would spin it as a miracle with only minor injuries. All nine of the girls were evaluated at a local hospital and sent home. If the story about the kidnapping got out, Ao never heard a word of it. Suzuki’s body was gone. When the creature vanished, so did he.

That was something to worry about another day. Sitting there in the ruined club hugging her uncle, she only had two goals: to go home and enjoy the rest of her weekend, and to try to think of the best way to spin the story when she called her parents.


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