The Young Detectives

Kazuya and his half-dog-yōkai junior partner, Inuko Takeda, had been driving through the Shinjuku City streets for hours. Inuko was sniffing the air to track the faint fox scent of the Kagenashi yakuza clan and giving Kazuya directions.

“Hmph, they thought we wouldn’t find them?” Inuko smirked. “They can’t escape us!”

But her joy was premature. After several twists and turns, Inuko felt the intensity of the fox scent in a shady, rundown garage, where Kazuya’s Absolute Sight Magic detected a faint aura of golden and red foxfire. Inuko also smelled the lingering odour of human blood in the air, although not even Kazuya’s magical sight could discern any trace of violence. They exchanged troubled glances.

“T-They must’ve cleaned up their mess?” Inuko suggested, her body shaking from the many gruesome scenes her imagination cooked up. “Those beasts!”

“At least we know they’ve been here,” Kazuya replied, having just sent a message to Chief Akechi Shinemori from the Paranormal Department. “Can you track them further?”

“Y-Yes.” Inuko nodded, trying to regain her composure. She took deep breaths to calm herself. As long as Mr Nobara’s alive, we’ll save him.

“Let’s go, then,” Kazuya said, returning to his car.

They drove on, with Inuko tracking the fox scent more zealously than ever. The tracks led them to a river, but not quite to its bank. It continued in another direction. And yet, a different kind of stink, sharp and morbid, reached Inuko’s nostrils from the river. Colour drained from her face.

“S-Senpai, it’s…” she muttered, her lips trembling.

“What is it?” Kazuya flinched. “What happened, Miss Takeda?”

Inuko looked at him, tears gushing from her golden, canine eyes. Kazuya’s heart stung. Seeing a dog yōkai crying was more gut-wrenching than a human… or he might feel too strongly about Inuko’s tears. He’d never seen her cry before.

“I-I smell a corpse… in the river,” Inuko whimpered. “It’s the same as the human scent in the garage. It must be him! Oh, Senpai… We’re too late.”

Kazuya’s eyes widened, and his blood froze. He clutched the wheel of his car, his palms sweating. His nostrils flared in rage, horror, and despair. He couldn’t have let another life slip from his hands!

He hit the gas and swerved towards the river. Inuko continued giving him directions, sniffling into her handkerchief. They arrived at the riverbank. Kazuya stormed out of the car, and Inuko followed. She’d become sure by now that Mr Nobara was lying dead at the bottom of the river, and Kazuya’s Absolute Sight confirmed it. The lifeless slump of what had once been Mr Nobara lay face down at the bottom of the water. Kazuya recalled how his parents’ mutilated, burnt bodies had lain the same way on the firefighters’ stretchers. His blood boiled.

Kazuya called the Paranormal Department. Soon, Chief Shinemori arrived with special forces. They retrieved the drowned politician’s body from the water. However, despite Inuko’s discovery of the blood scent back in the garage, Fuyuki Nobara’s corpse had no sign of violence on him, and neither could Kazuya’s Absolute Sight detect foxfire aura, which the water must’ve cleansed. In short, there was no evidence to incriminate the Kagenashi Clan, as always. The death had to be noted down as a tragic accident.

Kazuya snarled. He stood at the riverbank, staring at the ground, his fists clenched. He gritted his teeth and barely held himself from punching the bridge bannisters.

Why does this keep happening?! He thought. I’m always close, and yet those bastards keep escaping! I know it’s them, but I can never prove it! How long can those freaks go unpunished?!

He sensed a lump in his throat and tears in his eyes, but he strove to keep his composure. It was okay for Inuko to bawl her eyes out, but a man couldn’t act like that, Kazuya believed.

A sturdy hand gripped his shoulder. Kazuya flinched and looked behind him. It was Chief Shinemori, his honey-brown eyes glimmering with compassion. Kazuya figured that the Chief must’ve had his share of despair in his time of service, so he understood his feelings.

“I'm sorry, Hattori,” Akechi said in a low, gentle tone. “But you did all you could. Don’t blame yourself! I suspected this might happen. Those foxes are cunning.”

“Can’t we use the garage as evidence?” Kazuya asked, grasping at straws. “Inuko smelled Mr Nobara’s blood there, and I saw foxfire traces!”

“And yet, the corpse had neither traces of violence on it, nor foxfire.” Akechi sighed. “If you don’t want the officials to accuse you and Miss Takeda of incompetence or lies, and urge us to fire you, we’d better leave it as is.”

“But it’s unfair!” Kazuya cried, his bottled-up emotions erupting. His green eyes sparkled with wrath as he glared at Chief Shinemori. “We know it was them! Why can’t we arrest them?!”

A bitter smile ran through Akechi’s lips, as though he were watching his late friend Jin Hattori’s raging fit of old days.

“Our work is never as easy as that, Hattori,” he said. “Now, since the case is closed, I suggest you and Miss Takeda go home! I’ll take care of the rest.”

Thus, the disheartened young detectives were dismissed from the crime scene. Inuko sat into Kazuya’s Honda Civic, wiping away her remaining tears with her handkerchief. Kazuya silently pressed on the pedal, driving ahead with a frown. But when they were out of Chief Shinemori’s and the others’ sight, he swerved in a different direction from Inuko’s home district. He returned to the crossroads where Inuko had first caught the corpse smell. He stopped his car.

“W-Why are we here, Hattori Senpai?” Inuko asked in surprise, tucking her handkerchief back into her pocket. “Chief Shinemori said_”

“Can you still smell the fox scent?” Kazuya interrupted, his frown deepening.

“Y-Yes, but… Wait!” Inuko gasped. “You mean you want to follow it?!”

“I’m tired of this bureaucracy,” Kazuya said, his voice stony. He clutched the wheel so hard that his knuckles turned red. He glanced at his family picture hanging on the mirror, his father’s kind smile frozen in the image. Then, he looked at the road again. “I’m tired of being told to stand back when some malicious spirits abuse and kill humans with impunity! And I’m also fed up with this.” He grabbed his phone, opened his sister’s earlier message and deleted it. He threw the phone on the dashboard, making Inuko jump in fright. “So,” he turned to her, his jaw tight, “if you feel the same way about those foxes, will you lead me to their den? I can’t do this without you, Miss Takeda. But together, we can make them pay.” He placed his hand in his pocket, where he had a pistol full of magical bullets of the Kagurayama Clan, which killed yōkai. “They need to get what they deserve, whether the officials like it or not!”

Inuko widened her eyes. She stared at Kazuya, speechless, for a long while. Her ears and tail slumped, and she lowered her gaze. She watched her clawed hands. Her features came from her mother, a pure yōkai. She remembered going to the thunder god’s shrine with her mother when she was a child. Her mother, Raihi, had called it a necessary “rite of passage”.

“Raijin Kami-sama watches over us, Inuko,” she said, snuggling her child with her big, fluffy white tail. “We must fight injustice in his name. You’re Thunder Beast Raijū’s granddaughter. You must slay the yōkai who harm innocent humans.”

Watching the thoughtful Inuko, Kazuya began to think she was against the idea. But then, Inuko spoke, her voice low and rigid, with a snarling undertone. She bared her fangs.

“Let’s punish those foxes for their crimes, Senpai.” She looked at the road, her pupils narrowing to slits. For Raijin Kami-sama! She thought. She pointed to the left. “That’s where their stink leads.”

Kazuya blinked at her, feeling chills on the back of his neck. He never thought the beautiful Inuko could become a raging mongrel. But somehow, this also made her gorgeous, just differently. He smiled bitterly. He felt guilty for dragging her into this, but also relieved that she had his back.

“Hold on tight,” he said.

He hit the pedals and swerved to the left, following the long road with Inuko as his guide.

Yukihiro Kagenashi, I’m tired of hiding! Kazuya thought, glowering at the street. I’ll make you pay for this… and for my sister!