3.8 Late Night Horror Fight Labyrinth Finale

Junna’s hands shook. They couldn’t swallow. Just as their vision started getting dark, Nana clapped both her hands on the sides of their face.

“Jun! Junna! Get a hold of yourself!”

The warmth of Nana’s hands, clammy and sweaty as they were, was what snapped Junna out of it, and they breathed. Their lungs felt like they’d run several miles and their heart pounded, skipping a few beats. They slowly stumbled to their feet, determined not to make Nana drag them back to Benihime Inari Shrine.

“Wooooow, that was crazy.” Shigoro whistled one low note. “So this is what Ibuki-san is like these days… We’re not gonna get paid for any of that, huh?”

“No shit, we didn’t exorcize all the other ghosts.” Takuto snapped. The mention of losing money immediately made his temper flare. “This is Sagyo’s problem, not ours.”

“We do still get paid for that couple of contestants we rescued and some of the ghosts we exorcized earlier, so it’s fine, right?”

“Whatever.”

“I’m taking Junna home and I’ll ask Kei more about the episode. Please text me if you see anything about it,” Nana said, once again specifically to Shigoro.

“Fine, fine. We’re headed home though, the episode should be over by now.”

“That’s fine. Please take care.” Nana bowed her head. Junna mimicked her and the two of them trudged back to Benihime Inari Shrine while Shigoro and Takuto either walked back to Shibuya or Shinjuku or wherever they were living now, or went to find a place they could make a gate.

Benihime was waiting at the entrance of the shrine when Nana and Junna arrived.

“Oh my—Nana-chan, Sagyo-kun, are you alright? Please, come in, come in…”

Benhime didn’t seem to mind that Nana and Junna didn’t perform the normal purification ritual upon entering the shrine. Their hands and mouth remained unrinsed with the water in the shrine’s basin. Seeing Junna, disheveled, exhausted, and shoeless and Nana not much better, she must have forgotten about formality entirely. Nana ushered Junna through the bright red torii gate and onto the shrine grounds. The shrine was not large, but thick bamboo around the perimeter made it feel cut off from the city.

“J-Junna, you should get some rest and we can talk about things later. I have some spare clothes if you want. You could take a shower… are you hungry?”

Junna almost laughed out loud. This was the first time they had seen Nana in at least two years and here she was, right after getting dragged into the spirit realm and accosted by ghosts, acting like no time had passed. Although Nana was reliable, she was perpetually filled with anxiety about… almost everything. Junna sometimes found it exhausting, but at that moment, her kindness made Junna want to cry out of both gratitude and shame… and maybe frustration as well.

“Thanks, Nana,” they said, trying to keep their temperament level.

“Of course.” Once they reached the small house in the back corner of the shrine property, Nana held the door open for Junna. Half hidden by even more bamboo stalks and painted an unassuming beige, this building served as Nana’s residence. It had a 2LDK floor plan, so it was spacious for someone living alone. Junna wasn’t sure what Nana used the second bedroom for and the living room was pretty large even without the dining area and kitchen included.

Did it really count as living alone if Benihime came and went as she pleased, though?

“Are… you okay?” Nana asked slowly, automatically heading into the kitchen and filling an old metal kettle with water. It really didn’t look like something Nana would own: not cute enough. It must have been there before she moved in, when her mother ran the shrine.

Junna sat down on the couch in the living room, staring at the flatscreen TV on top of a bookshelf populated with shoujo manga magazines, cute trinkets, a Nintendo Wii, and of course, books. There were also various protection charms hung on each shelf. Nana’s TV was safe. Benihime’s presence would also keep oddities of all kinds, living or dead, at bay. Few were brave enough to take on one of Inari’s kitsune, even one with only five tails.

Benihime hadn’t joined the pair of humans inside. She might have been giving them space to talk with Nana alone. Or, like so many other living spirits, Benihime found Junna’s presence repellant.

I guess I do reek of death, they thought to themselves with a short exhale of laughter. Their scent must have been insufferable after absorbing two ghosts earlier. Only then did it occur to them they hadn’t answered Nana’s question, and she had been going on about the tea she had bought recently and how it was good for some ailment or another. She was already bringing over the teapot and two cups.

“Thanks, I could use something warm right now. I’m actually…”

Really damn cold.

Junna’s hands were shaking. Nana set the teapot down and gently took one of Junna’s hands, holding it in her own.

“You’re still freezing, here…” She removed one hand to pour the tea and then pressed the cup directly into Junna’s free hand before letting go and pouring herself a cup. She blew on it before taking a sip.

Nana’s stutter and overuse of filler words faded when she was distracted by caring for someone. But after sitting there and receiving that extra attention and kindness for too long, Junna felt the irritation and disgust with themselves bubbling up. This was too much and they didn’t know how to deal with it. Thankfully they were too tired to make a fuss about it.

“I’m sorry you got dragged into that. They were targeting me, and if I hadn’t come here, you wouldn’t have been sucked into the spirit realm.”

“Then what would have happened to you?”

Junna flinched, blinking hard. Since when was Nana able to take on that kind of harsh tone? Her bangs were still stuck unevenly around her face with sweat, so Junna had to deal with her round-eyed stare.

“Uh… I don’t know…” They swallowed hard. “Heh, Takuto and Shigoro might have helped if I paid them.”

“That’s not funny.”

“... Yeah, I guess not.”

“Please get some rest tonight. We can figure out what else to do in the morning, okay?” Nana’s voice softened and Junna nodded in agreement. They took a drink of tea; it was good, but it didn’t warm them up much. “I have extra futons, you can sleep in my room or the spare room…”

“Nah, I’m good out here. This is a nice couch. The only other things I could possibly ask for are a pair of clean socks and a phone charger, if you have them..”

“Of course, let me get them!”

Nana mentioned the location of the toothpaste and apologized for not having a spare toothbrush. She also mentioned the soap and shampoo in the bath, some spare clothes that might fit Junna, a blanket, and the remote for the air conditioner. Junna murmured their thanks between sips of tea before they’d had enough to drink, set the cup down on the low table, and said good night.

Nana went to bed in her own room, quietly shutting the sliding door.

Junna didn’t fall asleep and didn’t have to strain in the least to hear Benihime softly announce her presence in Nana’s room with a hushed “pardon the intrusion.”

“Is everything okay?” Nana asked, likely referring to the state of the shrine’s protective barrier.

“If you’re talking about the shrine, nothing is wrong. What I’m worried about is Sagyo-kun.”

Nana mumbled a sound of passive agreement.

“You can probably feel it a little too can’t you? You know, my nose is very sensitive. I’m afraid to say it, but Sagyo-kun smells like death.”

Yep. There it was. Subconsciously, this might have been one of the reasons Junna hadn’t gotten around to visiting.

“I—I don’t think they smell anywhere near that bad! Maybe a little musty, but we just got back from the spirit realm…”

“Not like a dead thing or something rotten, but just… death. Like a ghost or a shinigami. I imagine Yomi smells like that, but the way it’s clinging to Sagyo-kun, I don’t think it’s just from this trip.”

Junna wasn’t sure how much Nana actually knew about the techniques they’d been using for exorcisms, only that she knew about them. Even when they’d just started out using the very basics of the path they’d carved, it was enough to earn the disapproval of Doikawa and every member of her shrine, as well as warnings from Nana and Benihime herself. Even Shigoro and Takuto, who were known to mix and match practices to suit their needs, wouldn’t touch the techniques Junna had developed.

Junna had thought they were quite tame and abandoned their studies at Doikawa Shrine to learn what they could from the Isshiki family, who were fascinated with their skills and appreciated their ingenuity. The Isshiki family already dealt with balancing polarized views of their practices; despite being some of the most compassionate practitioners of any supernatural art, willing to help anyone who needed it without asking for anything in return, the use of shikigami created from animal corpses was a taboo many in their line of work would not break.

No matter what good work the Isshiki family did, there would always be someone to loathe them out of fear or jealousy. They were simultaneously impure, compassionate, cursed, heroic, disgusting, selfless, heretical, and righteous.

They were good people who used their powers to help others. So why did they all have to die? Even Ibuki, who hadn’t been present when her family was massacred.

Junna didn’t bother eavesdropping anymore. Benihime would either overcome her aversion to Junna’s overwhelming death stench or she’d distance herself. Junna would go to sleep and pretend it didn’t matter which of the two outcomes actually happened.