5.0 Bōsōzoku CRAZY NIGHT RIDERS Part 1

Before Junna went drinking with Kei, they made good on their offer to take Nana out for coffee. They made plans to meet up at Benihime Inari Shrine the next morning. Junna was having a hard time comprehending that it was Saturday and Itsumise had technically aired just the morning of the day before.

“If it airs weekly, this is going to be a rough upcoming month…”

May Disease reared its ugly head once again.

That morning, Junna forced themselves off their futon and over to Benihime Inari Shrine. Benihime was sitting on the shrine steps. She glanced at Junna, gave a polite nod, and then quickly turned her head away. Benihime had always been kind to Junna, but it must have been hard for her to deal with the dark presence Junna had cultivated. Junna gave her space and found Nana instead. She was scrubbing the Inari statue near the gate.

“Oh! Good morning, Junna!” Nana greeted them, waving her free hand while continuing to scrub awkwardly with the other. The statue was about halfway clean, with a clear line dividing light gray unsoiled stone and the brownish, lightly grime-covered remainder, showing his progress.

“You keep this place clean as ever.” The bamboo growth has increased and a small sapling of unknown variety had grown a meter or so since Junna had visited, a shimenawa wrapped around the trunk. The rope indicated it was a holy tree, but it seemed it was just one that Benihime liked and didn’t have a kami of its own.

“Yes, you know how I am, haha…” Nana laughed softly with a hint of self-deprecation. “Since it’s a small shrine, it’s not too much work.”

“I’d say you’d make a good house wife but I don’t want you to get saddled with something else to take care of.”

“Well…”

“You’re only 24, don’t worry about it. Christmas Cake is on its way out. You could get married if you wanted to, but make sure it’s to a reliable person.”

Nana laughed, half nervous, half wistful.

“I’m going to change clothes, I’ll be right back out!”

Junna nodded and waited by the mostly clean fox statue. Benihime was still sitting on the steps of the shrine. It wasn’t big enough to actually enter; the building held a holy item, a beautiful antique comb beloved by Benihime, safely inside. There was the usual donation box out front. While working, Nana usually remained nearby and would tell fortunes and sell omamori, protection charms with little foxes embroidered on them. Benihime often remained in the shrine to listen to patrons and cast spells of good fortune on them without them even knowing.

Most of Benihime’s believers had been children from the Second World War who had holed up near the shrine during air raids on Tokyo. Benihime would cast protective spells on them and entertain them, allowing the ones orphaned to stay on the shrine grounds. The great grandfather of Hachikuji Hirona, mother of the current Hachikuji siblings, had been running the shrine as the head priest. The grateful children continued to patronize the shrine as they got older, and eventually brought their own children, who in turn brought their children. Maybe when this generation grew up, they would bring their kids, too.

All that said, Junna had enjoyed spending time at the shrine as a child. Junna liked being around old people… the really old people: the ones so old they didn’t care about traditions or silly societal mores anymore. Maybe it was because the elderly were closer to death that they lived more genuinely, and that Junna felt close to them.

Junna was, after all, close to death at all times. In distance, at least, if not age.

They felt Benihime’s eyes on them again. Even though they were clean and dressed in fresh clothes, Junna thought Benihime might be looking at them like a filthy stain on the ground. The tension was too much. They sighed and walked over to talk to the fox spirit, keeping a little distance to be polite.

“Hi, Benihime… Benihime-sama. I guess we haven’t talked in a long time.”

Benihime sat a little straighter and put her feet flat on the ground. Junna wondered if there were fox feet under those shiny lacquered shandals and tabi socks.

“Hello, Sagyo-kun. It has been a long time, hasn’t it?”

“Yeah… um. I’m sorry for making your shrine all… gloomy. I know I’m not the most popular guest for kami.”

“Oh, no, not at all! Of course you’re welcome at my shrine! And all of the O-Inari shrines, I’m sure!”

“Uh…” Junna recalled the looks of disgust they had gotten from a few lower ranking foxes of Inari hanging around shrines barely larger than a hokora. “Yeah… sure…”

“I apologize if I’ve been rude. I am a bit worried, though… you’re looking a little pale, Sagyo-kun…”

Benihime’s tiny frown and pinched eyebrows made for a convincing concerned look, but Junna just couldn’t believe the sentiment wasn’t forced. They bowed their head.

“I’m still pretty exhausted from traveling so much. I think it’s catching up to me.”

If their exhaustion wasn’t, Ibuki sure was.

“Please take care. Nana-chan has been very worried. She used to cry sometimes, you know, when you wouldn’t reply to her messages for a few days. She was always worried something terrible had happened to you.”

“Not my finest moments… I’ve been working on that bad habit.”

“You at least messaged her back more often than you did Shigoro-kun…”

“Would YOU have replied to his BS?”

Benihime brought her kimono sleeve to her face to poorly hide her widening smile.

“I’m back.” Nana reappeared in a cute but plain pink dress with a gray cardigan. She had short socks and comfortable-looking slip-on shoes, as opposed to the hastily thrown on sneakers from Thursday night-slash-early Friday morning. “Where would you like to go?”

“Anywhere you want. Tea shop in Kyoto, ramen place in Hokkaido… your choice.”

“O-of course not somewhere like that! How about we just go to Hoshino…”

“Oh thank god, that’s way easier.” Junna did not mention they could probably take a Sanzu River shortcut, although it would only be short in comparison to the actual distance in the living world. Nana might not last the walk on the banks.

Nana sighed and Benihime laughed, genuinely. Junna felt as if they might be able to rebuild that bridge, someday, if they were granted the time.

Junna and Nana chose the nearby Hoshino Cafe. It was the closest location; they could just walk, and the weather was once again pleasant. The two of them walked in silence until they could squeeze into Hoshino and make their orders. Nana predictably ordered pancakes and the Hoshino blend with too much milk and sugar.

“That isn’t going to hurt your stomach?” Junna asked. “That’s a lot of milk.”

None of the Hachikuji siblings were great at handling dairy. Junna didn’t enjoy dairy much themselves, but Nana was a sweet tooth, she absolutely wouldn’t drink coffee without milk snd sugar.

“I-I should be o-okay…” But the doubt was in Nana’s heart and voice.

“Do your best,” Junna said to cheer her on. For their own order, it was the morning set, a Western style breakfast with toast, eggs, and their choice of coffee. Usually, the more bitter Hikoboshi blend would be most appealing, but instead they decided on the Orihime blend, still taking it black.

“Remember when I got really interested in astrology in high school and we would come here and go to the Milkyway Cafe every weekend? Even though you didn’t seem interested in it, you still learned a lot about… I think that was just because you were around me. But, it was nice of you. Thank you. It was a lot of fun.”

“Ha, what’s all this all of a sudden? I don’t know how much I really believe in it, but astrology is kind of neat. And I like Tanabata a lot.” Even though the modern seventh day of the seventh month was when I made the biggest mistake of my life. “You made it all sound really interesting. I guess that happened with Ibuki, too. I learned so much about hanakotoba… I still remember a lot of the meanings of flowers.”

”Really? It seems… um… well…”

“What?”

“Um… sappy?”

“Nana, you know me better than this! I’ve always loved romances! And crossing the Milky Way to meet once a year is the most star crossed lovers story possible, literally. I love love stories! I’m just kind of depressed right now is all…”

“Depressed…”

Aside from always loving romance, Junna had also always blurted out their own feelings easily. They liked to say they were candid and open. What it really meant was they ended up apologizing for lacking tact.

“Everyone gets a little depressed about something or other, right?” They shrugged. Nana didn’t agree nor disagree immediately. “I mean, of course we get depressed when we lose someone…”

That might have been too cruel; Junna had been there when Nana lost her parents.

“Yes, exactly…” Nana said quietly, looking down at her coffee. “You know, if you ever want to—to talk about it, I’m not sure how much I can help but I can listen.”

“What’s there to talk about?” The words shot out of Junna’s mouth. “Ibuki died and she’s haunting me. That’s it.”

“Y-you know, you might have been gone for a while, but we’re still friends. I know you better than that! So you don’t…” Nana chewed on her lip. The guilt was already starting to weigh on Junna. “You don’t have to lie and say it’s all okay. You don’t have to dismiss me so quickly…”

It wasn’t just Ibuki, it was the entire Isshiki family. Every single one of them, slaughtered by curses and vengeful ghosts. I saw all of them. The manor is probably still covered in dried blood to this day—

They pinched the bridge of their nose, taking a gulp of coffee.

It was a nightmare…

“I guess I just don’t want to talk about it.”

Nana didn’t say anything, but she didn’t start crying either. Junna couldn’t handle even three seconds of that kind of silence.

“I’m sorry if I sounded mad at you. I just really don’t want to talk about it.”

It was only two years ago, it was already two years ago. It felt like just yesterday, it felt like a different lifetime. Whether it was a fresh wound or an old scar, how could Junna possibly tell someone like Nana what they had seen the day Ibuki died? And why would they personally want to recount the days leading up to the failed resurrection, even putting aside the actual failed resurrection? Nana had seen Junna’s neck; they weren’t that careful about keeping it hidden. They had (almost) gotten used to it, but they knew it was upsetting to other people.

“Let’s focus on what we’re doing now, not the past. After that Itsumise episode, I gotta admit, I do need some support. I’m glad you guys are helping me.”

That was a lie, but Junna felt like it was pretty convincing, and Nana was easily fooled.

Was this how things were going to be? Would they need to keep lying to Nana in the future? No, not forever: just until this was solved. Then they would never fool Nana again, even if they had to die to fulfill that promise.

I’m getting a little dramatic… This must be the result of living alone for so long.

“I’m just glad we can help. I was worried when you were gone. The others were too, Kei and Doikawa especially. Actually, I think Shigoro was worried the most. All of them used to ask if I’d heard from you all the time! Although, they might have felt bad since you didn’t contact them too… ”

“Wow. I didn’t realize I was so popular.” Junna found that hard to believe. Doikawa was probably just worried about the havoc they were causing. “I guess I should try to keep in touch more often.”

“You can always message us. You can message me anytime you want to talk about something. You can call me, too! Well, maybe don’t call me late at night, I’ll probably be asleep… n-no, if you really need to talk, call! I’ll wake up, I promise!”

Junna smiled, trying to make sure it reached their eyes. Their chest felt hollow. Would Nana say that even if she knew Junna was responsible for Ibuki’s false revival?

“Okaaay, I will. I’ll text first though, I’m not that rude.”

This seemed to please Nana, and she became more talkative after that, eating her pancakes with a smile on her face. Junna gradually ground down their breakfast and coffee, then paid for both orders. After eating, they parted ways. Junna headed home for a nap.