5.6 Chapter Five: Bōsōzoku CRAZY NIGHT RIDERS Final Part

One midsummer afternoon, when the cicadas were screaming in the heat, Junna watched Ibuki crouch down next to a dead fox in a trap. It wasn’t horribly mangled, it hadn’t otherwise been injured. There was blood mixed with the dirt and leaves that covered the ground. Junna didn’t know enough about wild animals to say if it had bled out or starved of maybe something else. Flies were starting to gather.

“They’re not supposed to be hunting here. This is part of my family’s land,” Ibuki said as she shooed away some flies.

“They didn’t even come back for it. Were they just going to let it rot?” Junna thought it was cruel and a waste. This animal was in what was supposed to be a safe place and yet it had died violently for no reason at all. “What a bunch of assholes.”

“Yeah…” Ibuki pulled out a blank paper talisman and wrote something on it with a charcoal pencil she kept in her drawstring purse. When she placed it on the fox, its body erupted into blue ghost fire, melting away the fur, flesh, and muscle, leaving only bones. Once the first talisman burned, she added another, gently attaching it to the fox’s skull. The ghost fire settled around the bones, keeping the joints connected and forming a new musculature system. It almost looked like the outline of a live fox. The fox climbed to its feet.

“It’s okay, little friend. You’re here for a reason now. It’s no bloody revenge, but the Isshiki family can’t let people kill animals like this on our property. Go find the ones who left this trap and come back to me. They’ll at least face human judgment.”

The fox turned in a circle and then took off, bounding through the woods with more grace and agility than it had probably possessed in life.

“Well, at least they get in legal trouble, right?” Junna shrugged as Ibuki stood up. “Too bad the fox can’t eat them.”

“A fox probably wouldn’t eat them. In this case, it would probably kill them and leave their bodies to rot, the same as they did to it.”

“I think they deserve it,” Junna said, staring after the fox. “If you want to take a life, be prepared to have your life taken.”

Ibuki laughed. “I understand, but isn’t it extreme to think that?”

“What, animals don’t matter as much as humans?” Junna knew she was being obstinate, and honestly, she didn’t have strong opinions about whether humans counted as animals. “I guess I really just hate that crap. It’s the way they go about it.”

“I think humans will usually value other human lives more than animal lives or spirit lives. But I agree, it’s the treatment of it. They don’t have any respect for death. Or life.”

Junna had thought about that line for a long time. To her, it seemed profound, and she praised Ibuki while agreeing. You couldn’t respect one without the other. To Junna, respecting death meant reverence instead of fear. Acceptance instead of attempts at isolation. She didn’t think much about respect for life; that was just caring about living beings.

As for what Junna thought after the past two years… they would still say they respected both life and death, but as to understanding their connection…

They really hadn’t known a thing.

After Kei’s birthday, Junna stayed up each night looking for Itsumise ad spots. They weren’t on a specific channel but their ads could pop up anywhere and were sometimes posted on their social media pages. Most of the teasers showed shadowy figures on tricked out bikes driving down dangerous mountain roads at night, occasionally cutting to highway signs for Tokyo. It smacked of poor taste, whatever it was.

That week, Doikawa had promised to either send members of her own shrine to areas of Tokyo that would likely be chosen for locations of an Itsumise episode, or she would convince members of another shrine or temple to go.

“I just hope she’s not paying Takuto and Shigoro to do it, good grief.”

Doikawa had even suggested setting up “doors” in each ward, which would be a huge undertaking, as this kind of gate required a huge amount of preparation and work in advance. It shook Junna to hear Doikawa suggest doing it so casually.

Junna could make gates, but they didn’t advertise that fact. Their gates passed through the banks of the Sanzu River. Although they stayed on the near shore, the air in the underworld was toxic to most living beings on both sides. Junna could handle it, but no one else was going to be able to. Also, handmade gates through the spirit realm usually required such a great amount of energy that they could only be created when the person making them was in the ideal location at the ideal time to support their magic abilities. This rule didn’t apply to shortcuts by the Sanzu River.

One more overpowered “evil” ability and Junna would probably get chased into a volcano by an angry mob.

>By the way, the local kami seem to be disturbed by something

Doikawa messaged them Thursday evening.

>Perhaps that isn’t the right word, but there has been unusual activity

>They are riled up, so to speak

>Please remember not to upset any kami, particularly those related to the Heavenly Court

>I’ll do my best