Chapter 29: The Wolf at the Door

But the city remembers. The cracks in the pavement outside are still fresh. The air still tastes faintly of ozone and ash. And the power vacuum left by the collapse of the Eclipse is starting to draw in new, hungry things.

It is Tuesday evening. The sun is setting, casting long, blood-red shadows across the tatami mats.

Hajime is home early from the factory. This is usually a cause for celebration, but tonight, he is not smiling. He sits at the dining table, his head in his hands, staring at a crumpled piece of paper. He looks old. The lines around his eyes are deeper than I remember.

Naomi is in the kitchen, making tea. Her movements are stiff. She knows something is wrong. We know something is wrong.

We are gathered under the table-Yoshi, Muji, Inoe, Kenuji, and me. We are in cat form, silent sentinels watching our father figure crumble.

"It is the neighborhood association", Kenuji projects, his mental voice grim. "I read the letter over his shoulder. The local business council is being pressured to sell the land. Not just the factory. The residential blocks too. This block".

"Who is pressuring them?" Yoshi asks, his tail twitching with irritation. "The big estate company? We dealt with their scouts last month".

"Not a company", Kenuji says. "Not legally, anyway. It is the Kanto Rengo. The remnants of the Yakuza clan Goro used to lead. They are desperate. They lost their leader, they lost their supernatural backing, and now they are trying to squeeze money out of the locals to rebuild their power base".

"They want our house?" Muji growls low in his throat. "I will eat their shoes".

"Shh", Inoe hisses. "Listen".

Hajime sighs. It is a heavy, rattling sound.

"They said they would come tonight", Hajime whispers to himself. "They said I have to sign the petition to sell. If I don't... they said accidents happen".

Naomi freezes with the teapot in her hand. She turns around.

"Dad?" she asks softly. "Who is coming tonight?"

Hajime jumps. He tries to hide the paper, but it is too late. He forces a smile that looks painful.

"Nobody, sweetheart. Just... some business partners. Regarding the factory zoning. Boring stuff. Why don't you go upstairs? Put on your headphones. Study for your exams".

"Dad", Naomi puts the teapot down. "You are a terrible liar".

SCREEEECH.

The sound of tires peeling on asphalt cuts through the evening air. It is loud, aggressive, and close.

Three black sedans pull up in front of the house. They park on the sidewalk, blocking the gate. Doors slam. Heavy boots hit the ground.

"They are here", Hajime stands up, his face pale. "Naomi, go upstairs. Now. Lock your door. Call the police if you hear... anything".

"Dad, no!" Naomi grabs his arm. "Don't go out there!"

"I have to", Hajime says, his voice shaking but firm. "This is my house. I have to protect it".

He pulls his arm away gently. He walks to the genkan, puts on his shoes, and steps out into the twilight.

Naomi watches the door close. She is trembling.

She looks down at us.

Her eyes are wide, terrified, but there is a spark in them. A spark of steel that reminds me of Yoshi.

"You heard him", Naomi whispers to us. "He is going out there alone".

Yoshi stands up. He looks at Naomi. He nods.

"We are not letting him do that", Naomi says. Her voice drops to a conspiratorial hiss. "You guys are heroes, right? You fight monsters? Well, there are monsters on my driveway".

"Permission granted", Yoshi projects to the team.

"Help him", Naomi begs. "Please. But don't let him see you change. If he sees you turn into people... it will break him. He cannot handle the magic. He needs to think he is just lucky. Or that he is having a weird dream".

"Stealth mode", Kenuji confirms. "Inoe, you are on perception control. Muji, Yoshi-hit and run. Haruka, stay with Naomi".

"No", I say, standing up. My legs are still a little wobbly from the energy drain, but my spirit is burning hot. "I am coming too. I can shield him".

"Let's go", Yoshi commands.

We run to the back door. Naomi slides it open for us. We slip into the shadows of the garden, moving like smoke.

We creep around the side of the house to the front gate. We hide in the dense azalea bushes lining the fence.

Hajime is standing in the middle of the driveway. He looks small. He is wearing his factory uniform and worn-out slippers. He is holding a broom he grabbed from the porch, holding it like a spear. It is pathetic and heartbreakingly brave.

Facing him are ten men.

They are not the possessed zombies we fought at the tower. These are human. But they are dangerous humans. They are wearing expensive suits that don't fit right. They have tattoos creeping up their necks. They are holding baseball bats, crowbars, and one of them-the leader-is holding a heavy iron chain.

The leader steps forward. He is a young man with bleached hair and a face that looks like it has been rearranged by a brick.

"Hoshi-san", the leader sneers. He swings the chain. Clink-clink. "You didn't sign the paper. We checked the dropbox. It was empty".

"I am not selling", Hajime says. His voice cracks, but he holds the broom steady. "My wife's garden is here. My daughter grew up here. We are not leaving".

"Sentimental", the leader spits on the ground. "Sentiment is expensive. The price of land in this district is going up. We have investors. They don't care about your wife's petunias".

"Leave", Hajime says. "Or I will call the police".

The thugs laugh. It is a dry, ugly sound.

"The police are busy", the leader says. "Cleaning up the mess at the tower. Nobody is coming for you, old man. You are all alone".

"He is not alone", Yoshi whispers from the bushes.

The leader signals his men. "Teach him a lesson. Break the windows. Break the car. And if he gets in the way... break him".

Three thugs step forward, raising their bats.

"Now!" Yoshi projects. "Inoe, drop the veil!"

Inoe is crouching on the roof of the carport. Her eyes glow neon pink. She focuses her mind on Hajime.

"Fog", she whispers. "You are dizzy. Your glasses are foggy. You cannot see clearly. The world is a blur".

Hajime blinks. He stumbles slightly. He takes off his glasses and rubs them, looking confused. "Why is it so... misty?"

"Go!" Yoshi roars.

Yoshi and Muji burst from the bushes.

They do not transform fully into humans. That would be too slow, and too hard to hide. Instead, they shift into a hybrid state-the battle form we used in the Sengoku period. They stay cat-sized, but their muscles density increases tenfold. Their claws turn into spectral steel. Their speed breaks the sound barrier.

Muji is an orange blur. He launches himself at the first thug. He hits the man's chest like a cannonball.

OOF.

The thug flies backward. He drops his bat and crashes into the windshield of the lead sedan. The glass shatters.

"What was that?" the leader screams, looking around.

"A cat!" another thug yells. "A huge freaking cat!"

Yoshi dives low. He targets the ankles of the second attacker. He doesn't bite; he uses geomancy. He stomps his tiny paw on the driveway.

The concrete ripples. It grabs the thug's feet like quicksand.

"My feet! I am stuck!" the thug panics, dropping his crowbar.

Yoshi spins and tail-whips the crowbar. The metal bar flies through the air and hits the third thug in the stomach.

Clang.

The third thug doubles over, wheezing.

Hajime is rubbing his eyes. "What is happening? Who is screaming?"

"Just the wind, Dad!" Naomi yells from the open window upstairs. "Stay back! It is a whirlwind!"

"A whirlwind?" Hajime asks, squinting at the chaos.

"Yes! A very specific, violent whirlwind!" Naomi shouts.

The leader of the gang realizes something is wrong. He sees the orange and black shapes darting through his men.

"Kill the cats!" the leader screams. "They are demons! Shoot them!"

He reaches into his jacket. He pulls out a gun.

A real gun. A black, heavy pistol.

The air in the driveway changes instantly. The playful vigilante vibe vanishes. This is lethal.

"Gun!" Kenuji warns from the roof.

The leader aims at Muji, who is currently sitting on a thug's chest.

BANG.

The gunshot is deafening.

Muji dodges. The bullet chips the pavement where his head was a millisecond ago.

"Okay", Muji hisses, his fur standing on end. "No more playing".

"Shield!" I scream.

I leap from the bushes. I land in front of Hajime. I am a small white cat, but my shadow is enormous.

I raise a paw. "Divine Light: Reflection".

A barrier of hexagonal light panels appears in the air between Hajime and the gunman.

The leader fires again. BANG. BANG.

The bullets hit my shield. They flatten into lead pancakes and drop to the ground. Tink. Tink.

Hajime stares at the floating golden wall in front of him. He stares at me.

"Snowy?" he whispers. "Did you... did you just make a wall?"

"Inoe! He sees too much!" I panic.

"Sleep!" Inoe commands from the roof. She hits Hajime with a concentrated blast of psychic sedative.

Hajime's eyes roll back. He slumps gracefully to the ground, snoring before he hits the concrete.

"Dad is down!" Naomi yells from the window. "Get them! Get them all!"

"You heard the boss", Yoshi growls.

He transforms.

He cannot fight a gunman as a cat. He needs thumbs. He needs reach.

Smoke explodes. Yoshi bursts out of it in his human form—leather jacket, ripped jeans, furious scowl.

He charges the leader.

The leader's eyes bug out. He sees a cat turn into a punk rocker in mid-air.

"Monster!" the leader screams, firing wildly.

Yoshi dodges the bullets. He weaves left, right. He closes the distance.

He grabs the gun barrel. The metal heats up instantly under his touch.

"Geomancer Arts: Warp".

He bends the gun barrel upward like it is made of putty.

"That is dangerous", Yoshi says, his voice a low rumble. "You could hurt someone".

He punches the leader in the face.

It is a solid, satisfying connection. The leader spins and hits the pavement, out cold.

The other thugs freeze. They look at their unconscious boss. They look at the bent gun. They look at Yoshi, who is cracking his knuckles.

Then they look at Muji, who has also transformed into his human form—shirtless, orange hair wild, holding a car bumper he ripped off the sedan.

"Who is next?" Muji asks, grinning. "I have a bumper. And I know how to use it".

"Run!" one of the thugs screams.

They scramble. They trip over each other to get to the cars. They pile into the remaining two operational vehicles. Tires screech. Engines roar. They peel out of the driveway, leaving their boss and the broken sedan behind.

"Cowards", Muji spits, dropping the bumper.

"Clear", Kenuji confirms, sliding down the drainpipe in human form. He checks the street. "They are gone. They won't come back. Not after seeing Yoshi bend a gun".

"We need to clean up", I say, transforming back into a human. I check on Hajime. He is sleeping peacefully on the driveway, using the broom as a pillow. "Hajime is going to wake up in ten minutes".

"The car", Yoshi points to the smashed sedan. "We cannot leave a Yakuza car in the driveway".

"Push it", Muji says.

Muji and Yoshi grab the bumper of the black sedan. They heave. They push it out onto the street, parking it down the block in front of a fire hydrant.

"Let the cops deal with it", Yoshi says, dusting off his hands.

We run back to the driveway. We pick up the bullets. We pick up the broken glass.

"What about the leader?" Inoe asks, pointing to the unconscious man drooling on the asphalt.

"Trash", Muji says. He picks the man up by his belt and drags him to the car down the street. He stuffs him into the back seat.

"Done", Muji says, jogging back.

"Hajime is waking up", Kenuji warns. "Transform!"

Poof.

We are cats again.

Naomi runs out of the house. She is carrying a glass of water.

"Dad! Dad!" she acts, kneeling beside him. "Wake up!"

Hajime groans. He sits up, rubbing his head. "Naomi? What happened? I felt dizzy... and then there was a whirlwind... and orange flashes..."

"It was the stress, Dad", Naomi says soothingly, handing him the water. "You passed out. Low blood pressure. The doctors warned you about this".

"Passed out?" Hajime blinks. He looks around. "But... the men. The Yakuza. Where are they?"

"They left", Naomi says. "They saw you faint and they panicked. I yelled that I called the ambulance and the police, and they ran away. They are cowards, Dad".

Hajime looks at the empty driveway. He looks at the broom lying next to him.

"I... I stood my ground?" he asks, hope rising in his voice.

"You were a tiger", Naomi lies beautifully. "You scared them off".

Hajime smiles. It is a shaky smile, but it is real. "I did. I defended this house".

He looks at us. We are sitting in a row on the porch, washing our paws innocently.

"And the cats?" Hajime asks. "I thought I saw... Snowy made a wall of light?"

"You were dreaming, Dad", Naomi laughs, helping him stand up. "Snowy has been asleep on the porch the whole time. Look at her".

I yawn. I stretch. I give a little squeak.

Hajime looks at me. He scratches his head. "Right. Dreaming. Of course. Cats cannot make light walls. That defies physics".

"Exactly", Kenuji projects, his tail twitching with amusement. "Physics is absolute. Unless you are us".

"Let's go inside", Naomi says, guiding him to the door. "I will make dinner. We have leftover curry".

"Curry sounds good", Hajime says. He pauses at the door. He looks back at the street. "They won't come back, will they?"

"No", Yoshi projects, though Hajime cannot hear him. "They won't. Because now they know this house is guarded by monsters".

"Come on, Dad", Naomi says.

They go inside.

We stay on the porch for a moment. The street is quiet. The purple sky of the Eclipse is a memory, replaced by the deep indigo of a normal Tokyo night.

"Good fight", Muji says, licking a spot of oil off his paw.

"Sloppy execution", Kenuji critiques. "Too much collateral damage to the car".

"It was a bad car", Muji defends.

"You guys were amazing", I say, bumping my head against Yoshi's shoulder.

Yoshi purrs. It is a deep, rumbling sound that vibrates through all of us.

"We protect our own", Yoshi says. "Human or cat. Family is family".

"I am hungry", Inoe says. "Did she say curry?"

"Victory curry", Muji says.

We trot inside, tails held high. The wolves came to the door, and the cats bit back.

Just another Tuesday.