CHAPTER 19

Kou had read about it before, but he never tried it himself: kitsune-tsuri, ‘fox-fishing’. There was apparently a very old trap that hunters of the olden days had used to trap foxes, and it worked so well that there was even a kyougen—quick, slapstick comedic stage play—about a hunter who managed to save himself from a kitsune’s threats by using this trap.

And it’s not that the hunter outsmarted the kitsune or anything. The hunter was just a naive man who believed all the lies the kitsune spewed out his mouth. It’s just that the lure of the trap was just too good that the fox couldn’t afford to pass it up.

There were very few kitsune encounter stories where the human won, so that kyougen left its impression on Kou. It was probably also the most brutal, since like all traps, the foxtrap was meant to trap and kill … well, foxes.

“We’re not going to kill her,” Himiko said as she took out a piece of rope. “We’re just here to talk, aren’t we?”

“I still have no idea why you’re even here,” Chi replied.

Kou wasn’t sure, either. This night was a bit different: the usual patrol was left in the hands of Onihime (visibly excited about it despite acting calm, very cute) and Tenka (who was clearly just there for Onihime, really), since Kou wasn’t sure if he could juggle the increasing nightwalker unrest along with this.

Well, there’s the alternative of him doing the patrol and Onihime doing this, but he knew that having oni royalty in suburban Tokyo was problem enough as it was. Anyone with a functioning head and a desire for peace wouldn’t want to make a head honcho oni meet a Fushimi Inari kitsune rep in Tokyo. It was already bad enough that the kitsune had seen Onihime during the patrol where they encountered the kudagitsune, any further than that would just be inviting trouble.

In the end, even with Himiko’s offer to help, the only sensible split Kou could think of was to have Onihime and Tenka handle the patrols. Kou would need a combatant in case something goes wrong, so Chi came with him.

Then there’s Himiko. The oni clearly couldn’t be left alone with her, so she came with him, too.

“I’m here to help you, Chi-chan!”

“Don’t call me chan.”

“Aww, but you’re so cute!”

It was Kou’s first time seeing Chi so overwhelmed, even with everyone’s hands being so busy. Kou was holding two stiff branches of wood together, keeping their tips joined at the top and separated at the bottom like forming a triangle. Chi was holding one more, and while the siblings were making a wooden pyramid, Himiko tied a rope up top to keep the entire thing together.

Seeing Chi lose to someone teasing her was refreshing, but Kou was more worried about the trap than the bickering. “You sure this works?”

“It should tap into something far deeper than reasoning, so yeah,” Himiko said as she gave the rope one final tug. The pyramidal frame was done. “No matter how much the kitsune learned, the lure should still work. That’s what Tsurigitsune said.”

Tsurigitsune was the title of the kyougen about the hunter who trapped the fox. The kitsune convinced the hunter that he would be cursed for having trapped some kitsune, and the hunter was scared enough he was going to undo his traps—only for the lure to work against the kitsune who talked him out of it, killing the kitsune. “I kinda see what you mean. How do we know this will work against her specifically, though?”

“Well … that’s what he’s for. And that’s why we’re making this tsuri with this exact design.”

Kou drew a deep breath. “This better work.”

Chi was grumbling something Kou couldn’t quite catch.

There was simply no way Himiko could catch up with all the rooftop jumping—what with her being human and everything—so Himiko had to be basically carried here. They were tracing the same path they did before, traversing the neighborhoods where the leyline had dried, looking for where the main leyline got cut off. This time, there were three of them. Only two were actually doing the hopping.

Given that only two days had passed, it wasn’t hard to find the damage from the ashirei’s magical strike—the owner of the house was probably away or had some money troubles, Kou wasn’t sure. All he knew was that this was where the ashirei was last seen.

That was their target this time.

Not the dried leyline, but that specific ashirei.

“Nii-chan,” Chi handed over a much shorter stick. “Help me with this one.”

They were setting up the tsuri on that site, and Kou kept praying to whatever higher power there was that nobody saw them there, trespassing and whatnot. They hadn’t learned hypnosis yet. Getting caught was bound to be a pain.

There’s also the matter of the honor student Himiko being there….

“It’s kind of exciting,” Himiko giggled. “I’m going out with you at night. Hehe.”

“In case you forgot, I’m here too.”

“How can I even forget you, Chi-chan?”

Chi pouted, but didn’t reply.

Kou took the stick, placed it underneath the pyramidal frame, and Chi helped him hold it up. “Have you got the aburaage?”

Himiko gave Kou the second stick and took out the second piece of rope. “Yup, all good in my lunchbox.”

“What did your parents say when you were frying a rat to put in your lunchbox?”

“My mom immediately knew what it’s for, but my dad was a lot less happy about it.”

Kou winced at the mention. “I still can’t believe you just cooked a rat.”

“If it’s any comfort, it’s not what I’d cook for you, Kou-kun.”

Chi groaned. “Where did you even get one of these?”

“Exotic pet store. There were apparently a few of these prepared specifically to feed snakes.”

“So you told the clerk you had a snake?”

“Nope, just said I was looking for snake feed. I’d love to have a pet snake, though.”

Chi raised her eyebrows. “I thought Christianity hated snakes.”

“Tradition only says the Adversary took the shape of a snake. It doesn’t hate snakes. I’m sure Dad’s gonna be fine.”

They set up the smaller tsuri within the larger one, and as soon as the setup was done, Himiko finally pulled out her lunchbox—inside it was an oil-fried food, smelling surprisingly fresh and appetizing, in the shape of what was obviously a rodent. Kou couldn’t help but coil a bit. “Did you kill them before cooking?”

“Well, yeah. Can’t cook them otherwise.”

Kou shivered, but decided to not push further. “Got it. How do we want to set this up?”

“One here,” Himiko took out one of the rat aburaage and hooked it to the dangling rope in the smaller tsuri, “and one here.”

She finished setting up the larger tsuri, leaving them with two rat aburaage hung on two foxtraps. Kou raised his eyebrows. “Let’s get this started, then.”

With that, the three trappers left the site—but not before Kou opened his jacket.

From within it, jumped the little kudagitsune. “Now—”

The creature didn’t make a squeak of sound. He just jumped without abandon into the smaller tsuri—

Clack!

The pyramid did what it had to do, forcing the kudagitsune to hop higher than its own body height to catch the aburaage—

And the hook got him.

Kou shut his eyes as the nightwalker squealed. “Whah—whah ih hish?!”

“Sorry,” Chi said. “Stay like that for a while.”

Kou actually talked Himiko out of using a physical hook for the tsuri. It would’ve been too cruel, especially since the kudagitsune wasn’t meant to be the target, but in exchange, Himiko agreed to a binding spell. It would’ve been equally uncomfortable, just a lot less painful and shouldn’t leave a mark.

Also, it only worked on nightwalkers.

All that said, the little kudagitsune was left there hanging on the threads of the trap, and he couldn’t get down.

“I still don’t feel right about this,” Kou said. “Can we just wait like ten minutes, max? It looks painful.”

“He’ll be fine, I guarantee it,” Himiko reassured him as they walked away from the trap. “I’ve been bound a few times myself whenever I trained with my mom. It really doesn't hurt.”

“It’s just a bit of a discomfort,” Chi sighed. “I can’t believe I’m agreeing with you again.”

Himiko had the biggest smirk. “Aw, you little tsundere, you.”

“Who are you calling a tsundere?!”

So they waited. The plan was simple—the kitsune-tsuri would unmistakably attract kitsune, which would go pretty indiscriminately since Tokyo was kitsune territory. However, the idea was to have a lure that was even more appetizing, so much so that one specific kitsune just could not resist: the very target of her mission.

Or, well, that was the idea.

If another kitsune gets here first, the entire thing goes up in smoke.

And that was why Kou needed Chi. He could probably set up the tsuri all by himself—putting apart the entire rat aburaage thing, of course, since he couldn’t even cook normal aburaage, let alone one featuring rat meat—but if another kitsune came here, they would have to fight to make sure that the only kitsune who got into the trap was the right one.

Himiko helped with the aburaage, since Kou had little faith in his sister’s domestic skills (to her very apparent annoyance and Onihime’s amusement), but apart from cooking the rat, she was also a decent exorcist on her own. Kou trusted her, but just in case, he had made her swear on her blood that she wouldn’t exorcise a single fox tonight. She agreed.

So they waited. And waited.

And waited….

Kou had all the patience in the world, but Chi was becoming restless after just an hour. “This is weird.”

“That the ashirei didn’t appear?”

“No,” she muttered. “That no kitsune came at all.”

“Foxtraps could take days to catch a fox.”

“So you meant we’re supposed to wait here for days?”

“No, I also tried pouring a little bit of chi into the air. Chi leaks like this were usually how wandering ghosts and other youkai detect psychics, right?”

She wasn’t wrong—the myth that supernatural creatures were attracted to sensitive people was true because of this. A normal human using supernatural abilities would take a mental toll because it directly manipulates one’s own chi, but humans who didn’t even realize that they had this ability just kept it on the whole time, like a tap that wasn’t properly closed. This allowed their chi to leak. For chi-eating creatures like the nightwalkers, that smelled quite good.

Kou, for one, couldn’t do this. He wasn’t human to begin with. Letting his chi leak would just terrify other nightwalkers, not draw them in.

He didn’t leak his chi though, so why were there no other nightwalkers at all?

He looked around. Was there anything here that—

—oh. “It’s the leylines.”

“Sorry?”

“We’re standing on dried-up leylines. The nightwalkers that were supposed to be here would’ve either moved away, or … yeah.”

They fell silent. “So…,” Himiko raised her eyebrows. “You guys wanna set up the trap somewhere else?”

RRRRAAKHR!!

A very loud yelp pierced the air—the sound of a creature Kou had only heard once before.

In online videos.

All three immediately took defensive stance as the unnatural shriek was followed by a loud snap, an echoing crack, and an ear-ringing cry of pain.

“Wha—whah ih hish?!”

And they finally let their guard down.

Right there, hanging by a thread inside the wooden pyramidal frame, was a whole fox.

“It worked,” Kou whispered. “Huh.”

“Not to say I told you so,” Himiko said, “but I told you so.”

“Did we get the right fox, though?”

“Yes,” Chi cautiously replied. “This smell was the same one as when the small one got attacked.”

Kou gulped. “Here goes nothing, then.”

They went out of hiding.

“Himiko.”

“Got it.” She touched her cross. “Qui habitat in abscondito Excelsi in umbraculo Domini commorabitur.”

A circle appeared underneath the tsuri, enclosing both the bigger and smaller one, drawing itself—fast enough that Kou couldn’t really see it happen, but slow enough for him to snatch the small kitsune before the circle completed. The little creature whimpered as he was freed from his trap and burrowed himself immediately into Kou’s jacket pocket.

“Dicens Domino spes mea et fortitudo mea Deus meus confidam in eum.”

Himiko finished her chant and the circle grew brighter, the spiritual energy swirling stronger and harder to resist, harder and harder until it felt impossible to touch beyond that line.

Chi snickered. “You really like your Psalms, don’t you?”

Himiko raised her eyebrows. “For a young vampire, you sure know your liturgical Latin.”

The binding was complete, and inside the tsuri—freed of the original binding hook, now in the guise of a human woman with auburn hair in a gray blazer and a pencil skirt—was the very same kitsune that nearly fought with Kou just two nights ago.

She grunted. “You chose not to heed my warning, Vampire?” She threw a look at Himiko for a bit. “You even conspired with an exorcist. Incredible.”

“Oh, I heeded your warning alright,” Kou said as he crouched to level his eyes with the ashirei. “That’s why I wanted you here, actually.”

The ashirei gave a terribly malicious glare. “Are you trying to outfox me?”

“No, unfortunately. I’m not that brave. I just want to talk.”

“Very confident of you to converse with a fox.”

“I just like talking to people.”

“I’m not ‘people’.”

“You can talk. That’s good enough.”

The fox was bewildered for a second. “What do you want?”

“I honestly want to know why you’re here.”

Before he got here, Kou actually tried to read as many things as he could over the net about negotiation tactics. All that said, though, the moment he came face-to-face with the cunning woman, all of that just went out the window. Kou just wanted to save the little fox and end the chi drought, and if knowing why the kitsune came here would help him accomplish that, then God forbid, he’d love to know why she was there.

The kitsune smirked. “And what do I get in exchange?”

“We’ll let you continue with your mission, of course.”

The ashirei was showing confidence, which was a good deterrent. People sounded more convincing when their tone was confident. Kou hated it, but he had to remind her that they were the ones who had her on a leash, not the other way around.

Until Fushimi Inari Shrine sends reinforcements, at least.

Himiko whispered something that seemed to have made the binding stronger, because the ashirei grunted for a second. She thought for a second, and finally decided to relent. “I was sent here to help Ouji Inari Shrine.”

Kou shared a look with Himiko, who nodded at him. “So the Shrine was really weakening?”

“Something happened to the dragon veins here. It’s such a massive scale, the kind of thing that only happens when someone builds a new major shrine or moves a city. It dried supplies for Ouji Inari Shrine, allowing that little nogitsune to pass.”

Kou frowned. “You mean the kudagitsune?”

“That thing was cursed. He can’t control it. Lower your guard for a second, and he’d go to where he was cursed to go.”

“Wait, so he’s going to find a new master?”

“No. I know the smell of that curse—it’s the curse a yamabushi uses when they want to harm someone with their pet.”

Kou’s frown just went deeper. “So you’re saying that, as long as we can get rid of this curse and send the kudagitsune back, you’ll let him be?”

The ashirei’s jaws were hanging.

So were Chi’s and Himiko’s.

“... boy,” the kitsune carefully pronounced, “are you out of your mind?”

Kou chuckled nervously. “Kind of. Maybe something isn’t really right in my head.”

“You’re trying to loophole my mission,” the ashirei said.

“Yeah, that’s the gist of it.”

“And you’re not even hiding your plan from me.”

“Why should I? I want to help Ouji Inari Shrine, too. I just want as little casualties as possible.”

The kitsune thought again. “So you want my cooperation, is that it?”

“I’ll get rid of the curse tomorrow night,” Kou said. “I’m just asking you to wait until then.”

The ashirei gritted her teeth. “Fine.”

“Swear it on your blood.”

“I swear it on my blood—ouch!”

She flinched. Funny thing about vampires—since blood was their lifeline, swearing upon one’s blood to a vampire was basically promising them their entire life. Thank goodness there weren’t a lot of vampires in Japan because Kou wouldn’t have had this little trick up his sleeve otherwise.

Kou stood up, turned to the girls behind him, and they shared an agreement.

“Oh, before I forgot,” Kou said as Himiko released the ashirei’s binding. “What’s your name?”

The fox rubbed her wrists, clearly upset about the arrangement. “I don’t have one as a fox,” she said—clearly lying, since all creatures have got True Names, but Kou let that be, “but they call me Ashido Reiko in my human guise.”

Oh. Yeah. She’s wearing office lady outfit. It’s easy to forget that for some reason. “Well then, Ashido-san. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

With that, the fox disappeared into the night.

“This should be a lot simpler!” Kou exclaimed. “We don’t even need to exorcise this little fox—we just dispel his curse. You can do that, right?”

“I wish it were that simple, Kou-kun,” Himiko said. “But I need to know the intent and the target of the curse. A curse, like any spell, is made of intent and method—I need to know them both to dismantle them.”

“I can help research the method,” Chi offered.

“Me too,” Kou said. “Now the intent. We need to know the little guy’s target.”

Kou signaled for the little fox to come out of the pocket, cueing his turn. The tiny fox shyly popped out of Kou’s pocket, realizing what was expected of him.

“Um,” he squeaked, “there’s … one problem with that.”

Kou raised his eyebrows. “And what’s that?”

“I’ve actually gone to the house of the person I was supposed to curse,” the little fox admitted. Chi gasped.

“Seriously? Then why are you here?”

“That’s … the problem,” the fox sheepishly said as he hid half his face in Kou’s jacket. “That person is already dead. I couldn’t curse him. That’s why I only wandered around, as I wasn’t allowed to return without passing the curse on, but getting chi was hard around here. I even had to steal someone’s red beans just to survive….”

*