CHAPTER 21

Kou called it a talk, but it was more like a quick discussion, and Himiko’s mother—whose name Kou learned was Kadenokouji Nadeshiko before she took her husband’s surname—was more than happy to assist.

“It should work in theory,” she said, “but you still need to be very cautious. Curses don’t really function like physical things. You don’t vessel them into things like water—there are steps to it, and you must adhere.”

“No problem, Ma’am,” Kou said. “I’m good at following rules.”

Kou would never admit it, but Himiko’s mother really was a breathtaker. Probably because of how much Himiko resembled her, really, and Kou knew that no woman could ever be as pretty as Himiko was, but the resemblance actually made Kou feel a little awkward as he felt like he didn’t know where to look.

Hearing Kou’s reply, Himiko and her mother just giggled.

“Good,” Nadeshiko said. “I’m expecting good things from you.”

The practice of creating shikigami was a practice of the onmyodo, ‘the path of yin and yang’, but onmyodo itself was a system that borrowed a lot of elements from traditional Japanese medicine, local Shinto beliefs, Buddhist astrology, and Taoist alchemy—it’s a complex system with lots of calculations, considerations that ranged from one’s own internal workings to the workings of the entire world.

A practitioner of onmyodo was called an onmyoji, ‘master of yin and yang’. Himiko’s mother was one such person.

“What we’re going to do is a revesselment,” Nadeshiko explained as she went through a box that she apparently hid deep in her closet. “It’s the moving of chi from one vessel to another. This chi could be free-floating, but it could also be a fully-formed spirit, a spell, a curse … if that chi has had a shape, it might be a bit more tricky. You said the kudagitsune carried a death curse, yes?”

“Yes.”

Nadeshiko finally pulled out what she sought in the box: a set of pure white garments with lots of red markings and colorful elements, which looked like a somewhat fancier miko outfit. “Then it’ll be a bit tricky. What do you know about gogyo, Kokonoe-kun?”

“Is that the … the five Chinese elements? The five agents?”

“Yes! Onmyodo was heavily influenced by that, you see. Everything in this world is but an interaction of the five agents. That’s why it’s written with gyo, ‘movement’. The core of the art is to understand the very movement that the world makes, how these movements make up our daily lives, dictates how our lives go, and then make best use of it for the benefit of the many. How familiar are you with gogyo?”

Kou awkwardly scratched his head. “Not … very familiar, I’m afraid.”

Nadeshiko only chuckled as she stood up with the garments. “In that case, I can just go through the specifics later. Here, get these things ready.”

She passed a note to Kou, a list containing a bunch of household items (some salt, some pieces of paper, and a pair of scissors, among others) and a bunch of weird items (some candlesticks, some skewer sticks, a few rubber bands, and a few tiny pieces of rope, among others). That said, nothing seemed particularly complicated, so Kou decided to just comply.

“Also,” Nadeshiko said, “I’ll get in touch with you about where we’re going to do this. Himiko will share the location with you, so keep your phone on!”

She hummed a little as she turned around, and Himiko just shrugged. “She’s the boss.”

Kou shrugged back and decided to at least fulfill the shopping list.

Chi agreed to check around the house for the household items part, so Kou snapped a picture and sent it to her chat. Kou himself decided to head to the local wares because he doubted that he could get everything on the list at the convenience store.

There weren’t a lot of people out today. Kou barely saw the usual groups of people going about their weekends, the service workers who still had to go here and there every now and then—the tourists traversing the usually bustling metropolitan that had now gone eerily silent. He checked again the list in his hands. At least self-checkouts should still be open for service, right?

Even after he arrived and started grabbing things off the shelves, Kou had to admit that he was basically just half-aware. Did he leave a good impression on Himiko’s mom? Should he call Himiko now to talk about it? Was that an okay first visit? Was the gift too much? Did he get the wrong gift for the visit? Was Himiko’s dad really okay with Kou just visiting his family out of nowhere while he was out? Was he asking too much by involving Himiko’s mom in this? Did she like him for her daughter? Was marriage on the table? Were they going to go that quickly? Did he flub his chance instead?

“Aaaargh….” Kou scratched his head and scrambled his hair as he went over everything he said while at Himiko’s place. Nope, he was so nervous he couldn’t remember a word. He only remembered her agreeing to help and talking a little about gogyo.

It took forever until sundown, so as soon as he was done with the purchases, Kou came back home to help Chi make sure that everything in the list was alright. Onihime was, surprisingly, looking a bit wary when she saw the items they prepared—she didn’t complain or anything, she was just visibly cautious about them. After double-checking everything, Kou gave Himiko a heads-up that all the materials were ready, and it was only 20 minutes later that Himiko sent a reply saying that her mother was performing a small ritual to choose an auspicious place to do the revesselment.

Kou and Chi ended up just pacing the living room the rest of the time, to the annoyance of Tenka who just wanted to sit there and watch TV with Onihime. The oni princess herself was oddly quiet that day—on second thought, what did the oni usually consume? So far, Kou and Chi helped feed them human food, but could it be that it didn’t help them with their chi? Could they also be affected by the drying dragon vein this whole time?

With that kind of discomfort in mind, the sun finally set, and a new notification popped on Kou’s phone with the location data of where Himiko and her mother were.

The prep was quick, since Kou and Chi had basically put everything inside a single bag. Other than the items, they also made sure that the little kudagitsune was still willing to follow them—not that he had any other options if he wanted to survive, though. Before leaving, Kou made sure that Onihime and Tenka were okay. They didn’t voice any concerns. Onihime said she would take on the patrol duty again, and Kou thanked her.

“Milord,” Onihime said as Kou walked out the door. She took a deep breath. “I wish you safety and success.”

“You too,” Kou said. “Good luck.”

With that, the siblings left.

The place that Himiko’s mother chose was apparently a small house that looked abandoned. It was located in a housing neighborhood that bordered the Tokyo commute, inconspicuously blending with the occupied houses that surrounded it. The front yard had weeds at least as tall as Kou’s knees, though, and that hint was enough for Kou to tell that the house couldn’t have been taken care of.

“Aren’t we trespassing?” Kou whispered.

“Didn’t we always, whenever we jump on rooftops?” Chi replied.

“I wouldn’t worry about that if I were you,” Himiko’s voice echoed slightly from inside the house. “Everybody thought this place was haunted, so nobody really tried anything. A few kids would occasionally pop over for a dare, but that’s it.”

The girl appeared from inside the very dark house, which felt even darker with the sun setting down. Kou’s eyes adjusted quickly. “Oh, hey. Where’s your mom?”

“Preparing inside. Come in, we’ll need the items you brought.”

“Any chance the lights inside are on?”

Himiko grinned. “Nope.”

As Himiko said, Nadeshiko was already inside—she was sitting in the middle of the very empty living room, surrounded by lit-up candles that formed a gentle silhouette on her face. She was wearing the garments she took out from the hidden box, the same ceremonial robes that were worn by Abe no Seimei in his surviving depictions, complete with the tall hat. She smiled when Kou and Chi arrived.

“Alright,” she said. “Let’s get to work.”

Unexpectedly, she started working on the pieces of paper first—she folded them into similar sizes, then used the pen to draw some shapes and patterns. She instructed Kou and Chi to draw similar shapes as well to make sure they were involved, as she said she might need their chi to help.

“I thought you needed a specific brush or ink to create talismans like this?” Kou asked. Nadeshiko shook her head.

“With any and all mystic arts, intent makes up half the spell. Method, like the kind of ink or the kind of paper, makes up just one half of what a spell is, and it’s usually just used to measure the lengths we’re willing to go to make sure our intent is carried out. The art evolves in the modern-day, too. Like everything else in our culture, shifts are bound to happen as the human society learns to know better.”

Kou thought back to Himiko’s answer back when they encountered the ashirei: a curse, like any spell, is made of intent and method—I need to know them both to dismantle them. “Oh … I see.”

Once they were done with the talismans, Nadeshiko used the skewer sticks and the rubber bands to make a small bundle of sticks tied together. She tied ropes on top of the rubber bands to make sure it was all tight. She then added a few sticks across the thing, tying them up and making the bundle the shape of a plus sign. Afterwards, she added a few more protruding sticks pointing downwards to both the right and the left, making the silhouette look like a human.

Chi caught on first. “Is that … a curse doll?”

“Close,” Nadeshiko said. “This is a hitogatashiro, a doll in the shape of a man. It’s usually used to curse people, but it really just functions as your stock substitute. In more modern terms, it’s used to do sympathetic magic, a magic that strikes a symbol that stands for something greater.”

“So who will this hitogatashiro stand for?”

Nadeshiko smiled. “The dead man.”

Kou could hear Himiko drawing a deep breath, and he understood—this was the thing she’d have to exorcise later.

The curse was going to go there.

“I thought we couldn’t substitute a dead man?”

“Only if the substitute thinks the man is already dead.”

Kou raised his eyebrows. “I’m sorry?”

“Alright, we’re good!” Nadeshiko took the doll and put it right in the middle of the circle of candles. “The salt you brought. I’ve blessed them, so they’ll hurt nightwalkers that try to get in our way. I’ve poured a little out to be my substitute just in case the curse decided to go after me, but left the rest in the bag—use that to protect the ritual. Fair warning, they might hurt you guys, too.”

Kou nodded, but Chi actually stuck her finger in the salt bag before flinching. “Ouch. That stung a bit.”

Nadeshiko wolf-whistled. “You’re a strong young lady.”

“Got that right.”

“Well, strong lady, I’ll count on you to protect me. Koumori-kun, Himiko will give you a signal. When she does, I want you to release the kudagitsune.”

“Understood.”

“Okay, then, everyone—let’s get started.” Nadeshiko sat inside the drawn circle of candles, holding one stick herself, and started chanting. “Namu fukashigi kyou nyorai.”

The air changed.

Kou wasn’t sure how to describe it. Unlike Himiko’s light when she prayed, which felt like the sun and hot to the touch, the air around Nadeshiko just felt like it suddenly froze—the candles began swaying, first to the left, then to the right, and then uniformly as if they were trying to fight the same gusts of wind.

The darkness fell, enough so that even with his night vision, Kou started to struggle just to see.

There was something in the dark—Kou could feel his soft hairs standing up, and the cold that froze the circle was expanding. The gust now uniformly blew outwards, towards Kou, until he realized that there wasn’t any real wind.

Like with Himiko’s explosions of light, the gusts were merely explosions of darkness.

Kou held his breath.

The air changed again.

As the chants continued, the swirling of energy now turned into the inside of the vortex.

The brightness returned, somewhat.

“Nii-chan,” Chi signaled. “Are you ready to fight?”

Kou raised his eyebrows. “No?”

“Then get ready with that salt. Lots of it.”

The candle in Nadeshiko’s hands blew out.

Ka-BLAM!

The doors blasted open, and with it, came ghosts.

Kou jumped a little, but the ghost had little care for him—the semi-transparent screaming dead were diving straight for Nadeshiko.

Chi reacted first.

Her claws outstretched, she struck on one of the ghosts, dissipating it entirely.

Himiko reacted right after her with her cross raised up in the air. “Vade retro, Satana!”

Kou collected his mind again, and finally dove his hand into the salt bag. Ooh, Chi was right, it stung a fair bit. He flinched, then started throwing handfuls upon handfuls to the incoming ghosts.

They weren’t stopping. They just screamed louder and louder until the room was full of wailing.

Nadeshiko didn’t stop her chant.

Chi and Himiko kept up with their magical fight, while Kou was throwing salt here and there whenever he could. At some point, the salt started to sting more—he realized a little too late that his healing wasn’t keeping up.

Not now!

He didn’t care. He let his scarred hand hold the bag as he started to dig into the salt with his other hand.

After all of that, finally, came a single ghost. Unlike the others, the ghost wasn’t flying or screaming: he was floating calmly, as if he had all the time in the world. Kou and the girls kept fighting off the other spirits, but that ghost specifically walked slowly into the circle with Nadeshiko, and then—as if it was natural for him to—he just walked on top of the hitogatashiro.

And he went in.

The ghosts stopped. They all just vanished into thin air.

The chanting, however, didn’t.

“Kou-kun!” Himiko signaled. “Kon!”

That’s the cue—the fox call. Kou opened up his jacket pocket, allowing the kudagitsune to pop—

And the kitsune growled.

The tiny creature disappeared almost immediately, appearing again right on top of the hitogatashiro, and then started grunting. Slowly, a black fog rose from his body and fell, drop by drop as if he was bleeding dark mist, and the hitogatashiro just absorbed everything.

After a few minutes of that, the kudagitsune finally sighed.

The fox jumped off of the circle and approached Kou. “Thank you,” he squeaked weakly. “With this, I can go back to my Master. Please take my gratitude and apologies.”

To Kou’s surprise, right by his feet, there appeared the same rat aburaage from the kitsune-tsuri the other night. Also a whole bag of red beans. Where did the kudagitsune even find the strength to return all these?

Wait, weren’t they digested already? Could they do that?

It wasn’t exactly strange to hear acts of gratitude from supernatural creatures who provided foodstuff, but….

Kou decided not to think too much about it. Nadeshiko carefully lifted the cursed hitogatashiro. “A spirit is locked in here with the curse—a spirit that has volunteered to be exorcised. With this, the curse is held, and this hitogatashiro carries it. Himiko, if you would.”

“Got it.” Himiko clasped her cross. “Miserere mei, Deus, secundum magnam misericordiam tuam.”

Her cross shone.

“Et secundum multitudinem miserationum tuarum, dele iniquitatem meam.”

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

“Amplius lava me ab iniquitate mea, et a peccato meo munda me.”

The air felt slightly damp for a second, but then the hitogatashiro shook—Himiko continued her whispers, and the shaking grew stronger, and stronger, and stronger, until it finally just stopped.

All the candles blew out, and then lit up again at the same time.

It felt like a huge grip was just released from everyone in the room, because everybody took a sigh of relief at the same time.

Kou could feel it. It was over.

“Well done, Vampire.”

It was Reiko.

Kou was so preoccupied by the ritual that he didn’t notice her arrival.

Chi and Himiko immediately adopted combat stances, but Kou just scooped up the rewards from the kudagitsune.

“Thank you for your understanding,” Kou said. “Please accept my gratitude.”

Kou handed her the rat aburaage.

Nobody moved. Reiko was clearly masking her expression, although Kou wasn’t sure what expression she was trying to hide. After a few seconds, she decided to take the rat aburaage and eat it.

“I accept your offering,” she said. “I’ll be in your care going forward, Vampire.”

“Me too.”

And, with that, like the storm she came with, she just left.

“You handled that nicely, Koumori-kun,” Nadeshiko commented. Kou turned to find her already right behind him. “Good work!”

“Good work too, Yamato-san. Thank you for your help!”

“Aw, no need to be so formal, you. Just call me Nadeshiko-san!”

“Mom!”

Himiko went on a whole complaint about being too close to her boyfriend, and Kou could only awkwardly laugh. His eyes landed on the empty hitogatashiro.

Substitute.

The moving of chi from one vessel to another.

The moving of chi….

Kou suddenly paused. “Yamato-san, can I ask about one more thing?”

Nadeshiko was just giddy about her daughter finally introducing her boyfriend to her. “Shoot up!”

“Can you teach me more about gogyo?” Kou gulped. “I feel like it could help answer why the leylines here were dying.”

Nadeshiko’s excited smile disappeared—replaced by a knowing grin. “Sure. What do you want to know?”

*