Beatrices Shop (Part 2)

October 19th - Kimura Kiyomi 

“Well,” Kento interrupted the ensuing silence, “I probably should have told you earlier, but everything I know about Suns and Moons and how to fight the Kälte comes from Beatrice.”

“Oh, you are flattering me Kento. But it's true, I know about these matters.” She was trying to sound humble, but she couldn't quite pull it off. It was obvious that she enjoyed the position her knowledge gave her.

“So what do you know about the Kälte?” I asked her. I was wondering about the nature of the enemy we were fighting for a while now and I figured if anyone knew, it was her.

“Oh yes, the Kälte. It's actually a demon, like me. But it can't interact with the human world like I do. What we actually call the core of the Kälte is actually a human figure, like myself. But it always affects a huge area around it, that's why the core is very rarely observed and usually hides away among clouds of ice and snow.” She stopped for a second so we could take that information in before she continued.

“But in order to fullfill its goal of freezing the world it has to come out of it's hiding spot and do the last part itself so to speak.”

“And what does that mean exactly?” I was really curious about this now.

“I have to admit that even I don't know for sure. The last time it was attempted to stop the Kälte for good was hundreds of years ago, before even I came into existence so I only know this story from demons older than me. But it seems like the personification of the Kälte has to expose his human form in order to be able to speak a enchantment to finalize the freezing of the world. The last time it was attempted to destroy the Kälte, the embodiment of the Kälte was stopped from utterimg the enchantment, but the Sun and the Moon at the time didn't manage to destroy it. So it could escape back into it's protective cloud, but had to retreat because it exhausted its magic power. Sadly the pendants that the Sun and the Moon were wearing also got destroyed in the process, so it wasn't possible to make another attempt at completely destroying the Kälte until now.” This was quite a lot to take in and Beatrice took another break from continuing her story. But it all started to make sense now. The question how a Yoki-Oona could be helpful in this scenario remained however. Maybe Beatrice had some sort of demonic third eye, then as she continued to speak, she seemed to answer my specific question right away.

“You probably wondering how a Yoki-Oona might be helpful in this fight, correct?” Everyone nodded in unison, which must have looked very weird from an outside perspective.

“Well, as you know Yoki-Oona are used to deal with the cold and therefore are unaffected by the freezing of the Kälte. The most important aspect of that however is the fact that only a Yoki-Oona can resist the Kälte enough to get close to the embodiment of the Kälte and try to pin it down so it can be destroyed. Under one specific condition only however.” Now we were all sitting on pins and needles. But Beatrice made us ask.

“And what is that condition?”

“I assume you know already that the pendants you got strenghten your resistance against magic of all sorts and therefore allow you to resist the Kälte and still move even close to the core of the Kälte. Since you don't have any natural defenses against the cold, there is a limit to that however. But if a Yoki-Oona gets to strengthen her resistance against the cold, there is nothing that can touch it, even in the demon world.”

“So we need another pendant for Reiko?” Kento asked.

“Yes, something like this. More precisely, it's an amulet. It's actually an old heirloom of the Tanaka family.” Now everyone was looking at Reiko, but she seemed to be clueless about it. Beatrice however smiled as if she was expecting that.

“Don't worry Reiko. It's obvious you don't know about it. The last person from your family that was in possession of the amulet was your grandmother.”

“Than how can we get it back?” This time Reiko asked the question. The mentioning of her grandmother seemed to lift her spirit quite a bit.

“That requires some effort on your part. As I said, your grandmother was in possession of the amulet and after her death I wanted to get hold of it because no one else in your family knew what it represented, but it seems like your grandmother has hidden it away somewhere and told nobody where.” We all went silent after hearing that. This could turn out to be a big problem of course and ruin our plan to destroy the Kälte once and for all.

“But since it has been a long time since her death I think I have an idea now where it might be.”

Beatrice words made us all look at her and now we were on the edge of our seats waiting for her to tell us where this all important item might be located.

“Tanaka, do you know where your Grandmothers grave is located?” Reiko seemed surprised by the question.

“Yes, in a village outisde of town, where our family is originally from.” Beatrice was nodding in agreement.

“Yes, exactly. I believe that the amulet is located somewhere at her grave. She put it there before her death to protect it. But I can't go there myself since your grandmother cast a protective barrier that keeps demons like me from entering the graveyard. So you folks have to go there yourself to find out whether I'm right.”

“Do we all need to go?” That was Suzuki asking the question. Beatrice seemed to think about it.

“There is a good chance that you will be attacked by something while you are there. Especially since I believe that the barrier and the amulet are connected, so there is a chance the barrier will vanish once you retrieve it.” We all nodded in agreement ourselves now, even though we certainly didn't understand the situation fully.

“So how about this weekend?” Asked Kento. My face immediately went red as a beet. Not this weekend. I stole a glance at Suzuki and his reaction was about the same. So much for being smooth. “We- I can't. W-We, I have plans. Yes, that's right.” I was stammering like crazy and Kento and Beatrice seemed to pick on the situation and smiled knowingly. Even Reiko seemed to get what was going on and looked at Suzuki and me with big eyes. Luckily they all left it at that and didn't ask any questions, although I was sure I would have to justify myself against Reiko later on.

“Okay, the weekend after that then? I don't think we are in that much of a hurry.” Kento seemed willing to spare us for now.

“T-That sounds great.” I kept stammering. The other two agreed as well. Then it was settled. When we left the shop shortly after I felt Reikos stare burning a hole in my back and I really wanted to disappear into a hole right now.