What the Fluff! It's Halloween Already?!

I found myself walking through the old cemetery in the dead of night. I'd been here before. No matter how deep they bury the bodies, the smell of decay would always fill the air. I came here looking for something, but I had no idea what.

The faint sound of footsteps squishing freshly fallen leaves broke the otherwise tranquil silence. Each time the noise returned, it was just a tad louder than before. Someone (or perhaps something) was here with me, though I couldn't see who (or what). And it was getting closer.

I continued further, drawn irresistibly to whatever it was I was seeking. Before I could react, something grabbed a hold of me!

•

I woke up to the sight of a giant spider (crab?)-like creature having grabbed a hold of me. It had the face of a spider but its body and claws were more crab-like. Its claws were jammed into my mattress, leaving me unable to move. I tried to escape by wrestling myself free from its terrible grasp. Nothing worked. Being strapped to my own bed left me unable to dance my way out of this as well. No dancing meant no magic I could cast.

“What do you want?!” I shouted at the creature.

“I want to FEAST! ON! FLESH!” the creature shouted back at me, drooling all over me.

Oh, of course it wanted to eat me. Because why not, right?

There was one more trick up my sleeve. “Summon Hollow!” I shouted at the risk of one or both of my parents hearing me. Aichi appeared out of nowhere and saw what was happening.

“Oh dear Frith, what the fluff is that thing ~woof?!” Aichi screamed in horror at the sight of the beast.

The creature heard him and turned its head around to see what made the noise. Somehow, it was even more afraid of Aichi than Aichi was of it. And that was really saying something.

“The Hollowed-Out One!” the spider cried as it leaped out of my window in terror. Neither of us had any clue as to what had just happened.

“Huh,” Aichi said. “I must have scared them off with my massive muscles!”

“Aichi, you're about four apples tall and your breath smells like peanut butter and sparkles,” I told him. “You couldn't scare a fly.”

“Aww ~woof!” Aichi replied. “I'm glad someone other than me thinks I'm cute.”

“I never said that,” I told him.

Then it hit me. Shouting matches, the unmistakable sound of people arguing out in public. That hadn't happened very often in a small town like this. Suddenly, it sounded like several were happening all at once.

“We should check out what all the commotion is about,” I told Aichi.

“Agreed ~woof. I thought you'd never ask.”

•

When we arrived downtown, we came across a chaotic mess of a scene. The whole area devolved into one massive shouting match where people threw random accusations at each other.

“So it was you!”

“Me? Get over yourself! You're the one who flooded my backyard!”

“Confess to your crimes, stale end piece of white bread!”

“Give me back my floral wallpaper!”

“Give me back my cherry saplings!”

“Hey! Which one of you morons stole my TV?!”

“So you were the one who stole my entire makeup cabinet!”

As we watched the chaos from a safe distance, Aichi told me, “~woof, this must be the work of a yokai.”

“Yokai?” I asked.

“They're yokai, ~woof.”

“Yokai don't exist.”

“What?!” Aichi asked in confusion. “You were totally fine with giant monsters rampaging through the city for two months, but you draw the line at yokai?”

“Those are just stories parents tell their kids to get them to behave,” I explained.

“Okay, look, they do exist ~woof,” Aichi insisted as he got ready to fly off from our location. “Now, if you'll excuse me, stand back and let the detective do his work.”

“Excuse you?” I asked him quickly, putting a hand on his paw to keep him from leaving. “I'm the detective around here.”

“Some detective you are ~woof,” Aichi scoffed. “I've seen the kind of work they put you to at the newspaper. A stunning expose on what they really put inside school bento? Really? Is the Journal a newspaper or a tabloid?”

“Hey! That was an important investigation!”

Before I was able to continue, the sounds of footsteps grew closer to us. I had to hide myself and Aichi before we could be spotted.

When it was determined we were safe, I whispered to Aichi, “Okay, how do you know it's a yokai? And how do you know they exist?”

Aichi answered, “That giant spider… crab… thing that attacked you? That was a yokai.”

“So what are you saying?” I asked. “Did a yokai come around and possess all these people?”

“Don't be silly, ~woof,” Aichi replied. “Yokai can't do this… at least not to this extent. What's more likely is that they used magic to make all these people go crazy. But it doesn't make any sense ~woof.”

“Why not?”

“Yokai aren't typically this strong,” Aichi explained. “~woof, they tend to focus on one victim at a time.”

“This was coordinated…” I quickly realized. The puzzle pieces were starting to come together. But there was still so much we didn't know yet.

“Now, you're getting the right idea, ~woof,” Aichi told me as he flew off.

Before I could catch up to him, I felt something jab me in the arm. And then…

Nothing…

•

When I came to, I discovered I was in some sort of mountain cavern, tied up to a stake with the kind of rope I'd have expected to see holding together one of those old rope bridges. Bunches and bunches of creatures marched their way on all sides of me. There were kappa and tengu and plenty of tsukumogami, too. There was the oil baby and the slit-mouthed woman and the aka manto. Not just yokai, but also other types of creatures of legend were there, as well. All of them were marching around me, above me, and below me.

But what did they want with me?

I felt weak all of a sudden, as if my own life was slowly being sucked out of me. Chanting… What were they chanting? I wasn't able to understand what language they were speaking or recognize it as any language a human would speak.

Of course! The magic! I literally had lots of magic to spare these creatures. Wait… Were they Hollows? No, that didn't make any sense.

“So, I see you've finally awoken, magical girl,” a voice called out to me in the distance. The voice seemed to be coming through over a speaker of some sort. “You're just in time for the big feast!”

Finally, I thought to myself, someone who spoke my language.

“Oh, have I waited so long for the Flower Powers to awaken,” the voice continued. “Many centuries have I spent hibernating deep underground for the magic to return.”

The creatures stopped in their tracks at the sound of the voice. “He is here!” they began to chant repeatedly.

“You're a bit late for that party,” I said in a playful tone. “That's been a few months already.”

“A funny one you are,” the voice told me.

I made a note to myself regarding the various caverns and crevasses of my current location. The caverns kept on going as far as the eye could see, and even beyond that.

“How far do these passages go?” I asked.

“All the way down to the depths of the underworld,” the voice answered immediately. “An inquisitive one, as well.”

“Well, I am a journalist… in training, so it makes sense,” I replied back. “So who are you? Only crazy people yell at nothing. Can we at least talk face to face?”

“Ooo, a feisty one you are,” the voice shouted back, this time even louder and lacking the coming in through speakers vibe from before. A large octopus-like creature emerged from the caverns below, with a giant gourd for a head and large tusks like an elephant. “Who are you to be so demanding of me?”

“I'm the cute defender of justice!” I shouted at the creature, determined to not be afraid of this giant glorified seafood.

“Prepare your best defenses, oh magical defender, for nothing shall stop our invasion!” the giant octopus creature shouted back at me. By now, its body had almost completely filled one whole corner of this large room. Even its fellow monsters were afraid of its mere presence.

“He is here!” they continued to chant.

“You must be another one of these yokai,” I assumed, “or something similar.”

“The King of the Yokai,” the creature replied. “The time has come for us to rise and reclaim our place as the dominant life on this planet!”

“All hail the King! Bow before him!”

“Not if I have anything to say about it!” I shouted back at this so-called King.

“Your magic is being drained from you as we speak,” the King replied back. “Soon, you will be useless to stop us, as will be the rest of your humankind.”

“~woof! What up, party people?” Aichi shouted as he flew into the cavern. How he was able to find me, or whether he even thought to look for me here, I had no idea. “What's going on in here?”

Aichi's presence terrified the yokai, causing them to cower in fear at the mere sight of him.

“The Hollowed-Out One!” the King shouted as he and his cronies disappeared into the depths. No trace at all. They were just… gone in an instant.

I hadn't even the slightest clue what just happened, but now it happened for the second time today.