"Beauty of Annihilation"

The Kuroshio Shrine continued to burn.

The fox girl now sat cross-legged on a gnarled branch in the forest behind the shrine, her mask so ethereal in the rain that reflections of the inferno could be seen dancing across it. The beetle brothers remained on guard in the courtyard at the front of the shrine. The fire would either kill Shigeko and Dick, or force them out where their enemies would be lying in wait.

“Bro,” said the rhino beetle.

“Aniki,” answered the stag beetle.

“Humans sure are strange. If our burrow came under attack, I’d simply win, bro.”

“For sure, aniki.”

And then they snapped to attention, since a figure appeared amid the burning shrine. Dick Slaughter stepped out the front door, still pale and sickly, but he walked tall with a fresh set of bandages running down his right arm. The mandibles of the beetles clicked with anticipation.

“Can’t buy me love, but I’ll kick your ass for free.” Dick roared and broke out into a charge. The eager rhino stepped in front of the stag and made a solo charge towards Dick, his horn glistening in the rain, sharp enough to impale Dick with a single stroke. The rhino had no fear, since he was a strong beetle, and his armor was impervious to the attacks of mere humans. Besides, this Dick moved slowly, no matter how loud he roared or blustered.

And yet, just when they were about to collide, Dick lunged into a side-step, the rhino horn only connecting with air. Dick turned and ran a bloody thumb across the fire ofuda charm attached to the bandages, and the rhino beetle’s eyes could only widen in shock.

“I’ll take Maxwell’s Silver Hammer, and give you a lobotomy!”

Dick’s hand exploded into black-and-white fire as he struck the rhino in the mandible. The rhino roared and staggered backwards, his mandible clicking in agony, as the magic fire took its toll, the flames licking and roaring and biting, grayscale flames burning hot. 

The stag cried out, “Aniki!” and raced forward, but the rhino beetle stepped in front of him.

“Hold on, bro,” the rhino beetle said through gritted mandibles, shaking away the fires. “I messed up. This is just what that human wants. Without his companion, his only chance to defeat us is to fight us separately.”

“Right, aniki! We’ll take him together!”

Dick couldn’t press the advantage, his cold making him dizzy and woozy and sniffly. The fire still raged on his arm as he eyed the brothers, who slowly circled on either side of their opponent. Dick himself waited, blood rushing to his ears, since he and Shigeko would only have one shot at this.

When the stag had his back to the front door of the house, Dick made his move. He charged the rhino on the other side, forcing the rhino to focus on his flaming fist. The stag charged after Dick from behind, hoping to crush him between himself and his brother, paying no attention to the second figure now emerging from the burning house out of sight. 

Dick lunged away at the last moment, sliding away, putting his trust in Shigeko, since it wasn’t like he could see her either. The beetles turned towards him at the same moment, almost colliding, their heads at the exact level, and that’s when Shigeko leapt across the courtyard, the statue held high in her hand. One drop of blood was all it took to bathe the courtyard in the blinding light of the Scythe of a Thousand Truths. One swing was all it took to decapitate the two brothers.

Shigeko slid to a halt, twirling the scythe in her hands. The heads of the beetles, cleanly cut, rolled towards her feet. Behind them, their prone bodies began to fade away into the light.

“Time stops for nobody,” she told them, or maybe herself. “Nothing lasts forever. Impermanence is the natural state of things. Okaa-san, Otou-san, the Old Man, Miyoki Marika, they all had to go at some point. It was never my fault that they left. I was blaming myself because I couldn’t accept that departures are the natural way of things.” She smiled. “But so are arrivals. If things inevitably end, then I’ll just have to enjoy it while it lasts. I’d rather be so sad at the end because I was so happy while it lasted, than to feel nothing at all. That’s what matters. Mono no aware…mattaku, Dikkun, you got me monologuing.”

Dick arrived next to Shigeko. He let his flaming arm go out; the electricity died down in her scythe. The bodies of the brothers had disappeared, their heads last to go.

“Bro.”

“Aniki?”

“I want to be a human in the next life. I want to make a speech like that…so strange, but so human…”

“Me too. Me too.”

And then the shadows possessing them disappeared, leaving just a pair of two tiny beetles that bowed their heads to Shigeko and Dick before losing their briefly-gained sapience, but perhaps not their sentience, and then wandered off, back to their burrow, one with nature once again.

That just left the girl in the mask. She rose from her tree, black pool eyes gazing down upon Shigeko and Dick. The two readied themselves for another fight.

But she withdrew, leaping backwards from the branch, never taking her eyes off of them, as she disappeared into the forest behind her, dripping with rain and shadow like a hazy watercolor.

“Well, that was interesting,” Dick supposed. But then he frowned. “What can we do about the shrine, though? It's still on fire."

Shigeko scratched at her injured arm. “I’m not sure…I was hoping the rain would put it out…”

The eyes on the Inari statue in her hand started to glow.

“...uh, Shigeko?”

“This isn’t me.”

The Inari in Shigeko's hand wasn't the only Inari present at the shrine. At the front of the courtyard, near the Torii gate, stood a larger-than-life stone version of her, smiling radiantly, her eyes now glowing. Dick and Shigeko gasped. 

The rain seemed animated now, swirling in the sky, blanketing the shrine until the fire dwindled down to embers and then nothing. But not to be outdone, the burned wood regrew itself, the shrine roof reforming until it was whole once more, the floorboards losing their blackened color, until the shrine was back to normal, right as rain. Just like that, the shrine had fixed itself, and the rain slowed and then the clouds parted, revealing the sunlight of a blooming spring, and the Inari statues lost their glow, their work completed. 

Dick’s eyes grew in wonder.

Shigeko sighed in relief, then muttered, “Couldn’t you have done that earlier-”

A leap swirled by and slapped her in the face.

“I’m just glad you’re okay,” Dick mumbled, eyes blinking, head light and woozy, since the battle had worsened his cold caused by yesterday’s rain.

“Dikkun, matte, are you okay?” Shigeko’s voice trailed away as Dick went limp.

He awoke sometime later on a futon in a darkened room, though his long legs went past the bedding and onto one of the five tatami mats that made up the floor. A hot towel rested across his forehead. He found a clock in the room, indicating a few hours had passed. His head swam, so he closed his eyes and tried to rest. Something rather sweet drifted into the room from the hallway - the sound of Shigeko singing. It sounded like she hadn’t done it before.

“I got two hoes…me and Pluto…Baby Sasuke…not Naruto.”

She arrived in the room carrying a tray of tea, sitting it down next to Dick. When she saw that he was awake, she exhaled in relief and smiled.

Dick managed to sit up straight. “You sing off key,” he said.

Shigeko stared at him for a moment, then her face turned tomato red and steam poured of her ears and the Inari statue outside could only sigh as the camera panned upward and Shigeko screamed-

“You had me so worried, baka!”

BRILLIANT

BATTLE

FIRST CORINTHIANS

“You’re making me stay in bed?” Dick asked petulantly from the futon the next morning. “I’m only going to be in Japan for so long, I can’t miss a single day!”

Shigeko had her sailor fuku on and stood in the doorway, jabbing a stern finger at Dick, eyes caring but firm like steel. “If you try to go out while you’re sick, you’ll end up missing more days. You need rest. Especially after using that onmyodo fire without enough training. But…if you stay in bed and recover, we can fix that.”

“You mean it?” Dick asked, not daring to believe. “You’ll train me?”

Shigeko nodded. “I kept refusing to admit it. But I realize now that I do need help. I do need other people in my life. I can’t do this all alone, especially with that girl in that fox mask out there.”

“Yeah, what was up with that? Do you think she’s a fox spirit?”

“Like a kitsune? She could be, but why would a fox wear a fox mask? But admittedly, the minds of spirits can be an enigma. We can at least refer to her as the kitsune from now on, even if she isn’t. I’m getting tired of saying girl in the fox mask every time.”

“Why do you think she wanted to burn down the shrine?”

The toaster in the kitchen dinged, so Shigeko answered from there. “For generations, this shrine and its maidens have protected Higashikatsushika. The kitsune wanted to destroy the shrine and kill us, so it must be interested in getting us out of the way. I neglected the shrine’s barrier spells for a while. I fixed them while you were asleep last night.”

“I could’ve helped.”

“You can help by resting.”

Dick demurred for a moment, then rested his head back on his pillow. Shigeko arrived in the doorway once more, bookbag around her shoulder, a piece of toast in hand. Bandages stretched up her arm, covering the wounds from when she cut herself desperately last night. The scars would remain for a long while, but this morning, Shigeko looked brighter than she ever had, matching the spring sunshine outside.

“Thanks for checking on me last night,” she said. “And for being honest with me.”

Dick scratched the back of his head. “I’m sorry for butting in. You told me not to come back, but I did, anyway.”

“Well…I guess sometimes I say things that don’t really reflect how I feel. I’ll try to work on it. I’m sure there’s an anime archetype for that. But in any case - taking care of you made me late for school, so make sure you spend today resting in bed and don’t undo all my hard work, Dikkun-baka!”

Shigeko marched out after that, toast in her mouth. Dick exhaled through his nostrils and gazed upwards, smiling.

“Unfamiliar ceiling.”

And out on the streets of Higashikatsushika, Shigeko passed by the shopping arcade where she once bought dinner ingredients with her okaa-san, the park where her otou-san once pushed her on the swings, the riverbank where the Old Man once took her fishing, even the shoe lockers at the school, where Miyoki once reached out to her, and Shigeko realized that in a certain sense, these people hadn’t left her at all. She wondered what places in town she would grow nostalgic for after a year with her new friend from America.

Shigeko walked into Class 2-C with her head held a little higher than usual.

Fujinami Kano, sitting in the closest desk to the door, stood up and made her usual proclamation.

“Make way for-”

Shigeko reached out and flicked her on the forehead.

==========

EPISODE 2

“THE SHRINE MAIDEN”

FIN