[Satori Effect] Day 4: Do as I say, Not as I Do

It seemed that in the absence of Osamu and the girls, Lucrezia had flown over to Hokkaido and made herself at home in their house. She sat down with Aika and Rei at the dining table, hoping to answer the questions of the two distraught girls.

"Lucrezia, what the hell happened here? Where are Osamu and the others?" Aika asked.

"It's kind of a long story, but to keep things short, I'll say this." Lucrezia began. "Osamu received a letter from a man named Satori Sentani around this time last year. It was an invitation to Satori's mansion, one that Osamu was supposed to accept within a year. If Osamu refused or ignored it, Satori promised to harm those Osamu loved."

"What?! Why didn't he tell us about this?" Rei questioned.

Lucrezia smiled. "Because I hid the letter from him! Isn't that hilarious?"

Aika and Rei stared at Lucrezia with their mouths agape, absolutely dumbfounded.

"Oh, let me explain. There was a reason why I did this." Lucrezia said. "See, Satori is actually a wanted man, to us exorcists, at least. He used to be one of us some years ago, but he left the force to pursue a pretty sizable business opportunity."

"What kind of business opportunity?" Aika asked.

"Let's see...how do I explain this? Basically, Satori was a businessman on the side during his exorcist days. He mainly dealt in manufacturing and oil. Satori left when he received a proposal for a three-year manufacturing contract sent to him from JSDF. He was to help them make armored cars and helicopters, and if the government liked what they were given, they'd keep renewing the contract. Problem was, Satori's company ended up undercutting an Australian defense contractor that was making similar equipment for the Japanese government. Supposedly, the government wanted to make sure that all of their nation’s vehicles and weapons were coming from Japan, not from foreign nations."

"Wait, so then this Satori guy must be loaded!" Rei exclaimed.

Lucrezia nodded. "Because of this, Australia and a few other nations kicked Satori's oil business to the curb, and Satori couldn't exactly say no to the Japanese government. So, while his oil business suffered a hit, his manufacturing business expanded so much that he had to build a new headquarters in Tokyo. Satori got word that a body had turned up at the construction zone, a young girl's body. Turns out, that young girl was a goddess. Kagutsuchi, Izanami's daughter."

"I had no idea Izanami had any surviving children besides Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi..." Aika said. "What does all of this have to do with Osamu, though?"

"I'm getting there, Aika." Lucrezia tittered. "Satori didn't want the exorcists to find out about the goddess, so he had her brought to his mansion instead. Honestly, I don't think he knew what he was dealing with at first. He may have been trying to save the girl's life."

"From what?" Rei questioned.

"From us. He knew the girl was supernatural in some way, and the exorcists would naturally take an interest in her. She most likely would've been taken into custody and inducted into the ranks, but that never happened because Satori took her first. Then, he started paying the price for it. Turns out the girl was cursed, turned all of his aides into shikome. So, running out options, he reached out to the only other man on earth that has experience being with goddesses."

"...Osamu." Aika said, realizing how it was all connected.

Lucrezia leaned back in her chair, staring up at the ceiling. "We'd been tracking Satori for quite some time, unsuccessfully. I hid the letter from Osamu to lure Satori out. Then, a very impatient Satori tracked Osamu down to this house and took him and the girls back to Kyoto. Now we know where he is."

"And Osamu's in on all of this?" Aika asked.

"Well...about that..." Lucrezia nervously giggled. "See, I didn't really tell Osamu anything. You have to fool your allies if you hope to fool your enemies."

"Lucrezia!" Rei cried, slamming her hands on the table.

Lucrezia waved her hands as if she was shooing away blame itself. "Listen, please! Osamu was never really in any danger! This is all going according to plan."

"Him and the girls being abducted by some rich madman with a cursed goddess was part of your plan?! Do you even realize how insane that sounds?!" Aika groaned.

"Yes, but it's all for a good cause!" Lucrezia assured. "Right now, I'm waiting for an associate of mine to meet with me here. She's bringing the Shoku Twins along with her. Once she's here, we'll go over the next phase of our plan, which is to deal with Satori, cleanse Kagutsuchi's curse, and bust Osamu and the girls out of the mansion. It'll be a relatively clean operation."

"Relatively?" Rei asked with crossed arms and an arched eyebrow.

"You guys...don't believe me do you?" Lucrezia sighed.

"So, who's this associate we're waiting for?" Aika questioned.

Lucrezia smiled as she tented her fingers and leaned forward. "My second-in-command and one of the best exorcists in all of Kyoto. Shinju Miyakawa."

That night, Izanami and Kagutsuchi spent some much needed time together on the rooftop of the mansion. The crescent moon and stars dazzling above their heads, Izanami and Kagutsuchi sat on the edge of the roof, their feet dangling beneath them. The perfume of petrichor filled the air, as it had rained a few hours prior.

"I can't believe, that of all people I could've run into here, I ran into you." Izanami said.

Kagutsuchi couldn't keep her eyes off of her mother. "Is that bad?"

"Of course not, silly! I'm glad!" Izanami assured.

"I burned you to death and drove Dad insane...and I was a burden to my sister. The Tempest Flame...I hurt you, Gekko, and even Inari..."

"Hey, now. That's all behind us, okay?" Izanami said. "I was wrong to lash out at you like that when I first saw you. It's just...I was trembling and shaking with so many different emotions, you know? In the end, I'm glad that you're still alive. It's all thanks to 'her' that you're with me now, all of these years later."

Reflecting on the past reminded Izanami of a very pressing question. "Oh, hey, Kagu! I know this is a long shot, but...you haven't seen Inari at all, have you?"

Kagutsuchi shook her head. "I'm sorry, I don't remember anyone named Inari."

"Yeah, I figured." Izanami sighed. "Ever since the Warring States period ended, it's been Gekko and I. The Shoku Twins went off on their own for a while but they're back with us these days, and now we've finally found you. The only one we're missing is Inari. We've been looking for her for ages. I'm starting to wonder if she's..."

"I'm sorry. I wish I could help." Kagutsuchi lamented.

"It's okay. I'm happy we managed to reunite with you. Despite everything that happened back then, it looks like we can all start over now."

Kagutsuchi smiled. "That man, and those girls...are they your family? Osamu mentioned that he loved you guys."

"Aww, yeah. That man is my husband, and I couldn't be happier to be married to him. And the other two are also his wives. We're sort of sharing him."

"Isn't that tough? I'd think you guys would always be jealous and fighting over him if you love him that much."

"Well, we used to, many moons ago, when were younger and lived in Kyoto." Izanami explained, a smile across her face. "We all ended up living together, and we had plenty of fights back then. In fact, there was a time where none of us really got along. Throughout the years, through many hardships and great times, we became a sort of family. Most of us used to be alone and sad, but Yoko took us in and took care of us, and Osamu held us together."

Izanami put her hand against her throbbing heart. "So, I really don't mind sharing Osamu, because it's not just him I care about, it's the other girls too. They're all my family, and I'd do anything to take care of them. That's why I'm here."

"I'm glad you could find happiness, Mom. I was worried that you were somewhere alone and sad, but you're doing okay."

Izanami planted a kiss on her daughter's forehead, the first since the day Kagutsuchi was born. "Don't be sad, Kagu. You have nothing to blame yourself for. I still love you, and you're still dear to me. Just, you know, don't kill me again, all right?"

"Y-yeah! Of course." Kagutsuchi giggled.

All Kagu could see, perhaps more noticeable than the moonlight, was Izanami's genuine smile. Even with the situation she and her family were in with Satori, she could still smile because of her daughter's presence. All those centuries of worry, terror, and regret were all washed away like it never even happened.

"I've got no regrets now that I've seen you again. My precious little Kagu. My ray of sunlight. I truly, truly love you. That will always be true. No matter how many millions of years go by, no matter how much the earth changes, or how brightly the moon shines. I love you. Never forget that."

"I love you too, Mom." Kagutsuchi whispered.

The next day, Osamu and Satori reconvened in the stained glass hallway. Osamu managed to make a monumental amount of progress uncovering Kagutsuchi's identity, but now there was another obstacle in their way. Kagutsuchi didn't know how to reverse the curse afflicting Satori's body.

(That day, Kagutsuchi warmed up to everyone a bit. Though it's nice that we were able to get along with her, the question became 'How can we use her to heal Satori when she doesn't know the cure for his curse?'. It was a question that ran through my head as I slept, and even more so when I woke up. There was another urgent problem. Satori was getting impatient. Very impatient. And very angry.)

"So, Kagu knows nothing. That makes your job even harder, doesn't it?" Satori said.

"Yeah. What the hell do I do now? Yoko's kiss won't work if there's no information there to gather in the first place. Kagutsuchi is completely ignorant of just how powerful she is." Osamu explained.

"Well, you're a bit of a failure, aren't you?" Satori mocked. "I mean, you came all the way here to figure that out and you haven't."

"I need some help here, Satori. We have to figure out how we can counteract the curse. I can't do it alone."

Satori stroked his chin as he took a moment to think. "Hmm...I have an idea. However, it's very drastic, and I'll need your full cooperation in the matter. Actually, that's a lie. Even if you refuse to cooperate, I still need you to participate, so I'll probably just force you if you decline."

(That definitely doesn't sound good.)

"What...what did you have in mind?" Osamu asked.

Satori smiled. "We're going to raise the stakes today, Osamu. Prepare to get dangerously close to death."

Osamu suddenly felt a stab in his neck. A shikome dressed in white burial robes had bitten Osamu, weakening him and bringing him to his knees. Osamu held his hand over his bleeding neck, realizing what had just happened. His blood grew darker with each second, until it was blacker than ink. This was Satori's genius plan, to curse Osamu with the same affliction he was dying of.

"You'll forgive me, right? As I said, this is going to be dangerous. For now, sleep tight, Osamu. Don't let the Shikome bite."

(Satori...what the hell have you done?!)

Unable to move nor stay awake, Osamu fell unconscious. The shikome's bite knocked him out like an anesthetic. In what felt like seconds, Osamu came to. Just opening his eyes took a herculean amount of effort. His body was riddled with goosebumps beneath his sweat-drenched clothes. The paralysis throughout his body wore off, as did the numbness.

Leaning forward, Osamu realized he was sitting in a chair in a room made entirely out of mirrors. His own reflection stared at him from every angle imaginable. Satori sat across from him, a square, wooden table separating the two. His top hat sat in the center of the table between them.

"Satori, what the hell is going on?" Osamu groaned, trying to sit up in his chair.

Satori sat with his legs on the table, a newspaper blocking his face. "Hey, Osamu. When you remove 'Earth' from 'Cluster', what are you left with?"

"What?" Osamu asked.

"I'm trying to solve this riddle." Satori said.

"Screw the riddle, just tell me where we are! What did you do to me?"

"We, Osamu, are in the worst fucking situation of our lives. I mean, I'm over here, limbs failing like some kind of seized up geriatric, and you're sitting there across from me, more cursed than the devil himself. Our goddess with no name turned out to be Kagutsuchi, but we're still left with a curse with no cure."

"Cursed? Am I cursed?"

"Oh, I get it!" Satori sang. "When you remove the radical for 'Earth' in the kanji for 'Cluster', you're left with the kanji for 'Demon'. My my, how appropriate considering 'Earth' is pronounced as 'tsuchi', right? Like our dear Kagutsuchi."

"Will you stop messing around and look at me?!"

Satori tossed away the newspaper. "You and I are gonna play a little game, because that's all you seem to think of my life as. A game. You're going to love this, Osamu."

"What kind of game requires having a shikome bite me in the neck?"

"The infamous game of Russian Roulette!"

Satori lifted his top hat off of the table, revealing the golden magnum underneath. He took it and loaded a single cartridge into the cylinder, spinning it around to randomize the chances of anyone getting killed. Osamu swallowed a lump in his throat the size of a soccer ball just looking at the gun.

"Satori...please tell me that's a blank..."

"Of course not. Neither you nor Kagutsuchi will learn anything if there aren't any stakes here. And I wouldn't have any fun if there wasn't a one in six chance either one of us could blow our brains out all over these mirrors. Shikome! Music please! Might as well have some tunes if we're staring death in the face, right?"

Osamu smelled the stench of rotting flench waft into the room as one of Satori's shikome waddled by, plopping a record player down on the table. She carefully put the needle down, and out came the sound of Al Jolson's 'Sittin' On Top Of The World'. The shikome bowed and left the room, leaving Osamu and Satori to their deadly game of chance.

"Satori, this is insane, even for you! Let me go!"

"Please, we're just getting started! Here, if you're so scared, I'll go first."

"Damn it, Satori, stop this!"

"Osamu, I'm going to shoot you in your stupid, sorry fucking face if you don't stop acting like a little girl. Be a good sport."

Satori put the gun under his chin, bobbing his head to the music and humming along. Osamu had a one in six chance of witnessing a suicide. At the same time, he had the same odds of dying himself.

"Here we go!" Satori cried.

"Satori!"

The gun clicked, the cylinder turned, and nothing happened.

Satori let out an amused chuckle. "See? I have some luck left in me after all."

Satori gently laid the gun down on the table and slid it over to Osamu. "Your turn."

When Osamu wouldn't take the gun, Satori forced it into his hands and wrapped his fingers around the grip and trigger.

"One in six, Osamu. I hope you're lucky."

"You've fucking lost it, Satori!" Osamu cried.

"By the way, Osamu, I should tell you something. That shikome that bit you earlier? See, shikome have a curious kind of bite, like how Yoko has a curious kind of kiss. They infect the ones they bite. It's how they nearly killed Izanagi in ancient times." Satori explained. "I really just wanted her to put you to sleep, but I suppose this makes our situation even more interesting, doesn't it? See, now we're both cursed. You and I are both dead men if we don't do what needs to be done. That's the thrill of it! We're both dead already!"

"God damn it!" Osamu shouted, tears welling his eyes.

Osamu's stomach twisted and churned as vomit built up in his throat. His face was drenched in cold sweat and the hairs on his arms stood up. He closed his bloodshot eyes as he stuck the gun in his mouth, the music of Al Jolson blaring into his right ear and exiting out of his left.

The veins in his temple ached and pulsated as Satori slammed the table repeatedly, egging him on, demanding him to pull the trigger. His chest rapidly rose and fell as his breathing turned into hyperventilation.

Finally, he pulled the trigger. The hammer of the magnum sprung forward and the cylinder rotated. His hearing instantly went out and his ears rang. He opened his eyes, realizing he was still very much alive. He put the gun down on the table, wiping the sweat off of his face.

"...When you made your death march towards Tsukiakari two and a half years ago, you didn't care about the impossible." Satori said. "You resolved to use your own life to settle your dispute. Anyone else would've thrown in the towel and let Bishamon kill the girl himself, but not you. When it's for someone you love, you'll cross the thin line between devotion and absolute lunacy. So, why be scared now?"

"I promised Izzy I'd live a long, good life." Osamu cried. "I promised her."

"Liar!" Satori screamed. "That's not why. You're bullshitting, telling yourself whatever you need to. The stakes haven't changed, have they? If anything, you've got less to lose than you did back then. Your precious Izzy died, went to hell, and her bones are collecting dust in some god-forsaken coffin that was buried six feet below the earth before I dug her up and brought her here. Unless you do something about it, you'll also end up in a cozy little coffin. So, why are you scared? What happened to the man that stormed Heaven alongside two banished gods?"

"...I don't know." Osamu whispered.

"Your time away from home has made you soft, Osamu. If I die and Kagutsuchi is left in your hands, you won't know what to do. You won't know what to do when exorcists come knocking on your door, or when they take her away from you by force. You're useless, complacent. There's a world of trouble following that girl that you're not equipped for."

Satori leaned in, whispering into Osamu's ear. "You only save people to save yourself. Just like Aika, eh? And all the rest of them. Izzy was the one you couldn't do anything about. All you could do was watch the days tick by, watch the life slowly drain from her body. You watched her die and you still feel the pain."

Osamu snapped, pushing Satori across the room and standing up with a visceral scream. "Shut up!"

The room fell into quietude as Osamu slammed his hands upon the table, tears falling from his eyes. "It's like talking with the devil..."

"The secrets men like you and I keep...only one else who knows them is the devil." Satori said. "I can tell you from experience. The more you involve yourself with the supernatural, the closer death walks behind you. Cowardice will get you killed. Hesitation will get you killed."

"I don't know what to do, Satori."

"Yeah, that can be deadly. But...I find that not knowing what to do and having very little time to do anything at all is the perfect recipe for a good plan."

Satori stood up, plopping his top hat upon his head. "Right, I think we can call it a day now. I mean, if being dead within a few weeks isn't enough motivation for you, I don't know what is."

Satori snatched the gun off of the table, pointing it at the record player. He pulled the trigger and a round went off, blowing the record player apart and silencing Al Jolson. Osamu's heart nearly stopped as he flinched in utter shock. Trails of white smoke wafted out of the barrel of the gun as Satori laid it back down on the table.

"I prefer Peggy Lee." Satori muttered.

And with that, Satori made his exit, his cane tapping against the floor until it couldn't be heard anymore. Osamu was left all alone, with no one to keep him company but his clergy of distorted reflections.