2.11: The Yōkai CouncilThe gate finished creaking open with the slow compining of ancient wood hanging. Warm light spilled over the courtyard like someone had poured glowing sake onto the dusky court.

  Natalia-sama stepped through first, her nine tails fanning in a zy arc.“Come along, everyone,” she called over her shoulder. “Try not to pick any more fights on the way in, RuiRui.”

  Rui muttered, “He started it, Natalia! The jerk called me FLAT!” She grabbed my hand too tightly, making me wince. It was still hurting from fighting Ushi.

  Rui ignored my discomfort as usual, radiating pure malice as she yanked me forward.

  ONI!

  Noticing her killing intent, not directed at her but rather Ushi, Natalia stopped and fixed Ushi with a look that made him freeze on the spot, shivering from head to toes.

  “I think that some apologies for insulting one of my dear friends are in order, are they not?” Natalia-sama smiled warmly at Ushi, though her aura promised instant retribution should he fail to respond as expected.

  “Ahrrm… I’m very sorry, Natalia-SAMA!” Ushi said, nearly bending over double in an apologetic bow.

  SLAP

  Rui pulled down one lower eyelid at him and stuck out her tongue, just like a small dog barking behind its carer at a creature twelve times rger than it.

  Ushi shivered again, this time with quiet resentment, gritting his fangs, but said nothing.

  “Let’s continue, shall we?” Natalia beamed. “Have a care, RuiRui. You’re hurting Sumire’s hand.”

  Rui blushed and yanked her hand away from mine.

  My legs felt wobbly. As pathetic as he seemed right now, Ushi’s aura still clung to my skin on a yer over my dried sweat. He was seriously strong..

  She’s lucky that she has Natalia-sama in her corner. Otherwise she’d be fttened. Not that I’d ever tell her that.

  I nursed my numb hand behind my back, csping them behind me over my skirt as I walked forward.

  We walked along a pleasant path through a surreally beautiful garden to a wide staircase that rose toward the Yōkai Council building, and the sight of it made my throat tighten. From a distance it looked like a pace that Tokyo had tried to dream up and failed, half courthouse and half shrine, all dark timber and pale stone fused together in a way that should not have looked good.

  The rooflines stacked in yers like folded wings, each eave curling upward into the hornlike tips they seemed to be fond of, and the tiles shimmered with a faint oil-slick sheen. Thick pilrs as wide as tree trunks held up a deep overhang, carved with rows of kanji and old symbols that sat just at the edge of being readable.

  Between the pilrs hung heavy curtains embroidered with all sorts of motifs, fox tails, waves, mirrors, relics, growing things, snowy mountains, serpents, great cats, crows and more. Lanterns floated near the entrance, moving in slow circles, their light warm and steady, and the steps themselves were worn down at the center as if countless feet had climbed them for centuries.

  Ushi rushed forward and opened the doors for us with total ease. They were covered in shallow relief carvings of yōkai bowing, arguing, pleading, ughing, and being judged.

  Inside, everything changed.

  The ground was composed of polished stone. Some sort of pale marble veined with faintly glowing sigils. Every step we took sent a tiny vibration through my bones, making me wonder whether this whole building was a giant yokai of some sort. I shivered at the thought.

  Along the walls, nterns floated without hooks or cords. Their light wasn’t quite the kind that fire gave off and not quite the steady glowing of electric bulbs, a soft gold radiance, accompanied with a scent like old paper and incense.

  Rui seized my hand again, just as careless and relentless as ever. “I forgot how cool this pce actually is.”

  I flushed. Despite how tightly she was gripping my hand, her hand was strangely soft. I gnced at her and asked, “How long ago was it when you st visited this pce?”

  “A while ago, Susu. It’s weird, honestly. Maybe I forgot because they’re so annoying,” she said primly.

  Ume drifted to the side, walking on my other side, her head tilted back as she gazed up. “Ah! Just look at the artistry of that mural!” she gasped, grinning, her fangies poking out. “Superb! They feel like memories of the past.”

  I followed Ume’s gaze curiously.

  I shivered in shock. Wow!

  They were murals of seemingly living scenes: night-time forests with fireflies drifting between the trees… literally in motion, battlefields where shadowy figures cshed and vanished, sparks fshing when katana met katana, festivals in streets that looked like it was from the Edo Period, pictures of Tokyo. Every time I tried to focus on any one detail in it, things changed. The scenes didn’t even stay the same. They shifted to depict other things.

  They really do feel like memories. I could stare at it all day and not get bored!

  “Yikes,” Akuchi whispered, swallowing hard. She kept trying not to stare at the mural with us but her tanuki ears twitched uncontrolbly. Her civet tail puffed so much it practically doubled in thickness. “I have a long way to go as an artist,” she muttered.

  I swallowed nervously.

  It felt like everything, everyone in here was watching us.

  It wasn’t just the living murals. Portraits of solemn yōkai lined the hall in ornate frames, done in ink, paper and gold leaf. Their eyes gleamed faintly, following us with the same focused curiosity I’d felt out in the streets.

  They know I’m not just a normal human, I guess.

  Natalia-sama walked in front of us with an unhurried grace, her shoes’ heels clicking softly against the floor, her nine tails drifting through the air like a kami’s hagoromo. Nothing about this pce seemed to impress or intimidate her like us.

  I wonder what her past here was like. No, even longer ago… I should ask her sometime.

  We passed a side alcove where a pair of chained spirit-beasts lounged: one looked like a lion made of blue smoke, the other like a skeletal stag decorated with prayer papers. Talismans hung from the chains that bound them, glowing every time they inhaled.

  Farther on, a nekomata scribe padded by on silent paws, a brush tucked behind one ear. It paused mid-step, standing up on its rear paws and gnced at me, and without breaking eye contact… it suddenly flipped open a notebook with one tail and sketched a few quick strokes.

  It finished quickly, bowing just enough to be polite, then trotted on.

  “Wow…!” I protested weakly. “I wonder what it was doing.”

  “I’d love to see what it was drawing! Any picture of you has to be beautiful!” Ume giggled, gncing at the nekomata, who was padding into an alcove on the side out of sight.

  “I agree! Want me to chase after it and ask it for whatever it drew?” Akuchi asked from behind.

  I gnced over my shoulder at her and smiled, “No… it’s okay, Akuchi.”

  “Hmph… next they’ll want your autograph or some stupid thing like that,” Rui teased airily. “You’re interesting to them.”

  “Why me?” I muttered.

  “You have a strong spiritual pressure. That means that you potentially have a lot of potential consciousness power… which gets their attention.” Rui shrugged.

  “They’re not the only ones.” Ume announced, dropping back and climbing up my back, leaning over to nibble on one of my ears as she wrapped her legs around my waist. “I’ve been obsessed with you ever since we met.”

  My arms automatically shifted to support her, although I wasn’t thinking about feeling her up or anything crude like that. I tried to be nonchant and cool about it, but I failed. She wiggled against my arms a little too much.

  I shivered. Then one of her fangs dug in a bit too deeply. My ear throbbed as I blushed intensely as if on cue.

  “You aren’t allowed to feed on my mistress.” Akuchi announced. “I’ll haul you off her if you overstep.”

  “I don’t want to drink her precious blood, don’t worry!” Ume purred. “I feast on her delicious scent.”

  “Hmph,” Akuchi muttered. “Even so.”

  A tiny tengu child in a miniature hakama scooted past us, saluting Ushi where he lumbered behind us like an oversized, bruised bouncer.

  “Good job making them sweat, Ushi-sama!” the kid chirped at him like he was a local hero that it looked up to.

  Ushi snorted. “They actually managed to make me sweat,” he grumbled, rubbing his jaw. “Especially that one.” He jerked his chin at me. Despite his clear animosity towards me, there was something like grudging respect in his eyes.

  I wasn’t sure how to feel about that.

  The corridor ahead narrowed and darkened. The nterns lowered slightly, forming an overhead procession that led toward a pair of huge doors carved from bck wood. They were taller than some buildings back in Tokyo, their surfaces etched with scenes of trials and judgments rendered. There were depictions of yōkai kneeling, arguing, bowing, sometimes ughing, sometimes weeping.

  My stomach did flips.

  This pce looks weirdly like a courthouse.

  I wondered if I was expecting to find creatures gathered around a table, casually sipping cups of tea.

  “Take deep breaths, Sumire-chan,” Ume murmured, noticing my building anxiety, her mouth still near my ear, squeezing her arms around my shoulders.

  Akuchi nodded vigorously despite the tremor in her knees. “Natalia-sama won’t let them do anything to us, so don’t sweat,” she said. She suddenly bnched, despite her brave words. “Come to think of it, I don’t know much about her or this pce. She left us, knowing that we’d end up fighting. That’s so cold!”

  Rui let go of my hand and smacked Akuchi somewhere I couldn't see. “Stop trying to act like an expert. Poser. We all know that you haven’t been here, unlike me.”

  “Ouch! Don’t hit me like that, or there again, or I’ll chew you in half, pint-size.”

  I gnced back and shivered. The two were exchanging sparking gres that could start fires if we were in a library.

  Natalia-sama suddenly raised one hand and stopped.

  I nearly walked into her.

  The massive doors in front of us parted with a low, resonant grinding noise, opening inward, seemingly on their own.

  CREAK… BOOM

  A wave of warm air rolled over us. It had a mixed bouquet, managing to smell of winter, incense, and rain on old earth. Spiritual pressure flowed throughout the room, yered and complex. It was like walking into a massive storm, eight distinct types of weather cshing and blending.

  “Welcome,” Natalia-sama said softly, gncing back at me. “To the inner chamber.”

  We stepped inside.

  The chamber that we entered was a circle.

  The floor dipped down toward the center like an inverted dome, ringed by tiered ptforms.Above, nterns floated in a slow spiraling configuration, casting a diffuse ntern light that never quite reached the vaulted ceiling. Around the outer edge of the circle, nine grand chairs sat at even intervals. Each was unique. The ninth chair in the center was empty. Oddly, it was the first thing my eyes found.

  How am I supposed to stand in the middle of this room…?

  Natalia-sama walked down into the central ring with the ease of an actress walking onto her stage. We followed in her wake. I felt every gaze like a physical weight pressing against my skin.

  We stopped at the center.

  Silence settled over the chamber, heavy and expectant.

  Then the woman that sat directly in front of us smiled.

  “Please allow me to introduce the Yōkai Council.” Natalia-sama beamed and spoke briefly, giving us their names, “These esteemed personages are Lady Byakuren, Matriarch Tōhi, Kagami-no-Kami, Kurama no Hoshigami, Lady Setsugetsu, Meifu-no-Nana, Ryūjin and Lady Kogane…”

  Lady Byakuren the White Serpent Sage

  Her body was coiled on her throne. Her lower half was a white-scaled serpent thick as a tree trunk, winding around the stone of her seat and curling up the pilr behind her.

  Her upper half was almost painfully beautiful… Her pale skin shimmered in ntern light… Her long bck hair threaded with gold ornaments…Her eyes like polished jade.

  A serpent’s hood fred faintly behind her head as though it was a crown.

  To Byakuren’s right, blossoms unfurled silently.

  Matriarch Tōhi, the Kodama of Roots

  The woman sitting there looked like she’d grown out of her seat rather than chosen to sit in it. She rested in a throne made of interwoven branches. Tiny flowers bloomed along her sleeves and in her hair with each breath she took, scattering petals that never quite fell.

  To the left of Byakuren, a silhouette stepped out of my dreams and nightmares. She had stunning white hair. Foxlike eyes. A white fox mask perched in her hair.Kagami-no-Kami, the Magistrate of Masks

  She regarded their petitioners with tranquil intensity. Her presence pressed against the mind like a mirror held an inch from one’s nose.

  Beyond her seat perched a tall figure with folded dark wings and a war fan resting across his p.Kurama no Hoshigami, Daimyō of the Tengu Cns

  His eyes were razor-sharp, taking everything in with a warrior’s cool assessment. He was equally silent.Lady Setsugetsu, Yuki-Onna of the Three Winters

  On the opposite side, a woman in yered ice-blue robes lounged with the nguid grace of a cat basking in winter sunlight, although she was no cat. Frost puffed from her frame with every movement of her delicate fingers.Meifu-no-Nana, Nekomata Scribe

  Next to her, a twin-tailed cat sat upright on a cushion on her seat, a bureaucrat’s gsses perched on her nose and a fan of scrolls floating around her like a halo. She held a brush in her mouth and scribbled notes directly into the air, which solidified into papers before stacking themselves.Ryūjin, Lord of Depths

  On another seat, a man with long sea-green hair and faintly scaled cheeks rested his chin on his fist, watching us as if from underwater. His eyes were like deep, tidal pools, impossible to read.Lady Kogane, Tsukumogami of Relics

  And beside him sat a woman in intricate gold and bronze, her robes were cut like a shrine maiden’s but armored with overpping ptes shaped like bells. Every tiny movement rang with the faintest of chimes.

  Eight heavy presences. Eight different fvors of power.

  And the ninth chair across from Byakuren, carved from shadow and cquered wood, sat empty.

  “Welcome back, Natalia,” Lady Byakuren said, her voice low and smooth. “You look well. As radiant as ever.”

  “You ftter me, Byakuren-sama,” Natalia replied with a small bow. “It is good to see you again.”

  “So this is the child you mentioned,” Tōhi murmured. Her eyes were soft… and ancient. “The one who shed her old self and grew anew.”

  Natalia-sama inclined her head in the center of the circle.

  “Natalia… Ninetails,” Kagami-no-Kami said, her voice like silk over a bde. “You requested an audience on an urgent matter regarding the human world.” Her gaze slid to the scroll in Natalia’s hand. “We assume the human criminal is imprisoned there.”

  “He is.” Natalia lifted the scroll slightly. The air tightened. “The man called Mitsuhiko. We confirmed that he was the mastermind behind the Corporate murders and the Noh-face murders in Tokyo. His spirit is sealed within this spiritual detective’s scroll tool in keeping with Council protocols.”

  “He struggled, I assume,” Ryūjin said mildly, listening to some current I couldn’t hear. “Impressive.”

  Rui snorted. “We beat his ass.”

  I snorted, suppressing a giggle. It wasn’t that simple, but I guess we did win.

  “Mind your nguage,” Ume hissed, hopping off my shoulders and swiftly elbowing Rui.

  “Owie!” Rui gred at Ume, rubbing her upper arm.

  Several council members looked faintly amused.

  “Present your report,” Byakuren said, coiling her tail more tightly. “Begin with that girl.” She pointed directly at me.

  My heart jumped into my throat.

  Natalia pced one gentle hand on my shoulder. It steadied me more than I wanted to admit.

  “Her name is Shinohara Sumire,” she said. “Formerly a troubled young man with a cursed face, Susumu. She is the human standing at the center of the incident… and also the key to its resolution.”

  She too neatly summed everything up. I sweated.

  Eight pairs of eyes focused on me at once. Even Meifu-no-Nana’s brush paused mid-scratching.

  I squeaked internally.

  “I’ll summarize,” Natalia-sama continued, her voice steady. “But you will want to hear some details from her own mouth afterward.”

  She outlined the broad strokes, covering the first Noh-Face attacks, the theft of my face, my two Cinderel Deadlines, and the investigation that led us back to Mitsuhiko.

  Ume and Akuchi supplied a few comments of their own.

  “Mistress Sumire was indispensable in our efforts to uncover that despicable man’s crimes,” Akuchi decred.

  Ume spoke almost on Akuchi’s heels, “Sumire-chan was a completely normal human that rose to the challenge when Noh face stole her original face and turned her into a yōkai. She kept charging into danger time after time, even after she got her humanity back. There’s no worthier person in my eyes to be licensed as a Spiritual Detective.” Ume managed to keep a straight face. No cuteisms or humming or sexy wiles.

  “It was my brilliant strategy that won the day.” Rui broke in, “I swapped Mitsuhiko's scrolls with mine while he wasn’t looking. Though he had me in his grip, I decided that I’d take advantage of that.” Rui smirked. “So clearly I’m the one here that’s most deserving of a Spiritual Detective’s license… but I guess it’s okay if you just give it to Sumire-chan. She’s got the powers to back it all up anyway, and without her, things wouldn’t have worked out so well.”

  Rui’s bold cims at least kept the air from petrifying.

  “—and ultimately,” Natalia concluded, “thanks to Sumire-chan’s cooperation with RuiRui, they cornered Mitsuhiko in his tower and defeated him and his Enenra smoke yōkai. You have my full report in writing.”

  A stack of papers appeared in front of Meifu-no-Nana with a gesture. A moment ter, she pounced on them with glee.

  “I think that cat loves bureaucracy more than I love art,” Akuchi muttered.

  “Anyone would,” Ume giggled.

  “Are you implying that my love is shallow?” Akuchi grated her teeth.

  “Maybe.” Ume giggled, not looking at Akuchi.

  Rui smirked.

  “That brings us to the point of our visit, your eminences. I believe her identity requires some crification in the wake of all that befell her,” Natalia finished.

  “Indeed,” Kagami-no-Kami murmured.

  She rose.

  Her mask caught the nternlight, hiding half her face in cquered white. The other half, the one I could see was expressionless, almost gentle. Her eyes were something else entirely. They were sharp, mirroring, reflecting me back at myself.

  She stepped down from her seat and walked toward us on the floor below, each stride whisper-quiet.

  “So,” she said, stopping a few paces away. “Shinohara Sumire. When I look at you, I see a human body. I hear a human heartbeat. But your spirit…” She tilted her head. “Your spirit still smells thickly of yōkai. Its shape is wrong for a mortal. Its depth… is very unusual.”

  Her gaze sharpened and I gasped, feeling ice slide down my spine.

  “Tell us your story yourself, girl. In your own words, what happened to forge such a strange and nuanced soul?”

  My mouth went dry.

  Rui nudged me in the ribs, firmly. “Go on,” she muttered. “Tell them, baka.”

  “Y-yes,” I croaked. “I mean… I’ll do my best.”

  I bowed deeply, my hands to my knees.