A Hunter's Dictionary Part 1 - PG-13 [Yamapi&Ryo, Massu&Masami&Tegoshi]
A Hunter's Dictionary Part 1
tinyangl, 13425 words
Nishikido Ryo/Yamashita Tomohisa, Masuda Takahisa, Nagasawa Masami, Tegoshi Yuya, Koyama Keiichiro, Kato Shigeaki, Miyake Ken (V6), Sakamoto Masayuki (V6), Pin to Kona drama characters Sawayama Ichiya, Chiba Ayame, Sawayama Yuna. Ryo and Yamapi have a simple lifestyle as hunters, except life has gotten much more complicated lately.
Warnings: Supernatural creatures, action-ish, guns, implied character death
Notes: Dear meissa, I agonized over which AU you would like and ultimately ended up with a Supernatural one! It somehow ballooned into what it is now, but I hope you enjoy!
Thanks to my betas melonpaan and dalampasigan because you guys had to deal with a lot. Especially when I couldn't entirely be there due to being on vacation as I wrote this. XD
Written for je_otherworlds here.
T is for Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto
"Welcome!" A cheerful voice echoes inside the shrine. Ryo and Yamapi's heads both turn in the direction of the source, but before either can register who or where it's come from, they're slammed against the wall. The wood grows out of the walls and snakes over their ankles and wrists and throats, tight and sturdy.
When Ryo catches his breath, he bites back a curse and snaps, "Warm welcome." He twists his wrists in the restraints, but wood doesn't bend and he winces at how immovable they are. He can barely see Yamapi in the corner of his eye, but Ryo's glad he can see him at all.
The figure approaches them, glowing faintly in the dark room. His brown eyes are warm and his smile is kind, but Ryo knows better than to underestimate him. "Strangers making a mess of my shrine isn't something I tolerate," he says politely, stopping a distance from them. He leans over the lamp they'd been fiddling with and blows lightly into it; a flame appears in the center, illuminating the room.
"That makes things so much easier," Yamapi says with an audible frown. "We couldn't light it with one match."
Ryo rolls his eyes. "Of course that's the thing you focus on right now."
"Well, it's either that or the fact that we're stuck to a wall. I think lamenting on the matches thing is a touch better."
"Lamenting?" Ryo asks with a laugh. "Is Shige rubbing off on you?"
"Only sometimes."
The person clears his throat, still smiling, although Ryo can sense a twinge of annoyance. "I don't mean to interrupt, but don't you think now is a good time to explain what you were doing in my shrine? After all, it's quite a trek here, it can't be something simple."
"Why is your shrine on the top of a mountain?" Yamapi asks. "Do you know how long it took us to get here?"
"Easiest way to keep hunters from strolling in."
Ryo's eyes narrow. "How do you know we're hunters?"
He laughs lightly, walking over to them until he's only a feet away. Ryo tenses when the figure reaches into the back of his waistband, and a familiar weight disappears. He holds up Ryo's gun, smiling brightly as he points it straight at Ryo's heart. "A gun with rock salt cartridges? Only hunters carry that."
"Who are you?" Yamapi half-whispers.
"You can just call me Massu," he says cheerfully, putting the gun right back.
"Are you sure you should do that?" Ryo asks, gritting his teeth. "When I get free, the first thing I do-"
"Gods aren't affected by something as simple as salt," he says, his voice harsher than before. Ryo swallows, wondering if he's imagining the flash of anger that passes through Massu's eyes. "Anyway, you should stop stalling. I know for a fact that you don't have backup, so why don't you just answer my question? Why are you here?"
Ryo opens his mouth, prepared to answer but Yamapi beats him to it. "We're trying to find the shrine of Susanoo."
Massu stares at them, eyes narrowed and arms crossed, before he sweeps a hand over them. The binds loosen and wind back into the wooden boards. Ryo and Yamapi drop to the ground, breaking the fall with their hands, but it doesn't help them by much. The pain that shoots through his arms and legs makes him wince, but Ryo's first instinct is to grab the gun from his back and shoot at Massu. He takes the shot without flinching. "Satisfied?" Massu asks.
Yamapi shoots one of his own to the same effect. He glances at Ryo, before putting his gun away. "Pretty much."
Ryo shoots one last time, then nods. "I'm good now." He tucks his gun in the same familiar place. "So why did you let us go?"
"Because you're not searching for me." Massu's eyes narrow. "But please remember I am still a God and I don't take well to threats."
"You're not Susanoo, are you?" Yamapi asks.
Massu shakes his head. "You're about 800 miles off from his shrine."
"Well, I'll be sure to tell Shige that he actually got one wrong," Ryo snarks. Yamapi lightly elbows him with a shake of his head, as though to say 'Now is not the time.'
"Well, I wouldn't dismiss this Shige so easily. He did find my shrine, and it's been a while since I've had visitors."
"We can tell," Ryo mutters under his breath. When they'd entered, all they could inhale was layers and layers of dust. Nobody had stepped inside for centuries.
"You're some other God, why is this a good thing?"
"I'd say I'm not just any other God." Massu smiles at them, brightly. "After all, Susanoo is my brother. I'm curious as to why you're looking for him."
"Have you been paying much attention to what's been going on in Japan lately?" Ryo asks.
"Ah, this is about Yomi-no-Kuni, isn't it?" Massu says.
"We like to call it the underworld," Yamapi adds.
"Or hell," Ryo chirps. Yamapi rolls his eyes.
"So something has happened to it." Massu says it like a fact, not questioning.
"Something," Ryo says with a sigh, "is definitely an understatement."
E is for Enenra
"Awesome," Yamapi growls as they dash out of one room, a whoosh of wind following behind them. "A monster made of smoke! That's easy to fight." The corridor they're running through has many doors open, but they all lead to dead-ends.
"LESS COMPLAINING, MORE RUNNING!" Ryo yells over his shoulder. He focuses on trying to light a cigarette, but the lighter sparks uselessly in his hands.
"Seriously? Now?" Yamapi cries as they fly into a staircase, dashing down to the next floor in hopes for something to work with. He can feel the wisps of wind playing with the edges of his hair, Yamapi strains himself a little more to escape its possible grasp.
"Shut up," Ryo hisses, still trying his lighter.
The floor below isn't any better, the same familiar empty white walls that lead to nowhere. In front of Yamapi, Ryo finally manages to light his cigarette, puffing enough to show some sparks at the end. He holds up the cigarette to the nearest smoke detector and it takes only a few extra seconds, seconds that almost has the monster curling smoke around Yamapi's throat, but the sprinklers go off, causing the smoke to disperse in different directions as water pours down.
"Smart," Yamapi says gratefully, which gets a smirk from Ryo. They escape into a room, shutting the door behind them, and Yamapi scrambles around his jacket and pants trying to find any weapons he still has on hand. He dropped his gun under a desk when the enenra had first attacked them. Not that it would've done any good to a creature without a physical form. "You know, I thought these things appeared only to the pure of heart," Yamapi huffs, scanning the room for anything else.
"Maybe they're only nice to the pure of heart."
"Great, well, if I ever wanted confirmation." He watches as Ryo fiddles with the only window in the room. "What are you even doing?"
"Well, we dropped the only fucking container that can hold an enenra-good job by the way." Yamapi glares at Ryo, but goes to help him anyway. "I'm hoping if it's windy enough, it can keep the enenra apart long enough for one of us to get the box back."
"Great!" They finally manage to get the window open, but the gust of wind they'd been hoping for never comes. Instead, the door flies open and smoke billows into the room, spinning around in a mini-tornado until it solidifies into the form of a human being.
Yamapi blinks. "Well, that's unexpected."
The enenra walks towards them, pepper-grey hair and eyes, a little taller but just as muscular as Yamapi. "If it wants to become human, this fight just got a lot fairer," Ryo mutters, pulling out his gun, but the creature is much faster than either Yamapi or Ryo are. In the blink of an eye, it's right in front of them, knocking the gun from Ryo's hands. "Wha-" The enenra swings an arm at him, causing him to fly into a wall.
The impact reverberates through the room, but Yamapi doesn't have time to wonder if Ryo's okay because the enenra turns on him, swinging a fist at his abdomen. Yamapi manages to step back enough that it only skims a little of him. Despite not being a full impact, just that is enough to knock the air out of him.
Yamapi knocks into a chair which he takes from behind him and swings it around, hitting the enenra squarely in the side. But it barely budges, taking the hit with only a scowl. "Fuck," Yamapi hisses, as it swings at him again, this time towards his head. Yamapi ducks, aiming the remainders of the shattered chair at the enenra's legs.
This time its knees buckle, which Yamapi takes advantage of as he angles another hit upwards, throwing the monster up. It flies towards the ceiling, and its heavy weight along with the added momentum cause it to go right through the material, creating a hole that lodges the enenra's body. It kicks out, arms stuck in the small hole, and Yamapi breathes out a sigh of relief.
"Wow," Ryo comments, wincing as he limps over. "Didn't think you had that in you."
Before Yamapi can reply, the enenra's body dissolves back into smoke, to both their horrors, reforming a mini-tornado at the entrance of the room. Yamapi's eyes go wide and he clutches the chair legs tightly. But from the ceiling, something falls.
Somehow the Pandora box is sitting on the floor, intact, and more importantly, there. The split second they take to look at it is enough time for the enenra to reform and come at them again. This time, it forces Yamapi into the wall next to the windows, its arm wedged against his throat and cutting off his air. Yamapi drops the chair legs to clutch at the enenra's arms and tries to kick out, hoping that one kick will be enough to get him to let go.
Except it doesn't work and all the enenra does is press harder, its gray eyes glaring into Yamapi's. It shrieks the next second, head thrown back as its arm loosens around his throat. Yamapi pushes it away weakly, but it moves back nonetheless and Yamapi catches sight of Ryo staggering back behind the enenra, dropping the stake he'd stabbed into the monster.
It breaks apart again, forming back to smoke, but it goes from hovering in the air and straight into the opened box in Ryo's hand. Yamapi slumps to the ground, hand over his throat as he relishes in the fact that he can breathe again. "Thanks," he manages.
Ryo nods, walking over to help Yamapi to his feet. "Thank God that box was right above us."
"No need to thank me," a voice says from the doorway. "I had nothing to do with it."
Ryo and Yamapi both look over, bodies tense, except the figure standing there is one they've seen many times. Ryo sighs loudly. "Way to appear after a battle's done, Tegoshi."
Tegoshi smirks, walking over. "And get my hands dirty? You don't know me at all."
"Why are you here now then?" Yamapi asks, his legs still shaking slightly, but he forces himself to stand. Ryo stands a touch closer and Yamapi gratefully leans against him for more support.
"Someone has to put this box-" Tegoshi plucks the pandora box from Ryo's hands. "-back to where it belongs."
Ryo raises an eyebrow. "And you know where that is?"
"Well, I was the one that brought it to you." He grins, patting Ryo in the back-which Ryo takes with gritted teeth. "Good battle, by the way. I almost thought you wouldn't make it."
Yamapi resists from commenting and instead says a strained "Thank you." Tegoshi doesn't wait to hear it, though, as he's gone the next second.
"Sometimes I think there's more to him than he lets on," Ryo says, sighing as they start walking out of the room. "But he never lets anything slip."
Yamapi sighs as well. "One day we'll figure him out. Until then, a bed sounds good."
Ryo murmurs his agreement.
G is for Gods
"You're the cause of all this?" Ryo asks, incredulous.
Tegoshi smiles up at Ryo, dressed as a janitor, and despite the fact that he's tied to a chair, he looks entirely too relaxed. "Guilty as charged," he chirps. "But really, what's the harm in a little innocent fun?"
"So causing a kid to balloon up to the point that he started to float was innocent fun?" Yamapi asks.
"You should've heard the names he was calling his sister."
"And almost drowning one girl in her own sweat?"
"Well, she shouldn't have yelled at her brother like she had." Tegoshi's smile is pleasant enough, but Yamapi can see the edge in it. He still sits like he has the upper hand, like Ryo and Yamapi aren't standing over him with guns.
"Someone has a trigger for sibling relationships," Ryo points out.
This time, Yamapi is positive he doesn't imagine the flash of cruelty in Tegoshi's grin, but it doesn't stay long, replaced by a more pleasant and softer smile. "Sibling rivalries can be tough, don't you think?"
"How would we know?" Yamapi asks, crossing his arms.
"Oh, don't play innocent with me," Tegoshi says, half-singing the words. "I'm a God-"
"Demi-God," Ryo interjects, which Tegoshi only smirks at.
"-And I know all I need to know about you hunters," Tegoshi continues, as though Ryo hadn't said a word. "Yamashita Tomohisa and Nishikido Ryo."
It's been a long time someone's said his full name like that, combined with the dark edge that Tegoshi's voice gives it makes a shiver shoot through Yamapi's spine. He can't quite read Ryo's body language, but he wouldn't be surprised if it had the same effect on him. "So you know our names," Ryo starts, but Tegoshi cuts him off.
"Ryo-chan, you have two older brothers and a younger sister," Tegoshi says lazily, his smirk growing wider. "And Pi-kun, you have a younger sister. So you both know the hazards of sibling relationships."
"You're not going to-" Yamapi starts, until he remembers that in this situation, he's supposed to have the upper hand. But his hands are sweaty and his throat is dry, and somehow, he has this bad feeling that they've completely read this person wrong.
"I don't have any need for them," Tegoshi says. The yet goes unsaid.
"Enough of this," Ryo snaps. "We can't let you live to cause more trouble." He pulls the stake they'd prepared, but when he moves to stab Tegoshi with it, the chair is empty, ropes coiled neatly on the seat. Yamapi blinks, before looking around quickly, his gun already in hand. He hears Ryo's yell of pain before he falls to the ground from the impact of Ryo's body against his.
Tegoshi stands in front of them, balancing their stake on one finger. Ryo quickly shoots at Tegoshi, but Tegoshi stops each bullet with the stake, flipping it up in the air when Ryo runs out of ammo. He catches it deftly in one hand and grins at them.
"You didn't really think it'd be that easy," Tegoshi croons. "I am a God."
"Demi-God," Ryo repeats. Tegoshi shrugs, tossing the stake back to him with a light throw.
"You could've just asked me to stop," Tegoshi says, hands at his waist. "I'm not completely cruel."
"But you're a Trickster," Yamapi protests. "Isn't this in your nature?"
Tegoshi disappears from where he stood and reappears right in front of Yamapi, grinning as he touches Yamapi lightly in the forehead. Despite the fact that Yamapi technically is taller than Tegoshi, he feels infinitely smaller with the Demi-God in front of him. "I like to prove people wrong," Tegoshi says softly before winking. "See you another time, boys."
With that, he disappears, leaving a bewildered Ryo and Yamapi behind.
Yamapi sighs, hanging his head. "I knew we shouldn't have taken this case." Ryo nods in agreement.
O is for Oni
"Another monster?!" Yamapi yells as they race through the forest.
Ryo growls as he tugs Yamapi towards the right, then forces him to crouch behind a particularly large tree. Yamapi calms his breathing as much as he can, hoping that it's enough so that the oni following them doesn't realize that they've veered away. The stomping footsteps of the ogre stop right by them before skulking away from their hiding place.
"Well, that's not cool," Yamapi hisses.
Ryo snarls for him to shut up again, straining his ears for any sign of the oni returning. When he hears nothing, he tugs Yamapi back in the direction they'd come from.
"I don't get it! We had no sign of an oni being in this area, so where did it come from?" It hasn't been the first time that they've run into monsters unrelated to their cases, but the increase of these occurrences has made Ryo anxious.
"I don't know, Pi. All I know is that we have no weapons that can fight an oni, so why don't we focus on that first, damn it."
"And what would we need for that?"
Ryo freezes before turning on his heel to glare at Yamapi. "You have the damn notebook, look it up!"
Yamapi frowns. "Well, you don't have to yell at me." He reaches into his inside jacket pocket where he always keeps his notebook, but a growl stops him cold. "It's because you yelled," he hisses at Ryo before he starts dashing off again, Ryo hot on his heels.
It takes a lot of dodging and maneuvering before Yamapi and Ryo find themselves out of the forest and tucked into a small grocery store, dark and technically closed. Yamapi swallows before pulling out his hunter's notebook, pages filled with handwritten notes on monsters and creatures and spirits that Shige helped him compile and continuously add to.
"So?" Ryo hisses, sitting on the ground but leaning up against some boxes to get a good view at the window-wondering if every shadow flitting by is the oni.
"Give me a minute!" Yamapi growls. "There are a lot of pages."
"Maybe you should organize that better."
"Maybe you should get a notebook of your own!"
The angry growl right outside the door is overshadowed by the shattering of glass. "Shit," Ryo hisses. "Look what you did."
"Distract him!" Yamapi yells, scrambling to a section of the store away from the door. "I still haven't found its page." Neither of them bring up the possibility that there won't be a page.
Ryo scowls, but palms his gun, heading towards the ogre already inside the store flinging around boxes and tables. He gets a shot in, but the monster bucks against crates, knocking them to the ground. The oni swings at him, narrowly dodging the weight of his hit and only feeling the light brush on his back. He stumbles forward into one of the cabinets, knocking its contents onto the ogre.
When Ryo spins around, the oni's covered by bags and bags, some torn to pieces because of its claws, and it snarls, large fists against its squeezed shut eyes.
"What?" Ryo wonders out loud, before realizing the monster is stomping around blindly.
"PEAS!" Yamapi yells from across the room.
Ryo stares, looking at the bags of green peas that are surrounding him and the monster, some still on the oni's skin from the ripped bags. "You're joking," he mutters to himself before picking up a bag of peas and chucking just one pea in the direction of the oni.
The shriek is probably loud enough for the neighbors to hear at this point, but Ryo doesn't care. "It only blinds them," Yamapi clarifies as he walks over, much calmer upon seeing that the oni is already distracted by its own pain.
"I see that," Ryo says, chucking another pea. "So what do you do to send it back?"
Yamapi looks at the pages and chants, "Gan-da-raa-da gan-da-raa-da mahou ga sameru kara."
The oni yells one last time, the last notes fading away just like the monster in front of them. All that's left is the mess of goods surrounding them and tired expressions. "That's it? That's all it takes?"
Yamapi shrugs, pocketing his notebook. "Only once you get them stationary, I guess." They look around the shop. "So, what are we going to do about this?"
Ryo looks around at the destruction. "There's only so much we can do. Besides, we're in town for more important things." He starts heading towards the door before looking around. "Coincidentally, yet another grocer destroyed."
Yamapi rolls his eyes, following behind him. "This one was on us, I don't think it's part of the case."
"Ah, well, any excuse."
Yamapi laughs.
S is for Shinigami
"Miyake."
Miyake turns around, black robe billowing behind him, and smiles upon seeing Ryo and Yamapi. "Ah, my two favorite hunters. We meet again and you're actually not on my list, shock!"
Ryo frowns, crossing his arms. "Why are you here? Is there trouble around?"
Miyake holds up his hands, making his scythe disappear from beside him. "It's surprisingly not like that this time, I swear!" He smiles brightly, his blond hair shining from a nearby street lamp.
"Well, why would a shinigami be around then?"
Miyake purses his lips, then looks around before pointing at a figure in the distance. "You see him over there?" When Yamapi and Ryo make a noise in the affirmative, he continues, "I reaped him about a month ago. There are at least three other spirits in this town that have been reaped and shouldn't be walking around like normal people."
Ryo stares at the person Miyake pointed out. He looked like a normal person walking down the street, but as soon as he passes a street lamp, his entire body glows an eerie white before that light fades. At least until he reaches another street lamp and the light shines again.
"That's not normal," Yamapi says to Miyake.
"We've had a lot of shinigami having to do double-time because of this. Nobody's sure why but a lot of spirits have come back to wander the real world. Luckily, they haven't caused trouble."
"Yet," Ryo tacks on, giving Miyake a sideways glance.
Miyake's smile is crooked but still bright. "Exactly." He looks over at them. "Any chance you're interested in possibly helping us out again?" Ryo only glares at him, which makes Miyake laugh. "I gotcha~ I won't ask again."
"Do the shinigami have a clue as to why the spirits are wandering around?" Yamapi asks.
Miyake pauses before shrugging lightly. "We suspect something's wrong with Yomi-no-Kuni, but no one's been able to confirm it. Too bad we can't have hunters go look into it." He looks them over cheekily.
"Not so subtle," Ryo says with a roll of his eyes.
"Wasn't trying to be. Anyway, I should get back." He tugs his black hood over his head and waves a quick goodbye. The next second, Ryo and Yamapi see him appear right beside the spirit he had pointed out earlier. With a touch of his scythe to the spirit, an almost inaudible bing reaches their ears across the way. The two disappear right after.
Yamapi and Ryo stay frozen for a moment before Ryo sighs. "You're going to ask Shige to look into this, aren't you?"
"Wouldn't hurt to see if something is as wrong as they think."
"I suppose," Ryo says grudgingly.
H is for Hunters
"I'm Ariake Taisuke with the SPD."
"And I'm Kuro Saki." They both hold up their badges to the grocer before putting them away quickly.
Sakamoto Masayuki stares at them blankly before putting down cases of water in an empty space. He wipes his hands on his apron before smiling at them, leading them into the back room with tables and chairs. "Is there anything I can help you with?" he asks after they settle into the chairs.
"Have you heard about the crimes happening around town?" Ryo asks as Yamapi pulls out his notebook and pen.
"It's hard to miss, Ariake-san," Sakamoto says, crossing his arms. "My neighbors haven't spoken to me so much in years. They all have some sort of twisted theory about them."
"Grocers have been shutting down left and right. Ruined vegetables, missing groceries. One or two have died from mysterious animal bites. Paw prints have been found in each scene," Yamapi reads from his notebook. "Has anything like this happened to you?"
Sakamoto pauses for a second before shaking his head. He opens his mouth to speak, but a voice cuts in. "Masayuki, have you offered these gentlemen some tea at least?"
An older man stands by the doorway, leaning against a cane. He has silver-white hair and dark brown eyes that seems to hide more than they let on. The line of his lips is firm and set, and Sakamoto shrinks just a little at the sight of it. He shakes his head before turning to the two. "I apologize for my manners. Would you be interested in a cup of tea?" He starts to get up, but Ryo shakes his head, gesturing for him to sit down.
"We're quite fine, Sakamoto-san. But we appreciate the offer."
The older man, presumably Sakamoto's father, nods a tiny bit before he turns to enter the store floor. Yamapi watches as he starts to help the customers, keeping in mind that there had been a definite increase of business since the tragedies had started.
"Do you own any pets, Sakamoto-san?" Ryo asks, calling Yamapi's attention back to their conversation.
"Cats, but I don't understand-"
"No family dog?"
Sakamoto furrows his eyebrows, frowning. "Are you accusing me of something?"
"We've noticed a pattern," Ryo starts. Mentally, Yamapi corrects, "Shige noticed a pattern." "Your grocer has lasted through years with no attacks and your stock intact, even surviving the most recent food shortage."
"There are plenty of other shops that survived here," Sakamoto argues. "Why would you narrow it down to my family shop?"
"Because it is a family shop. There's a lot of history here, isn't there, Sakamoto-san? Was it your great, great grandfather that started it?"
Sakamoto purses his lips. "That wouldn't lead me to murder. We've been doing fine here without worrying about anyone else for years."
"You wouldn't have had to do it," Yamapi clarifies. "You would just have to pray to the right spirit."
"I don't pray," Sakamoto says firmly. "And I don't appreciate being accused of murdering people for gain. You should leave."
As Ryo and Yamapi are led to the doors, Yamapi catches a glimpse of Sakamoto's father at the cashier's till, his hand organizing tiny animal figurines around on the table. He doesn't seem to notice them marching through the store until too late, meeting Yamapi's eyes squarely. The man smiles and bows slightly.
Outside the door, Yamapi sighs as he tucks his notebook away. "Well, you might've pushed too hard."
"Because you were so much help in questioning him."
"I was trying to see what I could tell from the shop itself."
"Right, because the walls were speaking to you. Did they have any answers?"
Despite Ryo's sarcasm, Yamapi grins. "The walls might not have had anything to say, but the table had quite the tale."
I is for Inugami
It's heavy panting that wakes him up. Ryo groans, rolling over in his bed and grabbing one of his pillows to chuck at Yamapi. "Seriously dude, while I'm in the room?"
Yamapi's voice comes back to him shaky-but shaky with what Ryo instantly recognizes as fear. "That's not me, Ryo-chan."
Ryo's whole body goes cold and he reaches under his pillow for the gun he keeps tucked there at all times. He squints in the darkness and spots two yellow glowing eyes by the door. When he really focuses, he realizes that the panting sound is coming from that direction as well. He can just barely make out the form of a large dog, half-hidden in the darkness of the room and its black fur.
"Well," Ryo mutters, sitting up in his bed as slowly as possible to give the least amount of movement to the dog as he can. "I guess we may have scared him a bit too much."
"Maybe a touch," Yamapi says, voice rumbling as he shuffles in the bed next to Ryo's. Their eyes never leave the dog's eyes. Despite their moving around, the dog never moves, just watches them. "So. Think we can outrun a dog?"
"A real dog, maybe. A spirit dog, unlikely," Ryo says, putting on his shoes. "But at least we know how to deal with spirits trying to kill us."
"This happens way more often than I'd like," Yamapi sighs before getting up from the bed. The dog's snarling gets louder and Ryo inhales sharply before he rushes towards the dog, shooting him as he heads for the door. Behind him, he can hear Yamapi's quick footsteps and the shooting from his gun. They manage to keep the dog at bay long enough to head out the door and run in the direction of Sakamoto Grocery. Luckily, their motel room isn't far away, three blocks which would normally feel like nothing, but when being chased at the heels by an angry spirit dog, feels like miles and miles.
Ryo pounds on the front door of the locked grocery shop, trying to remember how many bullets he has left after their escape attempt. The sound of footsteps down the stairs inside the door are too slow for his liking, so he pounds even harder.
"Who is it?" Sakamoto asks, finally at the door.
"The police!"
Sakamoto opens the door and Ryo slips inside without another word. He stands wide-eyed as Ryo and Yamapi run past him and into the nearest room. The dog follows closely behind them, snarling, stopping in front of a table that separates them.
"Wha-" Sakamoto starts, but his words escape him, his mouth wide-open.
"Your handiwork," Ryo says dryly, waving in the direction of the dog. Sakamoto's eyes are wide and full of genuine surprise that it makes Ryo's confidence falter. "Are you telling me you don't know what that is?"
Sakamoto shakes his head. "It's not real, is it?" His eyes seem permanently wide-eyed, his face pale.
Yamapi smiles, although it has an edge to it. "That's not entirely correct. It's as real as anything, after all, you can see it, can't you? It's just an inugami, a-."
"A dog-spirit." Ryo and Yamapi's heads whip around, back to the other side of the living room where Sakamoto's dad walks slowly towards them, coming to a stop behind the dog.
"Dad, you should-" Sakamoto starts, but Sakamoto Isamu shushes him and reaches over the inugami. Ryo and Yamapi watch, slack-jawed, as he starts to pet the dog. It starts to whimper, tilting its head with the strokes.
"Huh," Ryo mutters. "We got the family right, just the wrong master."
Isamu smiles darkly. "Hunters, I should've known."
Yamapi smiles back. "It's always nice not having to explain ourselves."
"You're not the first hunters I've ever met. And had to dispose of."
Sakamoto's eyes go wider, which Ryo didn't think could happen. "Dad, you know about all this?"
"Masayuki, this dog has been a part of our family for centuries." Isamu continues to pet the dog; the inugami whimpers as it presses its head up against his hand. "Your grandfather taught me how to care for him and how he protects the family and our shop."
"You never told me."
"Because you're too soft-hearted!" He scowls. "You only came home after that music group of yours split up, and reluctantly took over the shop. You would've thought it wasn't worth it."
"It's not! I do care about this shop as much as anyone in this family has, but destroying people's livelihoods is immoral. There were deaths! Those people had families and friends that they left behind, it isn't right-"
Isamu scoffs. "Just because your friend died." Sakamoto's face goes red, his eyes full of fury and his hands fisted tightly. He starts to stalk towards his dad, but the dog's growling reminds everyone in the room of his presence. Isamu looks down at the dog with a glare. "Not him. He's a member of the Sakamoto family. You are not allowed to touch him." The dog's eyes glow red, and his growls get louder, although now pointed in the Isamu's direction.
"This is not looking good," Yamapi mutters, eyeing the dog as it stands in front of his master.
"You remember your place!" Sakamoto's dad yells. With those words, and more importantly that tone, the dog lunges for his throat. It's Ryo's gunshot that saves him as the dog hits a wall and Isamu falls back from the sudden attack.
"And this is why people shouldn't mess with spirits they don't understand," Ryo says coldly. Sakamoto pulls his dad back onto his feet. "Now your inugami is never going to listen to you again."
Isamu's face is ashen as he stands, eyes never leaving the dog's figure as it starts to get back on its feet.
"You should probably get out of here," Yamapi says, flipping through pages. "Now that it has you as its target, it won't relent until you're dead."
Sakamoto's voice is shaky as he says "Thank you" to them, leading his father out of the room and out of the house.
The dog rushes at them again, snarling, but Ryo gets another shot in. "Any chance you know how to defeat an inugami?" Ryo asks, tugging Yamapi with him as he moves around the room to avoid the spirit's attacks. One more shot has the dog flying into the other room with a loud yelp.
"You'll need to shoot it with something more powerful than your gun. Where's the shotgun?" Yamapi says.
Ryo rolls his eyes. "In my back pocket, Yamashita. Of course it's in the damn truck." He starts to backstep towards the exit, keeping his eyes open for another attack. It doesn't come from the front like he expects, it comes from the side and both Ryo and Yamapi are thrown to the floor. Ryo loses his grip on his gun and hears it drop and slide away. "Shit," he hisses just as the dog goes for him again.
Its claws sink into thigh, into skin, before Ryo manages to grab whatever is nearest--a coffee table-and bash it against the dog, relishing in its whimper of pain. The table shatters into pieces from impact, but it's the noise of the spirit flying into a wall that Ryo notices more. It growls again, crawling back onto its feet. A part of Ryo can't bear the idea of fighting this thing anymore when he can't even find his gun.
He holds the remainder of the table-a leg-tightly in his hand when the dog leaps towards him. He clenches, about to swing, when Ryo hears a blast from a shotgun. It flies into another wall and Ryo looks over to see Yamapi standing in the entranceway, panting as he cocks the gun. The dog's eyes glow red again as it rushes in Yamapi's direction.
Yamapi shoots again and again, each shot hitting its target. On the fourth shot, Ryo watches as the dog disintegrates and Yamapi falls to the ground, exhausted.
"Took you long enough," Ryo says as he drops his makeshift stake, walking over to Yamapi.
Yamapi glares up at him. "Yeah, Yamapi, thanks for saving my life."
Ryo smirks, patting him on the head. "Well, I do it so much for you, I figured you deserved a chance at being an actual hunter." He holds out his hand, and Yamapi takes it, getting back to his feet.
"Let's be honest. If I hadn't come back, you would've died."
"I had a stake, I would've made do until I got my gun again. Speaking of…" he mutters as he looks around. Ryo takes another step and winces, remembering his wound. He holds a hand to his left thigh and looks at it, blood against his skin. He groans. "I hate getting injured."
"It's part of the job."
"That, I understand. It's when you try to mend me. You do not have a gentle touch."
Yamapi lightly punches him on the shoulder. "Like you need coddling."
Ryo shrugs. "It'd be nice." He spots his gun half-underneath a side table. When he tries to bend over to pick it up, the shooting pain in his leg freezes him up.
"Guess I can help with this too," Yamapi says as he leans down to grab the gun. He hands it to Ryo which he takes with a nod, tucking it away in his pants.
"You'll have to drive, I think."
Yamapi rolls his eyes again. "You do remember that Akkun is my truck, right?"
"Only because I do not drive trucks named stupid things like Akkun." Yamapi laughs as Ryo throws an arm around Yamapi's shoulders, leaning into him, and the two make their way out the door.
I is for Ikiryo
"She appeared out of thin air," Sawayama Ichiya explains. Yamapi nods as he writes this down in his notebook. A large piece of gauze is taped to Ichiya's forehead where a gash is hidden. His glasses cover part of the bandage. Under his shirt are more scratches, long and deep. "She clawed at me only once, yelling something before she disappeared."
"It," Chiba Ayame corrects. "We don't know what it is." Her left arm is wrapped up, covering three long thick scratches.
Ryo frowns. "Why did you keep saying she?"
Ichiya looks down guiltily before Ayame take his hand. He glances at her, smiling. "We just thought it looked a lot like someone we knew," Ichiya finally says.
"She's a girl that Hiro-kun used to... live with."
"Why the hesitation?" Ryo asks.
Ichiya and Ayame look at each other before Ichiya sighs. "We had a relationship back then, and she... didn't take it well when I left."
"But she couldn't have done it," Ayame says, frowning.
"Why not?" Yamapi asks.
"It disappeared. That is not a normal thing! And she's not exactly able to do something like that."
"Nobody can," Ichiya adds.
Yamapi hides his smile as he looks down at his notebook, scribbling the added information."Before we forget, what's her name?"
"Sawayama Yuna."
The girl turns around, tilting her head at them. "Yes? May I help you with something?" she asks.
Without saying anything, Yamapi flicks water at her, which she takes, blinking.
"Sorry," Ryo says as he looks at her, perplexed. "He needs to learn to wipe his hands after he comes from the bathroom. At least it's just water."
Her face twists in disgust before she shakes her head. "That's quite all right. Did you need me for something?"
"Sawayama Ichiya and Chiba Ayame, they're friends of yours?" Yamapi asks, flipping his notebook to a page of scribbled notes and photos.
Her expression darkens, Ryo notes, but just like before, it disappears quickly. "Hiro-kun," she pauses before amending, "Ichiya-kun lived in our house for years under my parents' care. Chiba-san was a classmate. I believe I've only spoken to her twice?"
"Did you know about their relationship?" Ryo asks. She flinches.
"I might've heard they dated," she says primly. "But I take no pleasure in gossip. If you don't mind, I have some place I need to be." Without waiting for Yamapi or Ryo to speak, she turns on her heel and walks speedily away from them.
"So, not a demon, huh?" Yamapi says, shutting his notebook and tucking it away. "Holy water had no effect on her."
Ryo purses his lips, crossing his arms. "That's true, but that doesn't mean she's innocent. She definitely had something to do with their injuries."
They observe her from a distance afterwards, watching as she walks around school grounds without company or heads home without looking where she's going. Her head droops now and then, and Yamapi wonders how exactly she's living in this state, vacant and empty.
"She's definitely not a demon," Ryo says after she enters her home, a large estate that had taken Yamapi aback the first time he saw it.
"But she's definitely causing their injuries, so how is it being done?"
"An ikiryo," Shige clarifies over the phone. "It's not her directly, but a piece of her soul that has detached itself from her body to go after these people. Typically ikiryo are formed because of extreme anger. Now if the attacks have been increasing, I'd say to be careful because these kinds of spirits kill."
"Do you think she'll attack them again?" Ryo asks, frowning.
"It's likely. They're the ones she's most angry at after all."
"Hm," Ryo says lightly before hanging up the phone. Yamapi chuckles thinking of Shige cursing on the other end, yelling to Koyama that this was the last time he'd help them.
"You know, I think he might appreciate a 'thank you' now and then."
"And give him the satisfaction? Never."
"You hung up before we could find out how to defeat it, though." Ryo pauses then looks at Yamapi hopefully. Yamapi holds up his hands, shaking his head. "Why do you think we had to ask Shige for help to begin with?"
"Because you couldn't be bothered to flip through your own notebook?"
"Says one who won't even bother to keep a notebook," Yamapi retorts with a pout.
"Someone has to be the muscle around here." He smirks as Yamapi rolls his eyes. Before Yamapi can say anything, a scream comes from inside the house. They rush in, ignoring the house maids running towards the same room.
Inside the room-a room filled with books and posters that appear to have been untouched for a long time-Yuna stands over a body, one hand raised, her nails sharpened to a point with blood smeared all over them and her clothes.
Ryo pulls out his gun and shoots her without hesitation; the body flings to the other side of the room.
Yamapi rushes to the body on top of the bed only to find Yuna, staring back at him, wide-eyed, and bloody from gashes across her stomach. He nearly balks at the amount of blood collecting on the bed and dripping onto the floor, but he forces it down. He leans over, and realizes that the Yuna on the bed is still alive, breathing, but faintly. Yamapi curses, pressing his hand against her wounds, wondering how this girl could have survived a violent attack like that. And why her own spirit would attack her.
"Weak," the spirit hisses over his shoulder, and Yamapi looks just in time to see it fly away again, Ryo's gun pointed directly at him.
"Exorcise it!" Ryo yells, focusing on keeping the spirit at bay. "It should work with the same concept."
"It or the girl?" Yamapi asks, over the noise of the ikiryo's yelling.
"Figure it out!"
Yamapi scowls, pressing a hand against Yuna's forehead, hoping as he starts reciting familiar phrases. They're Latin, but familiar nonetheless.
He knows it's worked when the wind picks up in the room and the spirit's screams. Yamapi watches as the ikiryo flies right back into Yuna's body and the girl's wounds start to mend.
Ryo walks over to him and pats him on the shoulder. "Good guess." Yamapi sighs, pressing fingers against Yuna's pulse point. He's relieved that the beat is steady and strong. When they turn around, there are people standing, wide-eyed, just watching them. "You might want to take your Lady here to the doctor. She seems to be healed, but you never know."
The staff starts moving, rushing around them to heft Yuna up and out the door, but one hangs back, eyes narrowed.
"You don't need to mention this to your masters. I'm sure they won't be interested in your impossible stories."
"You're very right," the man says primly. "But I am going to need assurance that something like this won't happen again."
Yamapi and Ryo look at each other and shrug. "That's not something we can control," Yamapi says. "Her anger got to be so much that it separated from her body."
"Maybe someone should keep that in check," Ryo suggests, unkindly.
The man bristles, but he bows stiffly at the waist. "I will be sure to take your advice. Thank you very much, sirs."
Ryo and Yamapi blink before returning his bow. They follow the gestures of the staff towards the door, staring blankly at the street once they step outside. The door slides shut, locking loudly behind them. They turn to each other. "So that was strange."
"Since when do people not question the actual supernatural aspect?" Ryo asks, scratching his head.
Yamapi shrugs. "Kabuki houses," he says simply.
S is for Siblings
"Don't you think we deserve an apology at least?" Ryo asks, perched on top of a bar stool. He looks over at the familiar sight of Shige at a table, books strewn around him. No mug or bottle of beer anywhere near which seems a shame in a bar.
Shige barely glances up from his books, eyes hidden behind rimmed glasses. "Why? It's not like the trip was useless."
Ryo glares over his mug of beer. "You had us hike up a mountain to a shrine that hasn't had a single living creature in it for centuries. You should totally be sorry! Regardless of what information we found out."
"We didn't even find out that much," Yamapi points out, before thanking Koyama for the newly opened bottle of beer.
Koyama moves around the bar and settles into a stool next to Yamapi's. "Don't I know it. Shige's been researching Susanoo, Izanagi-no-Mikoto and whatnot for weeks."
"Only when I'm not solving your cases," Shige adds.
"You wouldn't last a day out of this bar," Ryo snaps at the same time Yamapi asks, "Who's Izagi-whatever."
"Take turns," Koyama says before taking a sip of his beer.
Ryo rolls his eyes. "My sarcasm loses its effect if I have to repeat myself."
"More importantly, who's Iza-what's that name?"
"Izanagi-no-Mikoto," Koyama repeats, slower this time. "I only know it because Shige mutters things out loud a lot."
Shige's face goes red as he bristles. "It's the best way I work," he snaps, shutting the book in front of him and grabbing another one across the table.
Koyama shrugs as he drinks his beer. "I'm not knocking it. Just pointing out facts."
"So what'd you find out?" Ryo asks, leaning over the counter himself to top off his now empty mug.
Shige scoffs. "No, thanks Shige, we couldn't have done this without you? No, thanks Shige, you gave up so many hours of sleep so we could find answers?" Ryo rolls his eyes, walking over and setting the new mug of beer in between Shige's books, in the only spot of table that isn't covered in papers.
"You need this, relax for once," Ryo says, sitting in a chair next to Shige.
Although reluctant at first, Shige takes the mug with a soft "Thanks" and immediately gulps it down. After polishing more than half the mug, Shige puts it on the table, sighing. They sit in silence for a moment before Yamapi asks, "So, you were saying?"
"Izanagi-no-Mikoto," Shige starts, flipping through his papers. Ryo reaches over and takes some of the books off his table, placing them on another one. Shige smiles at him before he finds the sheet he's looking for. "He's one of the main Gods of Shinto mythology, married to Izanami, known as the Goddess of creation and death. Because of Izanami's death, Izanagi goes to Yomi-no-Kuni to take her back. Except she's already eaten the food there-"
"So she's not allowed to return to her heaven, right?" Ryo asks, bored. "This is sounding awfully familiar."
Shige shushes him before continuing. "Anyway, after Izanagi has to escape the underworld, he has to cleanse himself. Through that cleansing, he creates the three siblings, Susanoo, Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto, and Amaterasu." He looks up from his sheet only to receive blank stares.
After a pause, Ryo asks, "And?"
"What do you mean and?" Shige huffs, putting his paper down. "This is important information!"
"What does this have to do with finding out what's going on with the underworld?" Yamapi asks, putting down his now empty bottle on the counter. Koyama, without speaking, moves back behind the counter to open up a new one.
"Well, we need to find which God can help us find out more information. What better way than through their siblings? I can't find Susanoo's shrine." He angles a look at Ryo as he emphasizes, "Yet. But I did find Amaterasu's and maybe she'll be able to help you more than Tsukuyomi was able to."
"He prefers to be called Massu," Yamapi says, taking his bottle of beer from Koyama. "Don't ask me why."
"He did imply though that the relationship between them isn't that great, and she probably won't have any more answers than Massu did," Ryo adds.
"No harm in trying," Shige says as he sits back in his chair, picking up his mug of beer and polishing off the rest.
"Only if it doesn't involve climbing another mountain," Yamapi says, half-laughing.
Shige rolls his eyes before holding up his mug towards Koyama. "Another beer, please."
Ryo grins. "Now that's what I like to hear." He asks for a beer of his own.
Part 2
tinyangl, 13425 words
Nishikido Ryo/Yamashita Tomohisa, Masuda Takahisa, Nagasawa Masami, Tegoshi Yuya, Koyama Keiichiro, Kato Shigeaki, Miyake Ken (V6), Sakamoto Masayuki (V6), Pin to Kona drama characters Sawayama Ichiya, Chiba Ayame, Sawayama Yuna. Ryo and Yamapi have a simple lifestyle as hunters, except life has gotten much more complicated lately.
Warnings: Supernatural creatures, action-ish, guns, implied character death
Notes: Dear meissa, I agonized over which AU you would like and ultimately ended up with a Supernatural one! It somehow ballooned into what it is now, but I hope you enjoy!
Thanks to my betas melonpaan and dalampasigan because you guys had to deal with a lot. Especially when I couldn't entirely be there due to being on vacation as I wrote this. XD
Written for je_otherworlds here.
T is for Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto
"Welcome!" A cheerful voice echoes inside the shrine. Ryo and Yamapi's heads both turn in the direction of the source, but before either can register who or where it's come from, they're slammed against the wall. The wood grows out of the walls and snakes over their ankles and wrists and throats, tight and sturdy.
When Ryo catches his breath, he bites back a curse and snaps, "Warm welcome." He twists his wrists in the restraints, but wood doesn't bend and he winces at how immovable they are. He can barely see Yamapi in the corner of his eye, but Ryo's glad he can see him at all.
The figure approaches them, glowing faintly in the dark room. His brown eyes are warm and his smile is kind, but Ryo knows better than to underestimate him. "Strangers making a mess of my shrine isn't something I tolerate," he says politely, stopping a distance from them. He leans over the lamp they'd been fiddling with and blows lightly into it; a flame appears in the center, illuminating the room.
"That makes things so much easier," Yamapi says with an audible frown. "We couldn't light it with one match."
Ryo rolls his eyes. "Of course that's the thing you focus on right now."
"Well, it's either that or the fact that we're stuck to a wall. I think lamenting on the matches thing is a touch better."
"Lamenting?" Ryo asks with a laugh. "Is Shige rubbing off on you?"
"Only sometimes."
The person clears his throat, still smiling, although Ryo can sense a twinge of annoyance. "I don't mean to interrupt, but don't you think now is a good time to explain what you were doing in my shrine? After all, it's quite a trek here, it can't be something simple."
"Why is your shrine on the top of a mountain?" Yamapi asks. "Do you know how long it took us to get here?"
"Easiest way to keep hunters from strolling in."
Ryo's eyes narrow. "How do you know we're hunters?"
He laughs lightly, walking over to them until he's only a feet away. Ryo tenses when the figure reaches into the back of his waistband, and a familiar weight disappears. He holds up Ryo's gun, smiling brightly as he points it straight at Ryo's heart. "A gun with rock salt cartridges? Only hunters carry that."
"Who are you?" Yamapi half-whispers.
"You can just call me Massu," he says cheerfully, putting the gun right back.
"Are you sure you should do that?" Ryo asks, gritting his teeth. "When I get free, the first thing I do-"
"Gods aren't affected by something as simple as salt," he says, his voice harsher than before. Ryo swallows, wondering if he's imagining the flash of anger that passes through Massu's eyes. "Anyway, you should stop stalling. I know for a fact that you don't have backup, so why don't you just answer my question? Why are you here?"
Ryo opens his mouth, prepared to answer but Yamapi beats him to it. "We're trying to find the shrine of Susanoo."
Massu stares at them, eyes narrowed and arms crossed, before he sweeps a hand over them. The binds loosen and wind back into the wooden boards. Ryo and Yamapi drop to the ground, breaking the fall with their hands, but it doesn't help them by much. The pain that shoots through his arms and legs makes him wince, but Ryo's first instinct is to grab the gun from his back and shoot at Massu. He takes the shot without flinching. "Satisfied?" Massu asks.
Yamapi shoots one of his own to the same effect. He glances at Ryo, before putting his gun away. "Pretty much."
Ryo shoots one last time, then nods. "I'm good now." He tucks his gun in the same familiar place. "So why did you let us go?"
"Because you're not searching for me." Massu's eyes narrow. "But please remember I am still a God and I don't take well to threats."
"You're not Susanoo, are you?" Yamapi asks.
Massu shakes his head. "You're about 800 miles off from his shrine."
"Well, I'll be sure to tell Shige that he actually got one wrong," Ryo snarks. Yamapi lightly elbows him with a shake of his head, as though to say 'Now is not the time.'
"Well, I wouldn't dismiss this Shige so easily. He did find my shrine, and it's been a while since I've had visitors."
"We can tell," Ryo mutters under his breath. When they'd entered, all they could inhale was layers and layers of dust. Nobody had stepped inside for centuries.
"You're some other God, why is this a good thing?"
"I'd say I'm not just any other God." Massu smiles at them, brightly. "After all, Susanoo is my brother. I'm curious as to why you're looking for him."
"Have you been paying much attention to what's been going on in Japan lately?" Ryo asks.
"Ah, this is about Yomi-no-Kuni, isn't it?" Massu says.
"We like to call it the underworld," Yamapi adds.
"Or hell," Ryo chirps. Yamapi rolls his eyes.
"So something has happened to it." Massu says it like a fact, not questioning.
"Something," Ryo says with a sigh, "is definitely an understatement."
E is for Enenra
"Awesome," Yamapi growls as they dash out of one room, a whoosh of wind following behind them. "A monster made of smoke! That's easy to fight." The corridor they're running through has many doors open, but they all lead to dead-ends.
"LESS COMPLAINING, MORE RUNNING!" Ryo yells over his shoulder. He focuses on trying to light a cigarette, but the lighter sparks uselessly in his hands.
"Seriously? Now?" Yamapi cries as they fly into a staircase, dashing down to the next floor in hopes for something to work with. He can feel the wisps of wind playing with the edges of his hair, Yamapi strains himself a little more to escape its possible grasp.
"Shut up," Ryo hisses, still trying his lighter.
The floor below isn't any better, the same familiar empty white walls that lead to nowhere. In front of Yamapi, Ryo finally manages to light his cigarette, puffing enough to show some sparks at the end. He holds up the cigarette to the nearest smoke detector and it takes only a few extra seconds, seconds that almost has the monster curling smoke around Yamapi's throat, but the sprinklers go off, causing the smoke to disperse in different directions as water pours down.
"Smart," Yamapi says gratefully, which gets a smirk from Ryo. They escape into a room, shutting the door behind them, and Yamapi scrambles around his jacket and pants trying to find any weapons he still has on hand. He dropped his gun under a desk when the enenra had first attacked them. Not that it would've done any good to a creature without a physical form. "You know, I thought these things appeared only to the pure of heart," Yamapi huffs, scanning the room for anything else.
"Maybe they're only nice to the pure of heart."
"Great, well, if I ever wanted confirmation." He watches as Ryo fiddles with the only window in the room. "What are you even doing?"
"Well, we dropped the only fucking container that can hold an enenra-good job by the way." Yamapi glares at Ryo, but goes to help him anyway. "I'm hoping if it's windy enough, it can keep the enenra apart long enough for one of us to get the box back."
"Great!" They finally manage to get the window open, but the gust of wind they'd been hoping for never comes. Instead, the door flies open and smoke billows into the room, spinning around in a mini-tornado until it solidifies into the form of a human being.
Yamapi blinks. "Well, that's unexpected."
The enenra walks towards them, pepper-grey hair and eyes, a little taller but just as muscular as Yamapi. "If it wants to become human, this fight just got a lot fairer," Ryo mutters, pulling out his gun, but the creature is much faster than either Yamapi or Ryo are. In the blink of an eye, it's right in front of them, knocking the gun from Ryo's hands. "Wha-" The enenra swings an arm at him, causing him to fly into a wall.
The impact reverberates through the room, but Yamapi doesn't have time to wonder if Ryo's okay because the enenra turns on him, swinging a fist at his abdomen. Yamapi manages to step back enough that it only skims a little of him. Despite not being a full impact, just that is enough to knock the air out of him.
Yamapi knocks into a chair which he takes from behind him and swings it around, hitting the enenra squarely in the side. But it barely budges, taking the hit with only a scowl. "Fuck," Yamapi hisses, as it swings at him again, this time towards his head. Yamapi ducks, aiming the remainders of the shattered chair at the enenra's legs.
This time its knees buckle, which Yamapi takes advantage of as he angles another hit upwards, throwing the monster up. It flies towards the ceiling, and its heavy weight along with the added momentum cause it to go right through the material, creating a hole that lodges the enenra's body. It kicks out, arms stuck in the small hole, and Yamapi breathes out a sigh of relief.
"Wow," Ryo comments, wincing as he limps over. "Didn't think you had that in you."
Before Yamapi can reply, the enenra's body dissolves back into smoke, to both their horrors, reforming a mini-tornado at the entrance of the room. Yamapi's eyes go wide and he clutches the chair legs tightly. But from the ceiling, something falls.
Somehow the Pandora box is sitting on the floor, intact, and more importantly, there. The split second they take to look at it is enough time for the enenra to reform and come at them again. This time, it forces Yamapi into the wall next to the windows, its arm wedged against his throat and cutting off his air. Yamapi drops the chair legs to clutch at the enenra's arms and tries to kick out, hoping that one kick will be enough to get him to let go.
Except it doesn't work and all the enenra does is press harder, its gray eyes glaring into Yamapi's. It shrieks the next second, head thrown back as its arm loosens around his throat. Yamapi pushes it away weakly, but it moves back nonetheless and Yamapi catches sight of Ryo staggering back behind the enenra, dropping the stake he'd stabbed into the monster.
It breaks apart again, forming back to smoke, but it goes from hovering in the air and straight into the opened box in Ryo's hand. Yamapi slumps to the ground, hand over his throat as he relishes in the fact that he can breathe again. "Thanks," he manages.
Ryo nods, walking over to help Yamapi to his feet. "Thank God that box was right above us."
"No need to thank me," a voice says from the doorway. "I had nothing to do with it."
Ryo and Yamapi both look over, bodies tense, except the figure standing there is one they've seen many times. Ryo sighs loudly. "Way to appear after a battle's done, Tegoshi."
Tegoshi smirks, walking over. "And get my hands dirty? You don't know me at all."
"Why are you here now then?" Yamapi asks, his legs still shaking slightly, but he forces himself to stand. Ryo stands a touch closer and Yamapi gratefully leans against him for more support.
"Someone has to put this box-" Tegoshi plucks the pandora box from Ryo's hands. "-back to where it belongs."
Ryo raises an eyebrow. "And you know where that is?"
"Well, I was the one that brought it to you." He grins, patting Ryo in the back-which Ryo takes with gritted teeth. "Good battle, by the way. I almost thought you wouldn't make it."
Yamapi resists from commenting and instead says a strained "Thank you." Tegoshi doesn't wait to hear it, though, as he's gone the next second.
"Sometimes I think there's more to him than he lets on," Ryo says, sighing as they start walking out of the room. "But he never lets anything slip."
Yamapi sighs as well. "One day we'll figure him out. Until then, a bed sounds good."
Ryo murmurs his agreement.
G is for Gods
"You're the cause of all this?" Ryo asks, incredulous.
Tegoshi smiles up at Ryo, dressed as a janitor, and despite the fact that he's tied to a chair, he looks entirely too relaxed. "Guilty as charged," he chirps. "But really, what's the harm in a little innocent fun?"
"So causing a kid to balloon up to the point that he started to float was innocent fun?" Yamapi asks.
"You should've heard the names he was calling his sister."
"And almost drowning one girl in her own sweat?"
"Well, she shouldn't have yelled at her brother like she had." Tegoshi's smile is pleasant enough, but Yamapi can see the edge in it. He still sits like he has the upper hand, like Ryo and Yamapi aren't standing over him with guns.
"Someone has a trigger for sibling relationships," Ryo points out.
This time, Yamapi is positive he doesn't imagine the flash of cruelty in Tegoshi's grin, but it doesn't stay long, replaced by a more pleasant and softer smile. "Sibling rivalries can be tough, don't you think?"
"How would we know?" Yamapi asks, crossing his arms.
"Oh, don't play innocent with me," Tegoshi says, half-singing the words. "I'm a God-"
"Demi-God," Ryo interjects, which Tegoshi only smirks at.
"-And I know all I need to know about you hunters," Tegoshi continues, as though Ryo hadn't said a word. "Yamashita Tomohisa and Nishikido Ryo."
It's been a long time someone's said his full name like that, combined with the dark edge that Tegoshi's voice gives it makes a shiver shoot through Yamapi's spine. He can't quite read Ryo's body language, but he wouldn't be surprised if it had the same effect on him. "So you know our names," Ryo starts, but Tegoshi cuts him off.
"Ryo-chan, you have two older brothers and a younger sister," Tegoshi says lazily, his smirk growing wider. "And Pi-kun, you have a younger sister. So you both know the hazards of sibling relationships."
"You're not going to-" Yamapi starts, until he remembers that in this situation, he's supposed to have the upper hand. But his hands are sweaty and his throat is dry, and somehow, he has this bad feeling that they've completely read this person wrong.
"I don't have any need for them," Tegoshi says. The yet goes unsaid.
"Enough of this," Ryo snaps. "We can't let you live to cause more trouble." He pulls the stake they'd prepared, but when he moves to stab Tegoshi with it, the chair is empty, ropes coiled neatly on the seat. Yamapi blinks, before looking around quickly, his gun already in hand. He hears Ryo's yell of pain before he falls to the ground from the impact of Ryo's body against his.
Tegoshi stands in front of them, balancing their stake on one finger. Ryo quickly shoots at Tegoshi, but Tegoshi stops each bullet with the stake, flipping it up in the air when Ryo runs out of ammo. He catches it deftly in one hand and grins at them.
"You didn't really think it'd be that easy," Tegoshi croons. "I am a God."
"Demi-God," Ryo repeats. Tegoshi shrugs, tossing the stake back to him with a light throw.
"You could've just asked me to stop," Tegoshi says, hands at his waist. "I'm not completely cruel."
"But you're a Trickster," Yamapi protests. "Isn't this in your nature?"
Tegoshi disappears from where he stood and reappears right in front of Yamapi, grinning as he touches Yamapi lightly in the forehead. Despite the fact that Yamapi technically is taller than Tegoshi, he feels infinitely smaller with the Demi-God in front of him. "I like to prove people wrong," Tegoshi says softly before winking. "See you another time, boys."
With that, he disappears, leaving a bewildered Ryo and Yamapi behind.
Yamapi sighs, hanging his head. "I knew we shouldn't have taken this case." Ryo nods in agreement.
O is for Oni
"Another monster?!" Yamapi yells as they race through the forest.
Ryo growls as he tugs Yamapi towards the right, then forces him to crouch behind a particularly large tree. Yamapi calms his breathing as much as he can, hoping that it's enough so that the oni following them doesn't realize that they've veered away. The stomping footsteps of the ogre stop right by them before skulking away from their hiding place.
"Well, that's not cool," Yamapi hisses.
Ryo snarls for him to shut up again, straining his ears for any sign of the oni returning. When he hears nothing, he tugs Yamapi back in the direction they'd come from.
"I don't get it! We had no sign of an oni being in this area, so where did it come from?" It hasn't been the first time that they've run into monsters unrelated to their cases, but the increase of these occurrences has made Ryo anxious.
"I don't know, Pi. All I know is that we have no weapons that can fight an oni, so why don't we focus on that first, damn it."
"And what would we need for that?"
Ryo freezes before turning on his heel to glare at Yamapi. "You have the damn notebook, look it up!"
Yamapi frowns. "Well, you don't have to yell at me." He reaches into his inside jacket pocket where he always keeps his notebook, but a growl stops him cold. "It's because you yelled," he hisses at Ryo before he starts dashing off again, Ryo hot on his heels.
It takes a lot of dodging and maneuvering before Yamapi and Ryo find themselves out of the forest and tucked into a small grocery store, dark and technically closed. Yamapi swallows before pulling out his hunter's notebook, pages filled with handwritten notes on monsters and creatures and spirits that Shige helped him compile and continuously add to.
"So?" Ryo hisses, sitting on the ground but leaning up against some boxes to get a good view at the window-wondering if every shadow flitting by is the oni.
"Give me a minute!" Yamapi growls. "There are a lot of pages."
"Maybe you should organize that better."
"Maybe you should get a notebook of your own!"
The angry growl right outside the door is overshadowed by the shattering of glass. "Shit," Ryo hisses. "Look what you did."
"Distract him!" Yamapi yells, scrambling to a section of the store away from the door. "I still haven't found its page." Neither of them bring up the possibility that there won't be a page.
Ryo scowls, but palms his gun, heading towards the ogre already inside the store flinging around boxes and tables. He gets a shot in, but the monster bucks against crates, knocking them to the ground. The oni swings at him, narrowly dodging the weight of his hit and only feeling the light brush on his back. He stumbles forward into one of the cabinets, knocking its contents onto the ogre.
When Ryo spins around, the oni's covered by bags and bags, some torn to pieces because of its claws, and it snarls, large fists against its squeezed shut eyes.
"What?" Ryo wonders out loud, before realizing the monster is stomping around blindly.
"PEAS!" Yamapi yells from across the room.
Ryo stares, looking at the bags of green peas that are surrounding him and the monster, some still on the oni's skin from the ripped bags. "You're joking," he mutters to himself before picking up a bag of peas and chucking just one pea in the direction of the oni.
The shriek is probably loud enough for the neighbors to hear at this point, but Ryo doesn't care. "It only blinds them," Yamapi clarifies as he walks over, much calmer upon seeing that the oni is already distracted by its own pain.
"I see that," Ryo says, chucking another pea. "So what do you do to send it back?"
Yamapi looks at the pages and chants, "Gan-da-raa-da gan-da-raa-da mahou ga sameru kara."
The oni yells one last time, the last notes fading away just like the monster in front of them. All that's left is the mess of goods surrounding them and tired expressions. "That's it? That's all it takes?"
Yamapi shrugs, pocketing his notebook. "Only once you get them stationary, I guess." They look around the shop. "So, what are we going to do about this?"
Ryo looks around at the destruction. "There's only so much we can do. Besides, we're in town for more important things." He starts heading towards the door before looking around. "Coincidentally, yet another grocer destroyed."
Yamapi rolls his eyes, following behind him. "This one was on us, I don't think it's part of the case."
"Ah, well, any excuse."
Yamapi laughs.
S is for Shinigami
"Miyake."
Miyake turns around, black robe billowing behind him, and smiles upon seeing Ryo and Yamapi. "Ah, my two favorite hunters. We meet again and you're actually not on my list, shock!"
Ryo frowns, crossing his arms. "Why are you here? Is there trouble around?"
Miyake holds up his hands, making his scythe disappear from beside him. "It's surprisingly not like that this time, I swear!" He smiles brightly, his blond hair shining from a nearby street lamp.
"Well, why would a shinigami be around then?"
Miyake purses his lips, then looks around before pointing at a figure in the distance. "You see him over there?" When Yamapi and Ryo make a noise in the affirmative, he continues, "I reaped him about a month ago. There are at least three other spirits in this town that have been reaped and shouldn't be walking around like normal people."
Ryo stares at the person Miyake pointed out. He looked like a normal person walking down the street, but as soon as he passes a street lamp, his entire body glows an eerie white before that light fades. At least until he reaches another street lamp and the light shines again.
"That's not normal," Yamapi says to Miyake.
"We've had a lot of shinigami having to do double-time because of this. Nobody's sure why but a lot of spirits have come back to wander the real world. Luckily, they haven't caused trouble."
"Yet," Ryo tacks on, giving Miyake a sideways glance.
Miyake's smile is crooked but still bright. "Exactly." He looks over at them. "Any chance you're interested in possibly helping us out again?" Ryo only glares at him, which makes Miyake laugh. "I gotcha~ I won't ask again."
"Do the shinigami have a clue as to why the spirits are wandering around?" Yamapi asks.
Miyake pauses before shrugging lightly. "We suspect something's wrong with Yomi-no-Kuni, but no one's been able to confirm it. Too bad we can't have hunters go look into it." He looks them over cheekily.
"Not so subtle," Ryo says with a roll of his eyes.
"Wasn't trying to be. Anyway, I should get back." He tugs his black hood over his head and waves a quick goodbye. The next second, Ryo and Yamapi see him appear right beside the spirit he had pointed out earlier. With a touch of his scythe to the spirit, an almost inaudible bing reaches their ears across the way. The two disappear right after.
Yamapi and Ryo stay frozen for a moment before Ryo sighs. "You're going to ask Shige to look into this, aren't you?"
"Wouldn't hurt to see if something is as wrong as they think."
"I suppose," Ryo says grudgingly.
H is for Hunters
"I'm Ariake Taisuke with the SPD."
"And I'm Kuro Saki." They both hold up their badges to the grocer before putting them away quickly.
Sakamoto Masayuki stares at them blankly before putting down cases of water in an empty space. He wipes his hands on his apron before smiling at them, leading them into the back room with tables and chairs. "Is there anything I can help you with?" he asks after they settle into the chairs.
"Have you heard about the crimes happening around town?" Ryo asks as Yamapi pulls out his notebook and pen.
"It's hard to miss, Ariake-san," Sakamoto says, crossing his arms. "My neighbors haven't spoken to me so much in years. They all have some sort of twisted theory about them."
"Grocers have been shutting down left and right. Ruined vegetables, missing groceries. One or two have died from mysterious animal bites. Paw prints have been found in each scene," Yamapi reads from his notebook. "Has anything like this happened to you?"
Sakamoto pauses for a second before shaking his head. He opens his mouth to speak, but a voice cuts in. "Masayuki, have you offered these gentlemen some tea at least?"
An older man stands by the doorway, leaning against a cane. He has silver-white hair and dark brown eyes that seems to hide more than they let on. The line of his lips is firm and set, and Sakamoto shrinks just a little at the sight of it. He shakes his head before turning to the two. "I apologize for my manners. Would you be interested in a cup of tea?" He starts to get up, but Ryo shakes his head, gesturing for him to sit down.
"We're quite fine, Sakamoto-san. But we appreciate the offer."
The older man, presumably Sakamoto's father, nods a tiny bit before he turns to enter the store floor. Yamapi watches as he starts to help the customers, keeping in mind that there had been a definite increase of business since the tragedies had started.
"Do you own any pets, Sakamoto-san?" Ryo asks, calling Yamapi's attention back to their conversation.
"Cats, but I don't understand-"
"No family dog?"
Sakamoto furrows his eyebrows, frowning. "Are you accusing me of something?"
"We've noticed a pattern," Ryo starts. Mentally, Yamapi corrects, "Shige noticed a pattern." "Your grocer has lasted through years with no attacks and your stock intact, even surviving the most recent food shortage."
"There are plenty of other shops that survived here," Sakamoto argues. "Why would you narrow it down to my family shop?"
"Because it is a family shop. There's a lot of history here, isn't there, Sakamoto-san? Was it your great, great grandfather that started it?"
Sakamoto purses his lips. "That wouldn't lead me to murder. We've been doing fine here without worrying about anyone else for years."
"You wouldn't have had to do it," Yamapi clarifies. "You would just have to pray to the right spirit."
"I don't pray," Sakamoto says firmly. "And I don't appreciate being accused of murdering people for gain. You should leave."
As Ryo and Yamapi are led to the doors, Yamapi catches a glimpse of Sakamoto's father at the cashier's till, his hand organizing tiny animal figurines around on the table. He doesn't seem to notice them marching through the store until too late, meeting Yamapi's eyes squarely. The man smiles and bows slightly.
Outside the door, Yamapi sighs as he tucks his notebook away. "Well, you might've pushed too hard."
"Because you were so much help in questioning him."
"I was trying to see what I could tell from the shop itself."
"Right, because the walls were speaking to you. Did they have any answers?"
Despite Ryo's sarcasm, Yamapi grins. "The walls might not have had anything to say, but the table had quite the tale."
I is for Inugami
It's heavy panting that wakes him up. Ryo groans, rolling over in his bed and grabbing one of his pillows to chuck at Yamapi. "Seriously dude, while I'm in the room?"
Yamapi's voice comes back to him shaky-but shaky with what Ryo instantly recognizes as fear. "That's not me, Ryo-chan."
Ryo's whole body goes cold and he reaches under his pillow for the gun he keeps tucked there at all times. He squints in the darkness and spots two yellow glowing eyes by the door. When he really focuses, he realizes that the panting sound is coming from that direction as well. He can just barely make out the form of a large dog, half-hidden in the darkness of the room and its black fur.
"Well," Ryo mutters, sitting up in his bed as slowly as possible to give the least amount of movement to the dog as he can. "I guess we may have scared him a bit too much."
"Maybe a touch," Yamapi says, voice rumbling as he shuffles in the bed next to Ryo's. Their eyes never leave the dog's eyes. Despite their moving around, the dog never moves, just watches them. "So. Think we can outrun a dog?"
"A real dog, maybe. A spirit dog, unlikely," Ryo says, putting on his shoes. "But at least we know how to deal with spirits trying to kill us."
"This happens way more often than I'd like," Yamapi sighs before getting up from the bed. The dog's snarling gets louder and Ryo inhales sharply before he rushes towards the dog, shooting him as he heads for the door. Behind him, he can hear Yamapi's quick footsteps and the shooting from his gun. They manage to keep the dog at bay long enough to head out the door and run in the direction of Sakamoto Grocery. Luckily, their motel room isn't far away, three blocks which would normally feel like nothing, but when being chased at the heels by an angry spirit dog, feels like miles and miles.
Ryo pounds on the front door of the locked grocery shop, trying to remember how many bullets he has left after their escape attempt. The sound of footsteps down the stairs inside the door are too slow for his liking, so he pounds even harder.
"Who is it?" Sakamoto asks, finally at the door.
"The police!"
Sakamoto opens the door and Ryo slips inside without another word. He stands wide-eyed as Ryo and Yamapi run past him and into the nearest room. The dog follows closely behind them, snarling, stopping in front of a table that separates them.
"Wha-" Sakamoto starts, but his words escape him, his mouth wide-open.
"Your handiwork," Ryo says dryly, waving in the direction of the dog. Sakamoto's eyes are wide and full of genuine surprise that it makes Ryo's confidence falter. "Are you telling me you don't know what that is?"
Sakamoto shakes his head. "It's not real, is it?" His eyes seem permanently wide-eyed, his face pale.
Yamapi smiles, although it has an edge to it. "That's not entirely correct. It's as real as anything, after all, you can see it, can't you? It's just an inugami, a-."
"A dog-spirit." Ryo and Yamapi's heads whip around, back to the other side of the living room where Sakamoto's dad walks slowly towards them, coming to a stop behind the dog.
"Dad, you should-" Sakamoto starts, but Sakamoto Isamu shushes him and reaches over the inugami. Ryo and Yamapi watch, slack-jawed, as he starts to pet the dog. It starts to whimper, tilting its head with the strokes.
"Huh," Ryo mutters. "We got the family right, just the wrong master."
Isamu smiles darkly. "Hunters, I should've known."
Yamapi smiles back. "It's always nice not having to explain ourselves."
"You're not the first hunters I've ever met. And had to dispose of."
Sakamoto's eyes go wider, which Ryo didn't think could happen. "Dad, you know about all this?"
"Masayuki, this dog has been a part of our family for centuries." Isamu continues to pet the dog; the inugami whimpers as it presses its head up against his hand. "Your grandfather taught me how to care for him and how he protects the family and our shop."
"You never told me."
"Because you're too soft-hearted!" He scowls. "You only came home after that music group of yours split up, and reluctantly took over the shop. You would've thought it wasn't worth it."
"It's not! I do care about this shop as much as anyone in this family has, but destroying people's livelihoods is immoral. There were deaths! Those people had families and friends that they left behind, it isn't right-"
Isamu scoffs. "Just because your friend died." Sakamoto's face goes red, his eyes full of fury and his hands fisted tightly. He starts to stalk towards his dad, but the dog's growling reminds everyone in the room of his presence. Isamu looks down at the dog with a glare. "Not him. He's a member of the Sakamoto family. You are not allowed to touch him." The dog's eyes glow red, and his growls get louder, although now pointed in the Isamu's direction.
"This is not looking good," Yamapi mutters, eyeing the dog as it stands in front of his master.
"You remember your place!" Sakamoto's dad yells. With those words, and more importantly that tone, the dog lunges for his throat. It's Ryo's gunshot that saves him as the dog hits a wall and Isamu falls back from the sudden attack.
"And this is why people shouldn't mess with spirits they don't understand," Ryo says coldly. Sakamoto pulls his dad back onto his feet. "Now your inugami is never going to listen to you again."
Isamu's face is ashen as he stands, eyes never leaving the dog's figure as it starts to get back on its feet.
"You should probably get out of here," Yamapi says, flipping through pages. "Now that it has you as its target, it won't relent until you're dead."
Sakamoto's voice is shaky as he says "Thank you" to them, leading his father out of the room and out of the house.
The dog rushes at them again, snarling, but Ryo gets another shot in. "Any chance you know how to defeat an inugami?" Ryo asks, tugging Yamapi with him as he moves around the room to avoid the spirit's attacks. One more shot has the dog flying into the other room with a loud yelp.
"You'll need to shoot it with something more powerful than your gun. Where's the shotgun?" Yamapi says.
Ryo rolls his eyes. "In my back pocket, Yamashita. Of course it's in the damn truck." He starts to backstep towards the exit, keeping his eyes open for another attack. It doesn't come from the front like he expects, it comes from the side and both Ryo and Yamapi are thrown to the floor. Ryo loses his grip on his gun and hears it drop and slide away. "Shit," he hisses just as the dog goes for him again.
Its claws sink into thigh, into skin, before Ryo manages to grab whatever is nearest--a coffee table-and bash it against the dog, relishing in its whimper of pain. The table shatters into pieces from impact, but it's the noise of the spirit flying into a wall that Ryo notices more. It growls again, crawling back onto its feet. A part of Ryo can't bear the idea of fighting this thing anymore when he can't even find his gun.
He holds the remainder of the table-a leg-tightly in his hand when the dog leaps towards him. He clenches, about to swing, when Ryo hears a blast from a shotgun. It flies into another wall and Ryo looks over to see Yamapi standing in the entranceway, panting as he cocks the gun. The dog's eyes glow red again as it rushes in Yamapi's direction.
Yamapi shoots again and again, each shot hitting its target. On the fourth shot, Ryo watches as the dog disintegrates and Yamapi falls to the ground, exhausted.
"Took you long enough," Ryo says as he drops his makeshift stake, walking over to Yamapi.
Yamapi glares up at him. "Yeah, Yamapi, thanks for saving my life."
Ryo smirks, patting him on the head. "Well, I do it so much for you, I figured you deserved a chance at being an actual hunter." He holds out his hand, and Yamapi takes it, getting back to his feet.
"Let's be honest. If I hadn't come back, you would've died."
"I had a stake, I would've made do until I got my gun again. Speaking of…" he mutters as he looks around. Ryo takes another step and winces, remembering his wound. He holds a hand to his left thigh and looks at it, blood against his skin. He groans. "I hate getting injured."
"It's part of the job."
"That, I understand. It's when you try to mend me. You do not have a gentle touch."
Yamapi lightly punches him on the shoulder. "Like you need coddling."
Ryo shrugs. "It'd be nice." He spots his gun half-underneath a side table. When he tries to bend over to pick it up, the shooting pain in his leg freezes him up.
"Guess I can help with this too," Yamapi says as he leans down to grab the gun. He hands it to Ryo which he takes with a nod, tucking it away in his pants.
"You'll have to drive, I think."
Yamapi rolls his eyes again. "You do remember that Akkun is my truck, right?"
"Only because I do not drive trucks named stupid things like Akkun." Yamapi laughs as Ryo throws an arm around Yamapi's shoulders, leaning into him, and the two make their way out the door.
I is for Ikiryo
"She appeared out of thin air," Sawayama Ichiya explains. Yamapi nods as he writes this down in his notebook. A large piece of gauze is taped to Ichiya's forehead where a gash is hidden. His glasses cover part of the bandage. Under his shirt are more scratches, long and deep. "She clawed at me only once, yelling something before she disappeared."
"It," Chiba Ayame corrects. "We don't know what it is." Her left arm is wrapped up, covering three long thick scratches.
Ryo frowns. "Why did you keep saying she?"
Ichiya looks down guiltily before Ayame take his hand. He glances at her, smiling. "We just thought it looked a lot like someone we knew," Ichiya finally says.
"She's a girl that Hiro-kun used to... live with."
"Why the hesitation?" Ryo asks.
Ichiya and Ayame look at each other before Ichiya sighs. "We had a relationship back then, and she... didn't take it well when I left."
"But she couldn't have done it," Ayame says, frowning.
"Why not?" Yamapi asks.
"It disappeared. That is not a normal thing! And she's not exactly able to do something like that."
"Nobody can," Ichiya adds.
Yamapi hides his smile as he looks down at his notebook, scribbling the added information."Before we forget, what's her name?"
"Sawayama Yuna."
The girl turns around, tilting her head at them. "Yes? May I help you with something?" she asks.
Without saying anything, Yamapi flicks water at her, which she takes, blinking.
"Sorry," Ryo says as he looks at her, perplexed. "He needs to learn to wipe his hands after he comes from the bathroom. At least it's just water."
Her face twists in disgust before she shakes her head. "That's quite all right. Did you need me for something?"
"Sawayama Ichiya and Chiba Ayame, they're friends of yours?" Yamapi asks, flipping his notebook to a page of scribbled notes and photos.
Her expression darkens, Ryo notes, but just like before, it disappears quickly. "Hiro-kun," she pauses before amending, "Ichiya-kun lived in our house for years under my parents' care. Chiba-san was a classmate. I believe I've only spoken to her twice?"
"Did you know about their relationship?" Ryo asks. She flinches.
"I might've heard they dated," she says primly. "But I take no pleasure in gossip. If you don't mind, I have some place I need to be." Without waiting for Yamapi or Ryo to speak, she turns on her heel and walks speedily away from them.
"So, not a demon, huh?" Yamapi says, shutting his notebook and tucking it away. "Holy water had no effect on her."
Ryo purses his lips, crossing his arms. "That's true, but that doesn't mean she's innocent. She definitely had something to do with their injuries."
They observe her from a distance afterwards, watching as she walks around school grounds without company or heads home without looking where she's going. Her head droops now and then, and Yamapi wonders how exactly she's living in this state, vacant and empty.
"She's definitely not a demon," Ryo says after she enters her home, a large estate that had taken Yamapi aback the first time he saw it.
"But she's definitely causing their injuries, so how is it being done?"
"An ikiryo," Shige clarifies over the phone. "It's not her directly, but a piece of her soul that has detached itself from her body to go after these people. Typically ikiryo are formed because of extreme anger. Now if the attacks have been increasing, I'd say to be careful because these kinds of spirits kill."
"Do you think she'll attack them again?" Ryo asks, frowning.
"It's likely. They're the ones she's most angry at after all."
"Hm," Ryo says lightly before hanging up the phone. Yamapi chuckles thinking of Shige cursing on the other end, yelling to Koyama that this was the last time he'd help them.
"You know, I think he might appreciate a 'thank you' now and then."
"And give him the satisfaction? Never."
"You hung up before we could find out how to defeat it, though." Ryo pauses then looks at Yamapi hopefully. Yamapi holds up his hands, shaking his head. "Why do you think we had to ask Shige for help to begin with?"
"Because you couldn't be bothered to flip through your own notebook?"
"Says one who won't even bother to keep a notebook," Yamapi retorts with a pout.
"Someone has to be the muscle around here." He smirks as Yamapi rolls his eyes. Before Yamapi can say anything, a scream comes from inside the house. They rush in, ignoring the house maids running towards the same room.
Inside the room-a room filled with books and posters that appear to have been untouched for a long time-Yuna stands over a body, one hand raised, her nails sharpened to a point with blood smeared all over them and her clothes.
Ryo pulls out his gun and shoots her without hesitation; the body flings to the other side of the room.
Yamapi rushes to the body on top of the bed only to find Yuna, staring back at him, wide-eyed, and bloody from gashes across her stomach. He nearly balks at the amount of blood collecting on the bed and dripping onto the floor, but he forces it down. He leans over, and realizes that the Yuna on the bed is still alive, breathing, but faintly. Yamapi curses, pressing his hand against her wounds, wondering how this girl could have survived a violent attack like that. And why her own spirit would attack her.
"Weak," the spirit hisses over his shoulder, and Yamapi looks just in time to see it fly away again, Ryo's gun pointed directly at him.
"Exorcise it!" Ryo yells, focusing on keeping the spirit at bay. "It should work with the same concept."
"It or the girl?" Yamapi asks, over the noise of the ikiryo's yelling.
"Figure it out!"
Yamapi scowls, pressing a hand against Yuna's forehead, hoping as he starts reciting familiar phrases. They're Latin, but familiar nonetheless.
He knows it's worked when the wind picks up in the room and the spirit's screams. Yamapi watches as the ikiryo flies right back into Yuna's body and the girl's wounds start to mend.
Ryo walks over to him and pats him on the shoulder. "Good guess." Yamapi sighs, pressing fingers against Yuna's pulse point. He's relieved that the beat is steady and strong. When they turn around, there are people standing, wide-eyed, just watching them. "You might want to take your Lady here to the doctor. She seems to be healed, but you never know."
The staff starts moving, rushing around them to heft Yuna up and out the door, but one hangs back, eyes narrowed.
"You don't need to mention this to your masters. I'm sure they won't be interested in your impossible stories."
"You're very right," the man says primly. "But I am going to need assurance that something like this won't happen again."
Yamapi and Ryo look at each other and shrug. "That's not something we can control," Yamapi says. "Her anger got to be so much that it separated from her body."
"Maybe someone should keep that in check," Ryo suggests, unkindly.
The man bristles, but he bows stiffly at the waist. "I will be sure to take your advice. Thank you very much, sirs."
Ryo and Yamapi blink before returning his bow. They follow the gestures of the staff towards the door, staring blankly at the street once they step outside. The door slides shut, locking loudly behind them. They turn to each other. "So that was strange."
"Since when do people not question the actual supernatural aspect?" Ryo asks, scratching his head.
Yamapi shrugs. "Kabuki houses," he says simply.
S is for Siblings
"Don't you think we deserve an apology at least?" Ryo asks, perched on top of a bar stool. He looks over at the familiar sight of Shige at a table, books strewn around him. No mug or bottle of beer anywhere near which seems a shame in a bar.
Shige barely glances up from his books, eyes hidden behind rimmed glasses. "Why? It's not like the trip was useless."
Ryo glares over his mug of beer. "You had us hike up a mountain to a shrine that hasn't had a single living creature in it for centuries. You should totally be sorry! Regardless of what information we found out."
"We didn't even find out that much," Yamapi points out, before thanking Koyama for the newly opened bottle of beer.
Koyama moves around the bar and settles into a stool next to Yamapi's. "Don't I know it. Shige's been researching Susanoo, Izanagi-no-Mikoto and whatnot for weeks."
"Only when I'm not solving your cases," Shige adds.
"You wouldn't last a day out of this bar," Ryo snaps at the same time Yamapi asks, "Who's Izagi-whatever."
"Take turns," Koyama says before taking a sip of his beer.
Ryo rolls his eyes. "My sarcasm loses its effect if I have to repeat myself."
"More importantly, who's Iza-what's that name?"
"Izanagi-no-Mikoto," Koyama repeats, slower this time. "I only know it because Shige mutters things out loud a lot."
Shige's face goes red as he bristles. "It's the best way I work," he snaps, shutting the book in front of him and grabbing another one across the table.
Koyama shrugs as he drinks his beer. "I'm not knocking it. Just pointing out facts."
"So what'd you find out?" Ryo asks, leaning over the counter himself to top off his now empty mug.
Shige scoffs. "No, thanks Shige, we couldn't have done this without you? No, thanks Shige, you gave up so many hours of sleep so we could find answers?" Ryo rolls his eyes, walking over and setting the new mug of beer in between Shige's books, in the only spot of table that isn't covered in papers.
"You need this, relax for once," Ryo says, sitting in a chair next to Shige.
Although reluctant at first, Shige takes the mug with a soft "Thanks" and immediately gulps it down. After polishing more than half the mug, Shige puts it on the table, sighing. They sit in silence for a moment before Yamapi asks, "So, you were saying?"
"Izanagi-no-Mikoto," Shige starts, flipping through his papers. Ryo reaches over and takes some of the books off his table, placing them on another one. Shige smiles at him before he finds the sheet he's looking for. "He's one of the main Gods of Shinto mythology, married to Izanami, known as the Goddess of creation and death. Because of Izanami's death, Izanagi goes to Yomi-no-Kuni to take her back. Except she's already eaten the food there-"
"So she's not allowed to return to her heaven, right?" Ryo asks, bored. "This is sounding awfully familiar."
Shige shushes him before continuing. "Anyway, after Izanagi has to escape the underworld, he has to cleanse himself. Through that cleansing, he creates the three siblings, Susanoo, Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto, and Amaterasu." He looks up from his sheet only to receive blank stares.
After a pause, Ryo asks, "And?"
"What do you mean and?" Shige huffs, putting his paper down. "This is important information!"
"What does this have to do with finding out what's going on with the underworld?" Yamapi asks, putting down his now empty bottle on the counter. Koyama, without speaking, moves back behind the counter to open up a new one.
"Well, we need to find which God can help us find out more information. What better way than through their siblings? I can't find Susanoo's shrine." He angles a look at Ryo as he emphasizes, "Yet. But I did find Amaterasu's and maybe she'll be able to help you more than Tsukuyomi was able to."
"He prefers to be called Massu," Yamapi says, taking his bottle of beer from Koyama. "Don't ask me why."
"He did imply though that the relationship between them isn't that great, and she probably won't have any more answers than Massu did," Ryo adds.
"No harm in trying," Shige says as he sits back in his chair, picking up his mug of beer and polishing off the rest.
"Only if it doesn't involve climbing another mountain," Yamapi says, half-laughing.
Shige rolls his eyes before holding up his mug towards Koyama. "Another beer, please."
Ryo grins. "Now that's what I like to hear." He asks for a beer of his own.
Part 2