2.08: Bull-HeadedNatalia-sama’s fox ears abruptly slipped into existence.

  One moment, she looked like an elegant foreign human woman in a flowing dress. The next, two soft, furred triangles sprang through her bright-blonde hair, swiveling toward distant sounds.

  Behind her, I saw the shadows of eight more fluffy tails thrashing around the one tail she showed. Together they formed a zy fan, eight plumes plus the one, all drifting through the air like they were underwater.

  “We should avoid looking too human during our stay here,” Natalia-sama said lightly. “No need to invite unnecessary encounters.”

  Akuchi nodded, following suit, her own round tanuki ears popping into pce atop her bck tresses, her long African civet’s tail puffing out behind her.

  “Easy for you to say, Natalia. At least one of us hasn’t even been a yōkai.” Rui muttered. Despite the fact that she was one hundred percent human, the set of her shoulders still screamed loli ‘oni.’

  “Don’t worry. You’re plenty scary.~” Ume giggled, echoing my thoughts.

  “Thanks.” Rui grinned.

  “Let’s move. Follow me closely.” Natalia graced us with a reassuring smile.

  With some nervous gulps, mostly mine, we started marching.

  The street under our feet looked like someone had taken Tokyo, thrown it into a snow glob and shaken it, totally destroying it in the process, keeping the original shape in mind when hastily spping it back together.

  And at a closer look, there were yōkai lurking everywhere.

  A cluster of faintly glowing hitodama drifted zily near a power line that wasn’t connected to anything, the line flickering like bored fireflies. A bakeneko the size of a middle schooler lounged on a low roof, its twin tails swishing, its golden eyes tracking us with open curiosity. An umbrel tsukumogami hopped past on one wooden foot, its big single eye blinking sleepily while its tongue lolled out the side.

  On the corner, a kappa in an oversized hoodie sat on the edge of a floating drainage channel, listlessly poking at the water with a fishing pole made of bones. An old tengu perched on a sagging balcony rail nearby, a tobacco pipe clenched between his teeth, the smoke wafting out and congealing into the shape of an old man who grumbled to himself as he drifted over towards an alley. A ntern spirit bobbed overhead, its painted face shifting expressions each time I blinked.

  Every yōkai we passed noticed us.

  Whispers tickled the air as we passed.

  “Humans?”

  “No, feel that pressure…”

  “Is it a half-breed? Possessed?”

  “The pretty one with green eyes has the scent of deep-dark insanity about her…”

  I shivered when I heard that one.

  I swallowed hard, pressing closer to Rui without meaning to. She smiled slightly at the corner of her lips. Our hands brushed for a moment, but she folded her arms over her chest as she walked.

  One small yōkai, barely up to my hip and vaguely child-shaped with glowing green eyes and a body like drifting mist hovered near a doorway, watching us wistfully.

  “I wish I could just hurry up and get a human form like that one,” it mumbled, mostly to itself, its voice like wind whispering under a door. “Then I could get an ID and cross over. Humans get all the best in life… hah… To see the sun…”

  The loneliness in its voice panged in my chest.

  Because I had been very close to losing my humanity recently, I understood how it felt.

  “Careful, Susu…” Rui muttered under her breath. “If you make eye contact with it, it might follow us home.”

  “R-right…” I said faintly, tearing my gaze away from its forlorn form.

  We walked for what felt like ten minutes, seeing dozens of different little yōkai along the way—floating ones, hopping ones, creeping ones, some shaped like animals, some like animated objects, some like children that had been made of various substances.

  Time was already starting to feel fuzzy around the edges.

  Was time just… a suggestion here…?

  As if reading my thoughts straight off my face, Natalia-sama gnced back at me, her blue eyes warm as ever.

  “Are you alright, Sumire-chan?”

  Sumire… chan? Me…? Cute? Do you really mean that?

  DOKI-DOKI

  My heart hiccupped. I clutched at my chest before I could stop myself, heat blooming in my cheeks. Not even Reiko had ever called me that.

  Before I could even process how I felt, something slipped up behind me and casually glomped onto me from behind.

  “Hyaaaaaaaa!” I screamed loudly.

  Everyone and every yōkai around stopped moving and stared at us.

  SQUISH

  I blushed, immediately recognizing the squishing of Ume’s breasts against my back. She rode my back, nuzzling into my neck like I was her personal cuddle pillow and porter.

  I went red clear up to my ears.

  “Oh, kami… you shocked me!” I yelped.

  “Sorry!~ It’s more fun and comfy this way, Sumire-chan~ I hope you don’t mind…~” Ume giggled.

  SQUISH SQUISH

  My knees went weak. Even she was calling me that now.

  “Don’t get too comfortable up there.” Rui pouted.

  “I noticed that you were feeling a little nervous~.” Ume mumbled into my neck. I hoped today wasn’t the day she decided to bite.

  I’m not ready, Ume-chan!

  “I-I’m okay,” I mumbled, instead of saying that, trying not to squeak. “I was just thinking to myself… Um… it doesn’t feel like time moves normally here.”

  Natalia-sama nodded, her tail swaying. “Good instincts! Time does not flow the same way in the yōkai world. It does move… but according to very different rules. Sometimes it’s according to the mood of the nd itself.”

  Akuchi blinked at that, genuinely surprised. “Is that how it is? I started as a humble tanuki in Africa, so I’d never set foot in the yōkai world before, you know?”

  “It is surprising that yōkai take form elsewhere in the world,” Natalia said. “But there have always been parallel manifestations of consciousness.” She smiled at Akuchi.

  “Same here,” Ume chimed in, giving her a fangy grin and mumbling against my neck. “Vampires were born in Europe, shaped by the fears and superstitions of peasants. Vd Tepes was admittedly a brute, but it was human consciousness and belief that turned him into the first western vampire. From there, it spread. Even though we had a dark beginning, those of us who came to Japan are treated well by the yōkai community, because like the yōkai, we started as humans and were shaped by their imagination.”

  “Oh…” I murmured. That made sense, I guess… That accounted for Ume’s warmth, her strange mix of monstrous and mostly human traits, her emotional instincts, not to mention why she’d gone and attached herself to my back.

  I was still struggling with the feel of her against me, her legs wrapped around my torso, when she spoke again.

  “I’m slipping, Sumire-chan~.” Ume mumbled. “Would you give me some support?” She wiggled.

  “How?” I asked, knowing exactly what she meant. I blushed furiously.

  “Just reach back and keep me from falling.~” Ume giggled.

  DOKI-DOKI

  I took a deep breath and reached back with both hands to support her and felt her backside rest on my arms, soft and firm at the same time. I nearly colpsed at the touch.

  “Good!~” Ume hummed and nodded with satisfaction.

  Natalia-sama smiled affectionately. “Well then, it seems that only RuiRui and I have been here then.”

  I blinked. “Is that true? But… Rui doesn’t have any spiritual power… Isn’t it really risky to come here?”

  Rui stepped behind us and I heard a loud spping noise.

  SMACK

  “Kyaaaaa!” Ume giggled.

  The noises coming from behind me made my ears twitch, but I didn’t ask. I just kept blushing.

  “Good point, Sumire-sama.” Akuchi eyed Rui suspiciously. “How did you get here without any spiritual power? More importantly, how did you survive it?”

  Rui shrugged. “Dad brought me here once. It was a longer walk to the Yōkai Council the way he went. I don’t remember exactly where it was… but he had his own method. Some kind of Council-sanctioned route. When we went, it was supposed to be a family trip, but Mom chickened out and stayed home, not that it really matters much now though.” She looked ahead, her eyes softening with a flickering of troubling memories.

  “After… After my parents died on that flight to America, Dad left me a talisman so I could contact the Council if anything ever went wrong. He’s made some enemies in his line of work and he hoped that none of it would wash over onto me. He also knew that I’d struggle trying to be his successor.” She scowled and added quickly, “It’s not something I can use casually either.”

  My chest tightened as I studied her. The look in her eyes made me want to hold one of her hands, but my arms were already occupied.

  She looked smaller than usual for a moment, but then she shook it off, her chin lifting in its usual stubborn defiance.

  “Well, everyone just stay together. Don’t worry about anything.” Natalia-sama smiled and gestured as she got us moving again.

  Some streets we passed seemed to curve back on themselves. Others seemed longer when we looked ahead than when we looked behind. But Natalia-sama moved with absolute confidence, her tail with its eight shadows swaying in an easy rhythm, so we followed.

  We approached a massive gate that reared up ahead of us like a torii carved by a god in the throes of a nightmare, its pilrs dwarfing us. They were made of some kind of bck stone with faint carved in relief scenes that I only half recognized.

  Depictions of Chinese dragons coiling around misty mountains, foxes prancing under the moon, long-necked women bowing beside rivers of skulls that somehow managed to look serene.

  Above us, the crossbeam split into three yers, each one etched with shifting kanji. A circur emblem was burned in the center, nine overpping circles radiating from a single point.

  Beyond the gate, through the open throat of its massive wooden frame, a wide courtyard waited lined with nterns and banners. And standing directly in front of all of it…

  …was a wall of muscle and horns.

  “Damnnnn,” Akuchi whispered, her ears fttening tight against her head. “Guy’s freaking stacked!”

  He was almost a mountain of a figure.

  A hulking bull’s head sat atop a thick, ropey neck, with dark shaggy fur matted in every possible direction… as if he had never heard of the existence of combs or brushes. Twin curved horns gouged the air above him. His mouth bristled with too many fangs, and a long prehensile tongue flicked zily out between them as he stared at us.

  Below the neck, he had a humanoid torso. It was broad, scarred and stacked with so much muscle I wasn’t sure whether he bench-pressed boulders or just threw them at weak yōkai all day long for sport. Six arms hung at his sides, each thick as a tree trunk, each set ending in massive hands with blunt, cracked nails. His two heavy legs were braced apart, his hooves sinking slightly into the stone path in front of a rge wooden door.

  He wore something that might have been a formal hakama with a vest, but the seams had long given up on him. Thick, clumsy stitches crisscrossed the fabric in a losing battle against his bulk as though he’d somehow torn it more than once.

  “Is that a gatekeeper?” I whispered.

  “Who knows…” Akuchi murmured. “I hope it doesn’t attack us.”

  “Is there supposed to be a gatekeeper here, Natalia?” I asked.

  She shook her head gently. “There shouldn’t be anyone stationed here. The Yōkai Council aren’t the types that most want to challenge.”

  “It’s way stronger than the little guys we passed, that’s for sure,” Rui muttered. “When Dad brought me here st time, I definitely don’t remember anything like this one hanging around.”

  The yōkai’s nostrils fred, his six arms tensing in one big rippling motion as he looked at us and sized us up. He swayed there like he was deciding whether we were worth the trouble.

  His gaze slid across our group.

  It lingered on Rui for a heartbeat.

  Then it locked onto me.

  His stare hardened.

  “Oi.” His voice rumbled like grinding boulders. “You.”

  He jabbed one thick finger toward me.

  Ume wiggled against my back for a moment and hopped down to stand beside us.

  “Just mastered changing into a human form?”

  I froze.

  Technically… I was a yōkai just the other day. A couple of them, actually.

  I counted them on my fingers. Prime noh face. Reiko-chan as a noh face… and then me as one.

  But this… this wasn’t the same. I hadn’t spent that much time as a yōkai.

  “N-no…” I managed.

  His lip curled up.

  “Must be nice.” Resentment filled every sylble. “A yōkai that pulls off a perfect human body like that… that’s rare.” His long prehensile tongue flicked. “How was it? Just like that? Did you trip and fall into it? Or did you train your ass off for centuries?”

  My brain short-circuited. “I— I’m not—”

  He gritted his teeth, all six fists clenching. “Mind sharing some pointers?”

  I waved my hands frantically, crossing them in an X. I don’t know anything! Please don’t ask me!

  “She isn’t a yōkai ,” Natalia-sama interjected smoothly, stepping forward. “Her case is… unusual.”

  Ume immediately slid halfway in front of me, her expression tightening, her fangs peeking.“Sumire’s nothing like you,” she growled. “If you know what’s best for you, you’ll back off right now, cow.”

  I opened my mouth to answer—

  Right as Ushi’s spiritual pressure rolled over us like a furnace bst.

  “Don’t lie for her.” His eyes narrowed dangerously. “She smells like a yōkai. She feels like a yōkai . And what about that spiritual pressure she has? It’s obvious what she is.” His fangs clicked together. “You think I can’t tell when I’m being pyed for a fool?”

  “I’m not a yōkai anymore!” I blurted.

  “What?!” Ushi’s teeth gnashed. “That’s some real bulls—”

  “Pfft…” Rui snorted. “Good pun.”

  Ushi’s head snapped toward her, murder glowing in his eyes.

  Natalia-sama didn’t flinch.

  “Listen carefully, Ushi-Oni,” Natalia said, her voice serene but firm. “We are here to report a serious incident to the Council. Let us pass.”

  Ushi-Oni?

  My eyes darted to Rui. That’s what an oni is really supposed to look like…?

  “No one goes in,” Ushi snarled, two of arms crossing while the other four pnted on his hips. “Not without clearance from inside. That includes you, kitsune.”

  Akuchi made a strangled gasp. Ume’s fingers brushed my arm, ready to yank me backward if he moved.

  Natalia-sama’s smile remained gentle.

  But her tails changed.

  All nine truly fanned out behind her in a slow fre, each one shimmering with a razor-bright, almost blinding white edge. The temperature in the court rose sharply. Thin tongues of pale gold foxfire rippled through her fur, lighting the air from within.

  Her aura hit Ushi like a hammer of pressure and sunlight.

  The bull’s eyes bulged. All six of his arms froze, his hooves sliding half an inch before digging in again.

  “N-Natalia-sama…” I whispered, my breath catching.

  She stepped closer with a warm but dangerous smile.“Ushi,” she said pleasantly, as if greeting an old friend at tea. “We’ve known each other a very long time. I’m surprised you didn’t recognize me. You weren’t even half this size… just a calf spiderling. You remember what happened the st time you tried to block my way, don’t you?”

  His throat worked in an audible gulp.

  “I— that— um—”He looked suddenly, profoundly stupid.

  “If you do not wish for a repeat demonstration,” Natalia continued sweetly, “you will step aside and allow me to announce our arrival to the Council.”

  Her aura pulsed once.

  Her tone was sharp, cold and brook no argument.

  And then it abruptly faded as her tails lowered back to their usual gentle swaying.

  Ushi stepped aside so fast his hooves scarred courtyard stones.“G-go ahead, Natalia-sama,” he stammered. “Of course I recognized you. Obviously. I was just messing around. They’re in session.”

  “Good boy,” Natalia said with infuriating fondness and then turned to me.

  “Sumire. Wait here with the others. I’ll go ahead and smooth things over in advance.”

  “W-wait, alone?” I squeaked. "Couldn't you just tell him to let us pass—?”

  “You’ll be fine.” She held my gaze knowingly. “Think of this as another lesson in accepting yourself, Sumire-chan. It’s not only your female body that you must get comfortable with.”

  Her smile softened, almost motherly.

  “Be careful, and trust in your spirit.”

  My heart did flip-flops. “Y-yes, Natalia-sama…”

  She stepped through the gate with an unhurried stride. Her footsteps faded instantly as the door closed behind her, smothered by the strange, echo-less acoustics of this world.

  The courtyard felt much emptier the moment she was gone and somewhat cooler.

  As soon as Natalia-sama vanished, Ushi’s attention snapped right back to me.His shadow draped over the ground, blotting out half the courtyard.

  “So,” he rumbled, leaning down again, “you. Miss perfect-face. We have unfinished business.”

  Rui bristled. “Don’t call her that… even if her face is totally gorgeous! Her name’s Sumire… and f.y.i.… She's really strong. I wouldn’t mess with her if I were you.”

  “Like I care.” Ushi snorted. “Centuries of grinding patrols, breaking my horns in fights, eating scraps, getting passed over again and again… all because I can’t ‘refine my form further’—”He raised all six arms, each one of them making air quotes,“—and now I’m stuck in a slump!”

  He spat to the side, his hooves digging in.

  “Then some new yōkai pops into existence looking like a human idol and waltzes across my turf like she owns the spot.” His voice rose, dripping with accusation. “That what you’re pnning once you cross over? Gonna sing your heart out for the masses? Break every human heart in sight?”

  His nostrils fred, hot enough that I felt the heat from here.

  “Hmph. Dreaming real big, aren’t you? You think all that wouldn’t piss me off?”

  “I already said she’s not a yōkai,” Ume snapped, stepping in closer to me.

  Ushi ignored her completely. One huge hand, just one of many, swung toward Rui like an accusing club.

  “And I don’t like you either, FLAT-chan.”

  The temperature around us dropped five degrees.

  Rui’s eye twitched so hard I thought it might detach.

  “Oh no…” I whispered.

  “Excuse me?” Rui said, smiling in that way that meant she was absolutely not okay. “What did you just say?”

  “Ft,” Ushi repeated helpfully. “One hundred percent FLAT farmnd. Not even any mole hills. Artists could use your chest as a straightedge. If you’re going to take a human form, it needs a little more sex appeal, don’t you agree?”

  Lightning fshed behind Rui’s pupils.

  Ume very quietly stepped behind her and threw her arms around her.

  Rui’s fists clenched tightly under Ume’s arms.“Okay, that’s it. Politeness just died.” She snarled, stabbing a finger toward Ushi like she meant to pin him to the gate.

  “GET HIM, SUMIRE!” she said, like she was loosing her dogs on a trespasser. “Wipe the floor with Mr. Rocky Oysters here. Cut off his balls! We’re not losing to a cow-dung garden decoration like him. You’re ten times stronger than this lump of bull shit.”

  “W-wait!” I choked. “But I’m not a Noh-face anymore, if you hadn’t noticed. What am I even supposed to do?!”

  “Use your brain,” Rui snapped. “And use that jade bracelet I gave you too. Dad used it on all his cases, and he was really strong with it. Don’t you remember anything I told you?”

  “I do! BUT!!! It was WAY easier when I was a Noh-Face!” I protested, panic rising. “I could put on a mask and believe I had sentai powers, and then I DID have them. Now I don’t even… I don’t know what this bracelet actually does!”

  “Didn’t you manage to fight Mitsuhiko before he tore your face off?” Rui demanded.

  “I was just desperate!” I shouted back. “You threw me at him and prayed something would work out! He dodged almost everything I threw at him!”

  “How did you get into his tower at all if you were powerless, then?”

  “…Because I was powerless,” I said miserably. “I got captured just like everyone else.”

  Rui stared at me, appalled. “Isn’t there anything you did before you became the universe’s most pathetic pinup model for victimization and finally decided to grow a spine?”

  That stung. Rui never pulled her punches. She’d at least been pulling the physical ones tely, but her verbal attacks hit just as hard.

  I frowned, looking away.

  “Anyway, that’s then, this is now,” she said, waving a hand like she could rewrite my whole life with a gesture. “Just fight him now, Sumire. You’ll be fine.”

  “I will assist you, Sumire-sama,” Akuchi said, stepping to my side. “I’m sure this guy isn’t half as tough as he looks.”

  “If he’s half as tough as he looks, I’m probably screwed,” I muttered.

  “You’re tougher than that, Sumire-sama!” Akuchi said, seizing my hand in both of hers, her tail puffing up.

  “That’s right,” Rui announced. She looked over her shoulder at Ume and smirked. “Let’s pull back and see what she does. Natalia-sama’s no idiot. Sumire’s got way more in her than she realizes.”

  Ume blinked, then smiled, her fangs peeking out. “If you think that’s the best thing to do, RuiRui. But I’ll step in if things get too dangerous.”

  Ushi snorted. “You hiding behind your tanuki pet, pretty face? Pathetic.”

  Akuchi puffed up. “You’re going to regret saying that, A5 beef-brains. Don’t underestimate me! I’m way more than the eye meets.”

  She strutted obnoxiously, drawing his attention extremely effectively.

  He rolled his massive shoulders. “Try me, fuzzbutt.”

  For a moment, we just stared at each other.

  Then Akuchi charged, her fur bristling, her outline blurring…

  …

  POOF

  She became a huge, striped boar, her tusks gleaming.