Inari had slept for the entirety of the bullet train ride to Tokyo, Paul couldn’t help reflecting that perhaps a dawn start for her was a bit much for Inari since she really wasn’t a morning person. She’d curled up against him in her seat, using his arm as a pillow, causing Paul to be grateful he could type one handed. He made good use of the time, and the free wifi, to do some research on the problem facing them.
They were travelling incognito, mostly to avoid undue attention from the press. With Inari’s modern clothing, a simply tailored pant suit, a pair of non-optical ‘fake’ glasses and a little magic to change her hair colour and hide her ears and tail, she did not look like an ancient Kitsune Goddess, but like a rather young business woman.
Paul smiled to himself, The entirety of his disguise was a pair of dark glasses and a rather decent suit he’d ordered a month ago from London. Aside from being rather better tailored than a standard off-the-rack suit, although not entirely bespoke since that would’ve required a fitting actually in London, it had some rather non-standard features. It had been pricey, but the anti-ballistic Kevlar and ceramic plate lining alone was probably worth it. Although he wasn’t so sure about the integrated shoulder holster for a hand gun.
Paul had wrestled with his conscience at the time. He was firmly of the belief that carrying a gun, ‘just in case’ was often a self fulfilling prophecy, causing the very reaction that lead to conflict. On the other hand, he was also acutely conscious of the fact that as a mortal he was hopelessly out classed physically by many yokai, not to mention magically. When push came to shove, he’d be unable to defend Inari, indeed, it would be more likely the other way around.
He had some ability with ‘magitech’ as it was becoming to be called popularly, and granted as a new way of doing magic many yokai no understanding of it, leaving them open to unconventional spells, but he was still only a newbie. He lacked the intuitive understanding and reflexive use of the ‘weapon’ that made a difference in combat.
So… although it was wildly illegal, some weeks ago he’d used the machine shop to make himself a gun. Specifically a copy of a Colt Python with which he was reluctantly familiar.. The stubby .357 caliber revolver easily fitted in the pocket-like shoulder holster without a visible bulge, and he hoped the silk lining would disguise it’s presence to magical senses as well.
The gun itself was somewhat unusual, he’d machined the barrel out of the unique steel produced in the mine, incorporating crystals in the hammer mechanism and firing chamber, in effect turning the gun into a version of the earlier ‘bomb’ mana generator. He’d etched circuit-like runes into the exterior of the barrel, enhancing it’s accuracy, range and durability as well as wrapping it in protection so it couldn’t be interfered with magically. All of which was powered by the kinetic energy created by the explosion of the gun powder, converted to mana and stored in the steel of the gun itself.
He even had the option of loading it with blanks, just to act as an energy source. Turning chemical energy, into kinetic, which the crystals built into the firing chamber turned into piezoelectric and finally mana. Mana which, when he moved a sliding bit of the guns embellishments completing a ‘circuit’ would be ‘fired’ from the guns barrel as a highly dense packet of pure magical energy. A literal magic bullet, able to smash it’s way though any spell he and Inari both could imagine, and as disruptive to purely spiritual or magic non-corporal beings as a physical bullet would be to anything else.
However, it wasn’t the gun that eventually decided him on carrying a weapon, even like now when it was almost certainly necessary. It was the bullets currently residing in a hidden pocket in the suitcase, that swayed him.
Part way through January the Mineral Sciences department of Kyoto University had managed to analyse the sample of mana crystals he’d sent them. They had, as he’d expected, turned out to be common quartz, but only mostly. Critically, they had trace amounts of certain rare earth metals doping the crystal, as well as an odd twist to the lattice that apparently suggested they’d grown in a strong electrical current.
It wasn’t long after he received the report, that the company Paul had contracted started growing synthetic crystals. But as well as copying the recipe of the naturally occurring crystals, Paul had asked them to make a number of batches of small crystals, varying the make-up of the rare earth minerals that doped the quartz. He’d hoped to find a version that made crystals that converted electricity into mana more effectively.
The majority of the small crystals either did nothing, inert as plain quartz, or only worked weakly. However one had done the unexpected. Instead of converting electricity into mana, it did the exact opposite.
Paul had studied the black quartz crystal, already knowing exactly how to use it. He’d ordered another batch of two dozen of that exact formulation, and when they’d arrived soon afterwards, had machined them down into bullets.
Silver plated by plasma ion deposition to increase conductivity and with a copper ‘receiver’ ring to allow them to fit snugly into the barrel of the revolver he’d made, when fired they would work as a frangible round, shattering into dust upon impact. Used on a human, they’d pack much less punch than a conventional round, being significantly lighter and combined with far less powder in the cartridge to create a ‘less lethal’ round that would leave a heck of a bruise but not kill.
However to a yokai they’d be devastating.
The crystal dust would start voraciously absorbing the yokai’s innate mana field, turning it into electricity. The unfortunate target would be simultaneously tasered and have their mana, essential to life and health for many, sucked out of them. He hoped a single bullet or round would be enough to take down even a powerful yokai, without killing them. But if one ever needed to be stopped permanently, then a second or third round would probably do that. The only problem was, there had been no reasonable way of testing the modified rounds. It was all just theory.
Paul just hoped it never would be needed, and only reluctantly carried the gun in order to protect Inari. He sighed, as much as he hated compromising his ideals, he would do that and more in order to protect his found family.
He also hoped he wouldn’t get caught carrying the gun. Although he’d taken some precautions with that possibility in mind. Such as adding decorative embellishments to make it seem to be a replica of a gun from a particular vampire anime and painting the tip red to make it resemble an airsoft gun, which were legal. He’d also built a fake valve into the butt of the grip, of the type for an airsoft CO2 canister, to further that deception. On top of that he’d incorporated a hidden pin that disabled the firing mechanism, so even with the safety off, all that would happen should a stranger try to fire it, would be a click and nothing.
He didn’t want to think about the number of laws he was violating… not that it usually bothered him to do that in pursuit of a higher goal. But Japan was a long, long way from being the sort of places he’d had to do that before and despite the necessity, he felt somewhat guilty about it.
Paul was distracted from his twinging conscience as the train approached Tokyo station and Inari stirred awake.
“Hmm… are we there yet Paul-san?”
Paul shook his head.
“Sorry, no. Just arriving at Tokyo, from here we’ll catch the train to Shin-Shirakawa, and change there to get a local train to Kurodahara. It’ll be another couple of hours at least. We’ll arrive at lunch time or there about,”
Inari sighed deeply, more frustrated and annoyed than anything Paul thought.
“I hope Tamamo-no-Mae is there. After all this, I’ll want to take my temper out on something!”
Paul chuckled slightly.
“I almost feel sorry for her… but only almost. If it’s any consolation, I’m told the food is quite good at the at a top notch hotel we’ll be staying at overnight, with all expenses paid by the government.”
“Ohhh… you didn’t mention that part. I might want to do some shopping while we’re there.”
Paul shook his head laughing slightly.
“His Imperial Highness anticipated that. He told me in his email, to tell you to try not to break the national budget please. Since all reasonable expenses not directly related to the task in hand, will be coming out of his pocket. Albeit indirectly.”
Inari pouted slightly.
“He’s doing that so I’ll owe him, and won’t spend as much as I’d like to.”
“Well, you could look at it like that… or you could consider it as pre-payment for taking care of something that threatens the stable working of government. I’m sure he’s aware of Tamamo-no-Mae’s reputation as well…. As is probably his wife too come to think of it.”
“Ha! Yes.. she would pose a threat to his marital peace perhaps. So we’re doing him a personal favour as well!”
Paul looked at the gleefully mischievous look on Inari’s face, and suddenly felt a bit worried on the Emperors behalf. At the very least, Inari was contemplating double billing him. As a Goddess of prosperity, wealth and businesses, she had literally written the book on wheeling and dealing over a thousand years ago, and hadn’t lost one whit of her acumen since. But he had the feeling she wouldn’t limit herself to just that.
“Inari-sama, don’t get too carried away on fleecing him. We do have to actually earn whatever expenses you’re thinking of racking up.”
Inari pouted again, crossing her arms and pointedly not looking at Paul.
“Spoil sport!” she muttered.
Her playful tsundere mood lasted until the train doors opened and Inari was confronted with the packed crowds of the tail-end of the morning rush hour in Tokyo station. With a tiny ‘Eep!’ sound she shrank against Paul, clinging to his arm hard enough that without the ballistic lining he’d have worried about bruises.
Shifting his grip on their rolling suitcase’s handle, he wrapped his arm around Inari, sheltering her from the press of bodies, and before she could dive back into the relative sanctuary of the carriage, he strode forward half carrying her. Paul wasn’t unusually tall for a European, but in Japan his hairs breadth taller than six foot frame meant he towered over just about everyone else. His somewhat angular face with a beak of a nose and craggy jaw was ideally suited for biblically epic frowns of patriarchal sternness, such as the one he adopted now causing the crowd in front of them to shuffle aside, parting like the Red Sea being intimidated by Moses.
Once they had found their platform, and after a tense ten minute wait, boarded the express train to Shin-Shirakawa, Inari collapsed limply in her seat.
“And here I was, thinking Osaka was crowded. I think I have found my own personal circle of Hell.”
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“Courage mon coeur, le diable est mort.”
“What?”
Paul shrugged.
“A quote from a book I liked. It means..”
“I do speak French… dear heart.”
Paul winced inwardly, he’d momentarily forgotten she’d learnt French from traders sometime in the 18th century. Seeking to change the subject Paul suggested.
“I know, why don’t we play a game to pass the time, now that you’re awake.”
Inari regarded him suspiciously for a moment, then shrugged.
“As you like my Herald. But we don’t have a shogi board… what else do you play?”
Paul smiled slightly.
“Well, I’m not about to suggest Hanafuda, aside from the fact I’ve only got a pack of western playing cards, we both know who’d win that!”
Inari grinned sweetly, like a sweet old grandmother who was a ruthless card shark once at the table. She nodded in agreement.
“Very well Paul-san, pick a game you know and I’m less familiar with. You can teach me for once.”
Paul nodded slowly, it would be a change to teach her, rather than getting his ass kicked at Shogi which Inari was nominally teaching him.
“Ok… have you heard of Gin rummy?”
Inari regarded him suspiciously.
“Nooo… why?”
Paul grinned, taking out the deck of cards from his pocket.
“Ok, allow me to educate you then…”
By the time they had arrived at Shin-Shirakawa, taking two hours to go from central Tokyo to the outskirts, Paul was certain that Inari had indeed been ‘economical with the truth’ when she implied she’d never played gin rummy before, the score being 14 sets to 5 in her favour. Ruefully he made a mental note to never play cards with Inari again, and certainly not for any kind of wager. She hadn’t cheated, he thought, but then she didn’t need to with several lifetimes worth of experience under her belt.
Inari was somewhat better mentally prepared for the crowded station this time, merely standing close to Paul rather than needing him to metaphorically drape his non-existent cape around her. Which was just as well as the small local train was packed. None of the bench seats lining the carriage were free, so with a sigh Paul resigned himself to standing for the thirty minutes the short journey would take.
They were only a few minutes away from their stop when beside him Inari stiffened, a look of furious outrage on her face. Paul glanced at her, then noticed the pudgy balding man standing behind her with a leer on his face, and more importantly, where his hand was.
As Inari started to turn, Paul dropped his hand on the man’s shoulder, his thumb finding the pressure point in the hollow of the gropers collar bone, and leaned down to murmur in his ear. The man grunted, his face twisting in pain as Paul gripped tightly and spoke.
“If you don’t remove your stinking perverted hand right now, I promise you, you’ll never have the use of that arm ever again.”
Inari had started to open her mouth, then stopped, mentally changing gears as she saw Paul already dealing with the creep.
“Paul-san. What should we do with this dishonorable wretch?”
Paul sighed, and shook his head.
“I know what you’d prefer, but we’re on a job. We don’t have the time for you to play. We’ll turn him over to the authorities.”
Paul leaned down to whisper in the man’s ear.
“You groped the wrong ass man, under any other circumstances, my partner here would take your hand off at the wrist at the very least, if she didn’t rip your balls off and make you eat them. But we’re busy today. So, be grateful, cooperate with the nice policeman when we turn you over and confess to everything, then go sit in your nice safe jail cell and just pray we’re too busy to come back and take care of you ourselves. Understand?”
The man nodded, beads of sweat breaking out on his forehead. Paul released the man’s shoulder, patting it with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.
“Good, oh look, this is our stop. Now be a good little man and come with me.”
Paul paused, and looked at Inari, who jerked her head in a fraction of nod.
“You go ahead, I’ll wait. But first...”
Inari reached up and gripping the man’s ear, twisted bringing his head down to her, bright blood beading around her thumbnail as it dug into the soft tender tissue of his earlobe.
“Just one more thing, you lyana buta, if you even think of touching another woman again in that way, I’ll find you, and make you suffer!”
Inari jerked her hand down, causing the man to hiss in pain. Turning away, she ignored the stares of the few passengers nearest who’d witnessed the altercation.
It only took a few minutes for Paul to find a police box and officer on the station, and to fill in the required forms to go with his recorded statement.. The man, utterly intimidated, mumbled out his confession, adding several other incidences of sexual assault to his account. Paul suspected he probably wanted a nice long jail sentence, correctly figuring he was safer off that way.
Once that was done, Paul went looking for Inari, finding her sitting with her hands clasped in her lap, eyes shut, outside the provincial train station.
“You ok now Inari?”
Inari opened her eyes, and smiled up at Paul.
“Quite, thank you Paul. I would’ve done something intemperate and brought attention to us.”
“You’re welcome… so what did you curse him with?”
Inari opened her eyes wide, and fluttered her eyelashes trying to look innocent. Paul just raised an eyebrow. Inari laughed.
“Why would you think I’d lay a curse on that disgusting pervert?”
“Come off it, I saw you get a drop of his blood you know. I might not know much about magic, but I do know what you can do with that. So, is he going to be found dead tomorrow?”
Inari chuckled.
“Oh no.. that would be far too crude and unrefined of me.”
“Riiight.. so what did you hit him with? Is his prick going to turn black and drop off?”
Inari slyly smiled.
“Something like that, his manhood will indeed wane as the moon waxes, vanishing altogether by the next full moon. Then his body will change as the moon wanes and by the next full moon he’ll be a new woman…”
Paul blinked.
“How very.. poetic. He’ll be one ugly woman though.”
Inari shook her head.
“Oh no, she’ll be irresistible, to a certain sort. She’ll be fated to attract other perverts such as he was, as spoiled meat attracts flies. Not only that, but those with pure hearts will be repulsed by her without knowing why.”
Paul studied her for a moment, then shook his head.
“Ok, can’t say he didn’t deserve it, but that’s a bit over the top isn’t it? All that will do is keep traumatising him..her.. whatever.”
Inari shook her head.
“All good curses have a clause to them. All that one has to do to change back, is to do for another woman what you did for me. That same applies to all those he transfers the curse to.”
“Wait, what?”
“I added a twist to it. Anyone molesting her, will also be cursed.”
Paul stared at Inari for moment, then sighed loudly.
“Inari-sama… I can’t say that I blame you, but have you any idea how many people that will affect potentially? I thought the idea was not to panic people… spreading a cursed plague is rather the complete opposite of that!”
“They won’t know I did it!”
“They won’t need to know that, to blame yokai. Still, I suppose that’s one way of dealing with the problem of train creeps… and who knows, maybe patent zero back there might just stay locked up in their apartment instead.”
“Ehhh! Well that would be a complete waste of a perfectly decent curse!”
Paul chuckled, then sobered as a thought struck him.
“Hey Inari… do you recall telling me sometime before Christmas that rape and sexual harassment was just one of those things that women had to endure?”
Inari sighed, and nodded.
“I do, and I regret saying it… now!”
Paul smiled.
“You’ve come a long way in a very short time. Good work.”
Inari beamed, and skipped slightly.
“Thank you, although I think Kiko deserves the praise most, she has been teaching me modern ways of thinking. Although, I still don’t know why such as that pervert would be so brazen..”
Paul shrugged.
“Two reasons, firstly Japanese society teaches people not to make a fuss… and secondly look around us. I would wager the majority of these people are tourists. They’ll only be here a short time, and the probability of him being caught normally would be very low. So I imagine ordinarily he could get away with it as long as he’s quick. You notice he waited until the train was nearly at the station, he’d probably normally do a quick grope and then bolt for the station exit, to disappear in the crowd.”
Inari sighed and nodded.
“I see… Um...Paul? Isn’t there rather a lot of people?”
Paul blinked, and then turned around watching the crowd.
“You’re right… there does seem to be a bit of a crowd, can’t tell if that’s unusual though...Tell you what, lets go ask for directions to the hotel and buy something to eat for lunch at that place across the street, and see what they say.”
A few minutes later the pair were sitting on bench under a tree, having walked a short distance in the direction of the hotel they were booked at, munching on Teriyaki.
Paul finished, wiping his mouth on the napkin, before speaking.
“Your intuition was right by the way, the shop-keeper confirmed that there’s more tourists than usual for this time of year. Seems they’ve been drawn here by the news of the Killing Stone splitting. There’s even some self-styled yokai research team out looking for Tamamo-no-Mae, which I would normally say good luck to them, but finding her might not be too healthy.”
Inari nodded, finishing off the last bite of the fish shaped pastry filled with spicy red bean paste, before wiping her hands and mouth.
“So, what do we do? All these extra people will make it much harder. Any traces will be muddied hopelessly.”
Paul shook his head.
“Well, first we check in at the hotel, then we wait until nightfall. The volcanic hot springs are closed after ten. They don’t want people wandering around after dark, leaving the tourist trails. Which is exactly what we’ll do. With luck not all that many people will have gotten too close to the actual boulder, so we can start there. Where we go after that depends on what we find out, but I think our best bet to while away the time until the area is shut is to chat with the locals, see if they’ve noticed anything unusual. Tamamo-no-Mae can’t have been wandering around without being noticed., if she’s here. At the very least she’d need modern clothing to blend in, and if we’re lucky someone will have seen her before she acquired some.”
Inari nodded, then looked sombre.
“You realise if she noticed anyone seeing her, she’d kill them probably.”
Paul nodded.
“I know, that’s why I’ll be checking if anyone has gone missing or turned up dead. She won’t know that people seldom disappear without the absence being noticed. If we’re lucky, there will be CCTV footage.”
“How will we obtain that?”
Paul grinned.
“We’ll ask the police.”
Out of an interior pocket he produced a pair of small leather bifold wallets. Inari flipping open the one he handed to her, saw her likeness similar to how she was dressed now, alongside a name that wasn’t hers, and very real looking police badge.
“When did you…?”
“A few weeks ago. I figured we might need some sort of official identification at some point, so I had a quiet word with people and got us those. They’re completely legit, we have personnel files and everything. The only fakery was a few details, like our names and your photo, because you couldn’t wear what you normally do in it. So we are now senior detectives in the Special Directive Unit, Division four.”
Inari raised an eyebrow.
“There’s a division four?”
“There is now… it exists on paper. It’s something the Prime Minister and I have been quietly putting together. Modernising the system of the Seven Great Lords acting as Magistrates for inter-species legal disagreements and investigating cases where yokai are involved. It’s a bit before we planned on starting, but those badges give us the authority we’ll need with this case.”
Inari stared at her I.D for a moment, then clutched it to herself, grinning broadly.
“We get to be detectives! Eeee!”
Paul blinked…
“Ok, not the reaction I expected...glad you’re looking forward to this though!”
Inari nodded gleefully.
The good mood lasted until just after one, when they got to the hotel. The very apologetic girl on reception informed them that they were overbooked, and that their adjoining rooms were unavailable, but the hotel could offer an upgrade to a double.
Paul glared down his nose at the young women, but before he could say anything, Inari placed her hand on his arm, and reassured the receptionist.
“We’ll take the room. Paul-san, we’ll work something out.”
“Ok. I’ll go find somewhere else to stay.”
Inari shook her head.
“No… you saw how busy it is. There won’t be anywhere, and before you say it, it’s still too cold at night to sleep outdoors. We can make this work.”
Paul thought about arguing for a moment, then sighed.
“Alright, but you get the bed. I’ll sleep in a chair or on the floor. I’ve done worse.”
Inari nodded, although once they were alone in the room, Inari sat on the bed and patted it beside herself.
“There is more than enough room for both of us, and it’s not as if we haven’t shared a bed before now.”
Paul shrugged, then shook his head.
“I know, I know it’s just… different, ok. Before it didn’t matter if we did, the only people who knew, would understand. This is… well, people would draw the wrong conclusions.”
“They would think we were having a workplace affair, yes? But what does it matter if they do? Neither of us are using our real names after all.”
“I know just…. Oh I don’t know. I’m not happy about people thinking that you’re that sort of woman…”
Inari leaned back slightly, staring at Paul as she chuckled.
“Paul-san… are you seriously worried about my reputation?!”
Paul ducked his head, smiling slightly.
“I suppose I am, sort of. More about the reputation of your cover identity. Ichika isn’t like that.”
Inari shook her head.
“How do you know that? She doesn’t exist after all. Sometimes Paul-san, you grow too attached to your stories. Ichika Tanaka is whomever I want her to be, surely?”
Paul sighed and nodded, smiling wryly.
“You’re right of course, you can be whomever you want to be. Have fun with it… just not too much. But, yes, your personnel file is just a sketch, with redacted making up most of it. We transferred in from The Public Security Intelligence Agency after all.”
Inari grinned.
“Oh yes.. we are soooo badass!”
Inari laughed, a fox-like yipping sound, that caused Paul to laugh as well.