LATE AFTERNOON

The three of us tailed Yugo and the newcomer for what felt like an hour. Based on the time on Archie’s phone, though, it’d only been twenty minutes. Yugo had taken the girl shopping all over downtown Saikou, buying her new clothes, jewelry, and a luxury purse all in the same amount of time it’d taken Archie to pick out a tracksuit. The longer this went on, the louder Somnia groaned about it, like she wanted one of us to ask about it. Mrs. Perrow used to do the same thing whenever she wanted someone to do a chore for her, so I already knew the game. I decided to bite.

“Why does it bother you so much?” I asked.

We’d been sitting on a bench each pretending to be reading the local paper. The headlining article was about Futakuchi-Onna, funnily enough. It was nothing useful, though. No, it was just a Top 10 article about her favorite teahouses. It was the same stuff you’d find in a Mamoru magazine.

“Because I can’t show him off!” Somnia complained, sagging her shoulders like a pouty child. "I want to be able to hold my master up and show him off to the world!"

“Oh, here we go again,” Archie sighed.

“This is serious! Ibaraki Douji gets to flex that he’s being trained by the King of the Oni, Shuten Douji! The Mamoru Clan gets to flex that they’re being trained by Mamoru Raizo and Mamoru Ruma!” She scrunched her face. “I tell my siblings I’m getting trained by Yugo and they laugh like I told them the funniest joke they’ve ever heard! You know what Sachiel said? He was like, ‘Did he recruit you so women would let their guard down around him?’! Then Saniel asked me if I was his scout! I’m sick and tired of it. I wish he spent less time with women and more time letting the world know how strong he is!”

“That’s… uh…unfortunate."

Again, I truly couldn’t care less how Yugo spent his free time. The man promised to make me stronger, and to his credit I was a lot stronger. Not only that, I had a brand new entry in my Skill Codex. The man could have a harem from here to Bukimiburgh. As long as he made me strong enough to kill the Horsemen, it made no difference. I knew that wasn’t the answer Somnia wanted to hear, though. I heard the spirit of Clarissa Perrow telling me to ease some tension, and I decided to listen to that over my honest feelings.

“ONLY A COWARD WITHHOLDS HIS TRUTH.”

You have no friends. I don’t need your advice, Fallen Star.

“EXCUSE ME?”

“Well,” I began. “Maybe Yugo has suspicions that this woman is Futakuchi-Onna? She’s a shapeshifter, remember? Perhaps that’s why he’s with her?” I’d meant it as a joke, but the more I thought about it the more rational it sounded. “At the very least, there’s no chance Futakuchi-Onna isn’t at least aware of Yugo’s lavish spending.”

“That’s true,” Archie allowed. “Maybe Yugo isn’t as scummy as we think is?”

“Well… I mean…” Somnia stammered. She sighed. “Maybe. I mean, I was hesitant to spend all that money because part of me wondered whether Futakuchi-Onna or her Honor Guard might single me out then and there. Yugo, though? He’s going all out. I guess being strong lets you be that bold…”

We stopped talking when we noticed Yugo walk out of a nearby teahouse with the woman holding onto his arm. Taking that as our cue to leave, we followed them from a safe distance as the two cut through corners and alleyways to some unknown location. They ended up back in the red-light district behind some abandoned building. It was a dead end, so if we’d turned the corner to follow them they would’ve spotted us.

The three of us decided to camp behind a closed teahouse like some cartoon characters. As conspicuous as we wanted to seem, that was difficult considering how we were dressed. Somnia was dressed in a black yukata with shimmering red roses sewn into the fabric. Mine was navy blue with golden birds sewn in while Archie’s was white with golden stripes like a Burnish tracksuit. What I’m trying to say is that our outfits turned heads. Lucky for us, though, there were no heads to turn down this empty part of downtown Saikou.

“I’ll have Lochness take a peek,” Archie said, summoning the Serpenting creature. She was small enough to fit in the palm of his hand.

“You ready, girl?”

Lochness hissed and spun in his palm.

“Alright! Remember, your eyes are mine, so be sure to get a good look at everything.”

Archie set his hand down and we watched as Lochness slithered around the corner to get a good look at Yugo and the woman he’d spoiled rotten. You could practically see the moment Archie saw whatever it was they were doing. He stood above Somnia and me, and both of us looked up to find him uncomfortably laughing. Lochness slithered back faster than she’d left, quickly sliding her way to Archie’s shoulder like she’d seen a ghost.

Stolen story; please report.

“What’d you see?” I asked.

“Well, I mean…” Archie chuckled. “At least she’s grateful.”

Somnia groaned.

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“It means that if this woman really is Futakuchi-Onna then she’s committed to the bit, that’s for damn sure.”

“...Oh.”

“You see what I mean?” Somnia said, stabbing a finger under my chin. She pouted. “You know, I don’t think it’d bother me so much if he didn’t look like my godfather. It’s weird!”

The sun started to set ten minutes after spotting Yugo with the lady. Funnily enough, after we’d given up on tailing him and made our way to the Tiger Lily we ended up spotting him in the distance again with another woman. Both this newcomer and the one he’d just been with looked the same. Slightly older – late-thirties –, heavy makeup, and perfume so strong we smelled it from blocks away.

Archie had asked me about my time in the cult. Specifically, he wanted to know if I’d found myself “surrounded by women” like Yugo was. As he put it, I was the head of a cult destined to take it over someday. Naturally, women would throw themselves at me, wouldn’t they? I answered truthfully; they did. I declined each time, though. First off, the women there were each far too old for me. Second, I found each of them repulsive beyond their looks. They’d each been there the day my mother and I… went our separate ways. They’d been calling for it, cheering for it. Celebrating when it’d been done. How the hell could I have given myself to one of them?

Additionally...

“NONE OF THEM WERE HALF THE WOMAN CLARISSA WAS.”

I… didn’t argue.

Things had gotten awkward after my story, and my attempt at humor didn’t make things any better. Who knew that saying “The best night they ever gave me was letting me kill them as I escaped” would be inappropriate? So much for “banter”. At least Somnia found it funny.

At any rate, we continued to follow Yugo as he walked into a high-end purse store with this new woman. We watched from a dark alleyway across the street, each leaning against the wall with those newspapers once again covering our faces. Things got interesting when we noticed the woman from earlier walking down the street near that very store. Archie and I were on high alert, as any sort of confrontation might've drawn out the Honor Guard. Somnia cackled like a madwoman and said that Yugo could handle it.

To the surprise of all three of us, nothing bad happened. On the contrary, the woman entered the store, spotted Yugo with the other girl, and they all like they were best friends. Somnia sucked her teeth and crossed her arms like she’d been looking forward to bloodshed. Archie laughed louder than normal, though if his tone was any indication he was relieved things didn’t go too far. The Historian, who was suddenly perched atop my head, flapped his wings and complained about how brazen Yugo was being.

Wait…

“When the hell did you get here?!” I asked the owl.

“You three aren’t as sneaky as you think you are,” The Historian answered. “I didn’t tell Master Yugo you were following him, but if I noticed it then surely others did as well.”

“Is that a bad thing, though?” Somnia asked. “Are we not trying to draw Futakuchi-Onna’s attention?”

“You are, which is why I never said it was a bad thing. If we ever find ourselves needing to tail someone in the future, though, please follow my lead.”

“Sure thing,” Archie said, lowering his newspaper slightly. “But can you tell me what’s up with Yugo?”

The Historian sighed. “It’s as Lady Somnia expected: Yugo is looking forward to visiting the local Cabaret Club. They open in thirty minutes, and his philosophy has always been to get familiar with the staff so they treat you better. Unfortunately, he’s never been wrong.”

Somnia let out a satisfied I-knew-it grunt but said nothing. Archie made a face like he’d come to some sort of realization, likely about his brother and cabaret clubs if our earlier conversation was anything to go by. Me, though… I understood the logic, but something was bothering me about the nature of Yugo and The Historian. He was able to move independently of Yugo, while Fallen Star was linked to me. It couldn’t leave my Mindspace and talk to people like The Historian could. Even Lochness could do that with Archie, but Fallen Star couldn’t simply manifest like that.

“You know, I’ve always wanted to ask,” Archie began. “When Yugo’s, er… exploring the city, do you… stay by his side?”

“Heavens no!” The Historian chirped. He flapped his wings again. “I fly away when things veer too far out of my comfort zone! The same is true for Mina. We may be powerful, but we are still an owl and a koi fish. When we venture out, she goes to a koi pond to play with other koi fish. I believe you may have seen her earlier in the Tiger Lily's pond. As for me, I enjoy free roaming and hunting small prey. It’s a fun pastime.”

Things started to slow down after that. Archie pointed out that he’d wanted to go to this herbalist shop hours ago, and he needed to rush there to make it back before sunset. The Historian, meanwhile, noted that he wanted to visit the Minashire Monitor at the Tiger Lily. Somnia asked me how much I had left over, and when I told her how little I’d spent she’d insisted on taking me shopping to blow through my cash. I decided I’d go with her considering I had no clue how else I was going to spend it. Besides, we still needed to make noise before we turned in for the day. If something was going to happen with Futakuchi-Onna and the Honor Guard, it was going to happen tonight. Shuten Douji seemed pretty sure about that.