“Before every last wave, an unseen force reaches out to offer a special meeting between two bosses. Since I have invited myself to your land, the hand reached out to me and I said yes.”

Tanuki found himself before two large iron gates. His wounds were healed and his clothes appeared to be different, pristine and more elegant than anything he would wear.

He opened the gates and the hinges screamed. Deep under that sound, music crept its way to his ears. Ceremonious, akin to a classical wedding play performed by church organ and trumpets. Uncannily though, it sounded slow, as if rotting away.

The interior of an old cathedral revealed itself, and standing on an elevated platform the tall bride, her face covered by a white veil. Other faceless figures filled every bench and stared at her. In her hands was a small bouquet of withered flowers.

Tanuki looked back. There was nowhere else he could go, the only path led to the missus.

He took a deep breath. “Alright.”

Tanuki walked the dusty carpet and observed the onlookers. Their faces resembled those of the soulless husks.

There was no other life in the church besides him and the bride. Not a bug, nor an assassin hiding somewhere, waiting for him to let his guard down. This was truly a meeting of two.

The bride laughed softly, “The unseen force lets the boss choose her preferred meeting place. Me… I was always the hopeless romantic type.”

“Listen up,” Tanuki stopped on the final step of stairs and pointed at her, “If you don’t tell me what’s going on right now, I’ll strangle you.”

“Ah, I love a man who’s not afraid to show emotions!” She touched her face and moaned softly. “But I’m afraid you cannot hurt me, nor can you hurt yourself. The connection made between us exists on a plane that’s different from the physical. How should I say this… it is as though our dreams have connected. Quite sentimental when you think about it, hehe.”

“How the hell do I wake up?”

“I’m afraid you can’t do that. Since this is your first time experiencing this feature, you do not have the power to leave. Only I do, but… a young girl like me should not have to admit to this, but I’ve been waiting too long to just give up on the chance.”

“What chance?”

“The chance to marry you.”

Tanuki could not believe it. All the misfortune of these past two days was the cause of this entity playing dirty tricks and doing everything in her power to kill him in some of the most excruciating ways imaginable. Acid in the veins. Being blown to pieces by blunt force. Being torn up by claws.

He was hungry. Thirsty. In pain. Exhausted. And now, furious.

The bride stood still, and after a few seconds, filled the quiet with a heartfelt laugh. She reached under the veil and sheepishly scratched her chin.

“Tanuki…”

“Shut the fuck up.”

“You know that is no way to talk to young maidens! Though I have to admit, seeing you so worked up about me made me fall for you all over again.”

She continued quietly, “Well, I think I have something that might ease your mind, Hachiro Tanuki…”

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She took the veil and slowly lifted it behind her head. Tanuki was expecting something horrible beneath, but to his surprise, it was something else entirely.

From under the veil, the most beautiful pink eyes appeared under thick velvet eyebrows. Her hair was as white as untouched snow and as rich as a lion’s mane. Her soft lips smiled faintly, a hint of embarrassment hiding within.

“Will you marry me?”

Tanuki stared at her in disbelief.

She crossed her arms and swayed around awkwardly, but under the pressure of such intent eyes, she could not handle it any longer and yelped while covering her blush.

“Do not stare at me like that, it’s making my heart pound like crazy! But I promise you, I promise-promise-promise! If you agree to marry me, I will end this wave immediately! And I will stay forever by your side, forever and ever! I promise I have the power to make it happen!”

She opened a small window between the fingers covering her eyes and peeked through. Such a woman could have stolen any man’s heart, be them lonely or already taken, thus it was a no-brainer a teenage boy would be head over heels for a tall beauty like her——so she was surprised to see instead of infatuation, there was horror in his eyes.

“W-What?” She lowered her hands.

Tanuki’s face was pale. His mouth hung open trembling, growing worse when she lowered her hands.

“What’s wrong with him,” she thought, “Had my beauty left him in utter shock?”

She smiled and tried to laugh it off as just some unusual way of expressing admiration.

“Come on, now! Aren’t I the girl of your dreams?”

He gulped. “I don’t know.”

“You don’t? Why?” She asked less gently.

“Just… I knew you were a girl, but when I saw your face, for some reason…”

For a second, he felt guilty and wanted to apologize. But then he remembered who he was talking to and lost all interest in civility.

He shook his head. “Hold on! I don’t have a damn thing to explain to you! No matter your appearance, you’re still rotten to the core!”

The bride was stunned. This was far from the kind of reaction she had expected, especially given her preparations in effect.

Before the wave, she cast a soul spell, a kind of spell uniquely born from the person’s personality and intellect. Hers made her appearance change into that of the onlookers' most wanted romantic interest. She should have had an easy job seducing any person with this power, yet for the first time, someone looked at her with perturbation.

This was not going to work on the boy. But perhaps she just needed a more direct approach.

She pulled up her leg, raising the skirt with it and revealing her naked thighs. She held onto her leg and pulled it upright towards the ceiling. Only a small piece of her clothes hid her private part.

She smiled smugly. “If you marry me, I won’t just stand by you and love you, but also give you the special kind of attention you deserve. Don’t you like flexible girls?”

She leaned down and put a hand on the ground, raising herself into a one-armed handstand.

“I can also perform some exotic tricks that would make the whores turn in shame,” she winked seductively.

But it was useless. Tanuki was already on the edge and the sexual innuendo only made things worse. His breathing grew disjointed. Anxiety filled his chest and tried to drown him from the inside. He felt nauseous, barely able to stand any longer.

The bride grew impatient.

“Hey! A pretty girl is proposing to you. Are you just going to stay silent or have you got the guts to say yes and pound her through an all-nighter?”

She stopped, feeling something crawl onto her feet. She looked down and saw a cockroach. It should not have affected her at all because she was quite familiar with insects, but there was something wrong about this one. She was not the one controlling it.

More appeared from under the rug, between the rows, and out of the crevices on the wall. She had no control over any of them. It was Tanuki making them appear.

Her beautiful forehead furrowed into a frown.

“What are you doing?! I mean–– hehe, not that I mind bugs, but shouldn’t it wait until after the ceremony?”

“Don’t look at me,” Tanuki blurted out between two sparse breaths.

“Why? Isn’t it every person’s wish to have the attention of such a lovely lady as I?”

The bugs grew plentiful. They swarmed the bride, crawling up her dress. She grabbed a fistful and discarded them into the crowd.

“Hey, tell them to stop!” But Tanuki ignored her.

“I am waking up,” he said, then charged head-first against the wall. His idea was that with enough pain, he could snap out of this world.

However, his head stopped the moment before impact. This realm was not letting him hurt himself. Perhaps the bride was right and there was truly no pain to be felt here. He tried again and failed, but still kept on trying again and again.

The bride stared on, confused and disturbed by his resort to self-harm. However, those emotions were quickly overwritten by annoyance. With that, her beauty escaped.