Interview with the Yokai

Chapter 10

Shoji was stuck in his own head for the rest of the week. Benihime's words had opened the door to a room full of self-doubt, second guesses, and guilt that Shoji did not know were inside of himself. Shoji thought that he had made peace with his chosen path in life, it had been easy, he had not mourned what might have been. Now Shoji found himself not only mourning what might have been, but defending himself from the self-accusations that he had murdered his ambitions while they were still in their infancy. Shoji found himself on more than one occasion staring at a blank screen on his laptop, wondering what would happen if he tried to once again to write, not as a critic or a journalist, but as an artist. Even in the state he was in, he could not get the words to break through the walls of inadequacy he had built, all the guilt he felt wasn't a strong enough sledgehammer.

It was in a state of inner chaos that Shoji woke up on Saturday morning. He went into the city with Ichin, bought snacks for that night and on a whim got a New Tokyo Wrestling Council tee-shirt, he thought it might make Noriko smile to see that he had dressed for the occasion. He chose a shirt for a tag team called the Oni Girls. The front showed both girls doing a spinning backfist and the back said " An Oni with an Iron Club is Invincible." He was sure Noriko would get a kick out of it. The thought of having a good time with Noriko started to cheer Shoji up. Shoji had to admit that Noriko had a presence that just made him enjoy being with her, even thinking about having some fun with her was getting him out of his funk.

When Shoji returned to the school campus he was a much better mood. He went with Ichin to another boy's room to play video games for a while, but he eventually found himself in the library as was usual for him on the weekends. Shoji wasn't looking at books on the paranormal like he usually would, instead he found himself looking for a specific author, his father. Shoji sat down and did something he hadn't done in a long time, he read his father's writing and tried to analyze it. What did his father have? Could he find the spark that had made his father's work so great and then use the same spark to ignite his own creativity? While Shoji found what made his father's work such great pieces of art, he could not figure out how he could use that to his advantage. How could it be that two people of the same bloodline could be so different as artist?

It was in a much more somber mood that Shoji made his way to Noriko's room that night to watch SaturdaySlam. Noriko met him in the main lobby and let him into the girl's tower. " Nice shirt Shoji-san, I have one just like it, it's too bad that the Oni Girl's lost the belts to the Nagas of the Underworld at Wrestle Fury, but that Ironwoman Match was amazing,"

Noriko's excitement was contagious and Shoji found himself cheering up. " I thought you would like this shirt, looks like I made the right decision buying it."

" You bought the shirt just for me, you shouldn't have Shoji-san," Noriko said as they got in the elevator to go to her floor.

" I'm just glad I didn't get a Nagas shirt," Shoji said as they got out of the elevator and went to Noriko's room.

" You better have not, lousy humans beating onis, I know it's fake, but still," Noriko said in a fake angry voice.

The two entered Noriko's room where Mari was laying on her bed reading. Mari looked up and greeted Shoji," hello Shoji-san, you brought snacks?" Shoji held up the bag with the snacks inside, "good, you can follow instructions it seems."

Shoji reached into the bag he was holding and pulled out two packs of fish sausages. He offered them to Mari as a peace offering hoping that if he gave them to her she would lay off of the insults. " Fish sausages just like you asked for and some milk."

Mari jumped out of her bed, landed on her feet without making a sound, and was next to Shoji in a flash, taking the fish sausages and milk. " You're trying to get on my good side and it's working."