Foxfire: Veil of the Nine Phantoms

14: Demon V - Divine Sake

October 31

If there was one thing Hoshiko had learned over her many years as a yokai hunter, it was that every single enemy she faced deserved a healthy amount of respect. The enemies she underestimated were the most dangerous. This situation was no different.

Hoshiko disguised herself as an oni noblewoman. She was ten feet tall, and had golden horns like glowing crystals, and she dressed in an elaborate kimono that appeared to be made out of expensive silk. The long, graceful sleeves of her garments only added to her beauty, and while most oni were monstrously ugly, she was beautiful even by human standards, which meant that to an oni she would be mesmerizing. In this form she was Lady Momiji, the Witch of Togakushi Mountain.

Hoshiko rehearsed the yokai language in her head. The yokai language had gained a reputation for being an evil or barbaric language, only used by malevolent yokai and criminals who broke the masquerade, or the remaining groups of wild yokai who still didn't interact with humans. Its use had dwindled over the years, and in the modern day most yokai spoke Japanese so they could coexist with the many magical humans of retroscape Japan.

The plan was simple: she would slowly poison the oni with divine sake while distracting him with conversation. She had successfully pulled off a similar trick in the past, when she had disguised herself as a beautiful female oni to seduce a monstrous oni that had ravaged a village, and killed him after they had slept together. In hindsight she wondered why she had gone through all that effort with seduction; the oni was so disgustingly ugly, so unbearably hideous, and so corrupted inside, that she never wanted to caress that kind of monster ever again.

Industrial machinery surrounded her, all coated by the scent of soap. She saw flaking paint, crumbling brick pillars, and a maze of pipes on the ceilings. Metal stairs led to metal walkways that were suspended above the floor, where yellow tape with the word CAUTION was wrapped around the railings. Lifeless fluorescent tubes hung from the walls or the ceiling, and through the dirty windows that faced Toronto's downtown were the lights of the bank towers of the Financial District, and the glowing spire of the CN Tower reaching for the heavens.

Hoshiko went to one of the upper floors of the factory, where the scent of blood was strongest, and the corruption of yokai magic grew unbearable. In the centre of the room the oni was crouched on the floor, he was in the middle of eating a human, and he hungrily gnawed on bones like a stray dog. Sadly, the oni's victim was already dead, and there was nothing Hoshiko could do to save them now. She approached the oni with a sake set: one sake pot that contained the divine sake and two sake cups.

The beast noticed her footsteps and stopped eating, then stood up to his full height. Momiji looked up at the oni. Though she had grown to ten feet tall, the oni still stood two feet taller than her. The oni stared at her, as if transfixed by a magic spell, and it took a few moments of awkward silence for him to gather the courage to speak to the beautiful lady in front of him.

"Um... Hello," the oni said. Blood covered his mouth, and chewed human flesh was stuck between his teeth.

"I am sorry to interrupt you. I brought sake." Momiji showed the oni her poisonous gift.

The oni dropped the corpse he was eating, and approached the beautiful lady. "Is that for me?" the oni asked.

"Yes."

The oni snatched the sake pot out of her hands and drank all of its contents, then smashed the pot on the floor.

Momiji smiled. That was easy, but he drank too much. She had expected a long conversation with the oni, where they would each take turns drinking and pouring sake into their cups, and over time the oni would unknowingly succumb to the poison, blissfully unaware as they laughed to each other's stories, but she hadn't expected the oni to drink the whole sake pot. She was on a time limit now. The oni would feel the effects in one minute.