Tengu/Succubus Date

Chapter 2

Once the ritual was activated, Torakichi was left alone with his thoughts. He was used to that—he'd spent the last several years like that. Three hundred years ago Tenkai turned its back on Earth after feeling it was losing its war with Makai. He had been left like a caterpillar in its cocoon for centuries longer than he was meant to. With no one to awaken him, he just remained asleep and unchanging until something rather than someone finally did. He didn't know the details, only it was something that shook both Earth and Makai.

As he wandered through the familiar streets of the city, he thought for the first time in a while how proud he should be of himself. He woke up—a peasant boy from the Edo period alone in this alien modern world ruled over by monsters. And he cursed with a devilish appearance, would find no one offering any help to him. Yet, he survived. He adapted. And he learned to use his powers without any teacher. For the last several years he'd begun to feel at home in the city.

After about an hour of rather aimlessly wandering the streets, he made his way over to a familiar takoyaki shop. He made his usual order, "Sauce and mayonnaise spread on top, please." It would be made with the usual aonori and bonito flakes. He paid the owner with a shiny new 500-yen coin before heading away and making his way towards a darkened alley.

It was all about to change. He just needed to carry out this one task and he'd finally be able to live among his own kind. It was simple, wasn't it? Just wait for the woman who had once been the girl in that picture to show up and engage in small talk, avoid kissing her, and send the message for the others to come capture her. It should be straightforward, right? He'd never found trouble not kissing every other girl he'd ever spoken to.

His skin turned red, his nose and ears lengthened, and a pair of large black raven wings sprouted from his back. Once transformed fully into his tengu form it took him merely a single leap to travel from the ground to the top of the four-story building. He strolled from the alley-facing side back to the front of the building where he could see the street below. It wasn't so late, maybe approaching 9 o'clock, the street was still bustling.

He wondered if he should choose to appear as a human or a tengu. Perhaps he would seem more unassuming in his human guise. But then she might see right through it and then suspect a trap. Although Hilda seemed pretty sure the succubus would attempt to use social manipulation to get her kiss rather than approach him violently, if she did come at him with an attack then he needed his full powers to defend himself.

He sat down and his wings transformed into a supportive cushion behind himself. He pulled his smartphone out of his pocket. Bayu had suggested that it may take hours or days for the summoning spell to actually pull the succubus here. Still, he may as well write the message in advance—just so that he wouldn't have to type it out in front of her once she arrived. Once he had written it, needing only now to press the send button, he switched his applications over to his music.

He pulled his headphones from his pocket, plugging them into the bottom of the smartphone before putting the earbuds into his ears. With one press of a button, his head was filled with the fast rhythm of some pop-rock songs from a few years ago. He then placed the smartphone on his lap and resumed watching the people on the street below.

A lot of what he had learned about navigating the modern world had come from this very thing. As people went about their business they displayed the right way to become a member of this environment—to make use of the opportunities it produced and to just disappear into it as though they truly belonged there. As much as deep down he always knew he could never truly belong, by hiding his true nature and acting the part of a typical resident—no one else needed to know that.

He had forgotten about the bag with the Takoyaki by his side even as his stomach complained.

He saw a few high school girls wandering the streets together, no doubt headed home late after some club activities that must have run surprisingly late. They were technically out past curfew by now. He wondered what it might be like to be in high school. What would it be like to wear a school uniform, take classes, participate in activities with everyone like making lunch cleaning the classroom, or taking care of the school garden or the school pets? It would be fun to participate in the sports day, he could impress everyone with his long and high jumps. He could take part in the school festival, perhaps make a haunted house, or play a rock song.