Ayakashi Monogatari

Chapter Nine: The Ayakashi Sea

Chapter Nine: The Ayakashi Sea

The next morning, I awoke to the sound of a sharp rapping at the window. Slowly, I stirred out of sleep and lifted my head, tendrils of messy purple hair falling over my face. Raven and I had fallen asleep on the carpet together, and I found myself on top of him again, as usual. The Satori groaned as his red eyes peeled open. "Mmmm...what is it, Minami?" The tapping continued. "Something's at the window," I said.

I groggily stumbled to my feet, rubbing sleep from my tired eyes. I pulled back the shutters, momentarily blinded by the nuclear blast of daylight flooding in through the window. A small feathered harpy-like creature, a mix of a bird and a fairy, tapped at the glass with its talons. "Hey, it's Miyu's Shikigami," I yawned. I opened the window and allowed the Yousei to flutter into the palm of my hand. "What's up, little guy?" The creature chirped loudly and pointed out into the city ahead. "What's going on down there?" I asked.

"There's no use talking to it," Raven interrupted. "It won't understand you. It says we need to go to Seimei Shrine. There is...trouble." I blinked. "Trouble?"

Raven and I hurriedly got ourselves dressed and headed down into Tokyo. We took the train to Seimei Shrine from Minato to Kyoto. When we arrived, the shrine was empty, which was unusual.

In the human world, the shrine usually had at least more than a few visitors, if even just tourists. Miyu's Shikigami led us to the shrine's secret room where Seimei's Star was painted on the wall. After tracing the pentagram and crossing over into the Otherworld, we were faced with the real Seimei Shrine...and it was destroyed.

The shrine looked as if a battle had taken place inside. Gaping holes and slashes marred the walls, many of the shrine's sacred relics were broken and shattered, and streaks of blood stained the floor. Even the ancient murals covering the walls of the Hall of Memory had been torn to shreds and soaked in blood. My heart began to race. My skin became cold and clammy. This was bad. This was really bad. "H-hello?" I called out, my voice trembling. "I-is anyone here?" Only silence answered me.

The shrine was deathly quiet- a little too quiet. "I...I don't think anyone's here," I mumbled. "I cannot sense the thoughts of any of the other Onmyoji," Raven commented. "But still...there is a foreign presence here." I raised my arm and showed my bracelet, ready to transform at a moment's notice. "I don't understand. Why did this happen?" I thought for a moment. "Wait a minute...my dad said he was going to meet with the Ayakashi royalty after Matsuricon yesterday. Maybe...they did this."

In the silence of the shrine, I heard the pitter of little feet. A small, twin-tailed black fox with red eyes like hot coals emerged from the darkness. It looked up at me and seemed to grin slyly. It was the same fox I fended off back when I got stuck in my rabbit form. My eyes narrowed. "I know that fox." Raven grabbed my shoulder and pulled me toward him. "Get back! It's a Kitsune!"

A shroud of radiant light eclisped the fox, and its body shifted, morphing into a humanoid shape. It revealed its true form as a slim, kimono-clad young man with wispy black bangs and fiery red eyes. A pair of fluffy fox tails emerged from his backside, and pointed fox-like ears stuck up from his head. "Nice to see you again, Miss Bunny," he sneered. I recognized him instantly. "Wait...you're Tsubasa! You're Tamamo no Mae's son! What are you doing here?! What happened to the shrine, and where is everyone!?"

Another deep, baritone voice answered for him. "They are not here." Ginko, Tamamo's older son, the beautiful white-haired, twin-tailed Kitsune, showed himself and stood alongside his brother. "We've driven those wretched Onmyoji off our land once and for all. Seimei Shrine belongs to us now."

"Like hell it does!" I snarled, teeth bared. "What did you bastards do, huh?!"

"Oh, we didn't do anything," Tsubasa snickered. "The other Kitsune, Bakeneko, and Oni took care of that for us. Our job is to clean up the mess...which is you." The black fox unsheathed an ornate katana and swung it down, unleashing an arc of hot energy. "Watch out!" Raven snapped. He shoved me aside and conjured a wind barrier to deflect the attack. It dissolved on contact.