How I was Murdered by a Fox Monster (19 page)
Read How I was Murdered by a Fox Monster Online
Authors: M.C Queen
Tags: #love, #horror, #humor, #fantasy, #hot, #teen, #free, #monsters, #guys, #free download
“
Demon cat you've finally met your match, today you shall fall
by the hands of the great Daisuke Matsu- Hey!” I yelled as the cat
suddenly jumped the stone and began bouncing away into the
distance.
“
No, not again,” moaned Kiyori. “We've been going at this for
hours already.”
“
You two, go after it!” Yelled Taisei. “Kurumi and I will go
to the other side and try to head it off.”
bother to hide his annoyance and almost knocked over five grave
stones on the way. We dashed frantically after the cat until we
emerged back into the open forest. I almost had the Obake within my
grasp until Kiyori yelled “stop!” Like his life depended on
it.
Thinking that
something terrible was going to happen, I stopped dead in my
tracks.
“
What! What's wrong?” I yelled. The cat had suddenly
disappeared out of sight behind the trees and if we didn't continue
the pursuit immediately we were going to lose it.
pointed to the patch of forest before us. “Our area ends here,
everything beyond those trees is managed by a different
branch.”
“
So we're forbidden from going into that area?”
“
No,” he shrugged. “It's not our problem anymore.”
It's not our problem anymore?
What was that supposed to
mean?
I was
convinced that I must have misheard him before he turned to
leave.
“
Come on, we better start heading back,” he said with a
smile.
“
Hey! You're not seriously going to leave it are
you?”
“
Why not,” he shrugged. “It's not our responsibility
anymore.”
rise up inside me and I wanted to punch him in the face. Suddenly
all the things which I had overlooked and brushed aside for the
past few months came flooding back. The way that he treated Souta,
the way he left things half done, the way he always ate all the
good snacks as soon as Akito returned from the supermarket so I
never got any chocolate chip cookies.
“
But what if it hurts someone!” I yelled.
“
You don't have to wet your pants over it, the guys on the
other side will probably get it.”
“
But what if they don't, I thought your responsibility as an
exorcist was to get rid of Obake!”
that may have been enough to get through to him, but those words
were enough to really set his temper off.
“
Hey you, I never asked to be an exorcist, I never asked to
live out here. I'm only doing this because they make me. I don't
have to take this from someone like you who didn't grow up the way
we did!”
“
I way not have grown up the way you did, but at least I give
a damn about people other than myself!”
“
What did you say?” He raised his fist.
stand firm and tell him what was on my mind. That his attitude was
bad and his actions would lead to innocent people getting injured.
I also wanted to say that he was lazy, treated others like crap,
and needed to invest in deodorant, but I couldn't. Kiyori was twice
my size and saying such things would only lead to me being beaten
to a pulp.
“
Nothing,” I muttered. I stared down at the leafy foliage
beneath my feet and suppressed the urge to set fire to
it.
at myself for backing down but there was nothing I could do. I
didn't want to get my face punched in like the first year who
called Kiyori fat.
I fell silent
and refused to say anything, but I was seething on the inside. I
stared out into the forest and considered pursuing the Obake on my
own, but Kiyori turned to leave and I suddenly realized I was in
the middle of a dense dark forest and I didn't know my way back. I
turned and followed his large figure, but I made an effort to
remain at least three feet behind. As we kept walking my feelings
towards him got worse and worse. I began to wonder why I was even
friends with a guy like that who bullied people at school and took
their lunch money. What had I been thinking?
We found Taisei and Kurumi
chilling out at the gate to the shrine. Kurumi was re-touching her
make-up while Taisei was frantically wiping something off his mouth
with his sleeve. He rolled up his jacket arm once he was finished,
but I caught a glance of something red.
“
Did you find it?” Taisei asked.
I was tempted to tell the truth, but one glare from Kiyori was
enough to make me shut my mouth. “
No
, it got away,” I
muttered.
“
It went into Yu's territory,” added Kiyori. I felt my fist
clench as soon as he opened his mouth.
Taisei to be angry at us (like I was on the inside) but he was
unexpectedly happier than when I saw him only moments earlier. “I
suppose they'll take care of it, next time don't do any speeches
Daisuke, it's best to get the job done as quickly as
possible.”
“
But I was so fired up and everything,” I muttered.
“
Getting fired up won't get you anywhere, the only thing which
really works is hard work and good concentration,” said Kurumi. It
was the first time she'd said anything nice, and it was probably
the last, because within the next few minutes she was back to
complaining about Nina.
“
I can't take it anymore, she always goes around telling
everyone what to do,” Kurumi ranted. “She thinks she's so great,
but she can't even aim straight.”
“
But Nina isn't such a bad person, there's no need to fight
all the time,” said Taisei.
“
So you're on her side now?”
“
No, you're cousins, you should try to get along.”
“
Shut up, what do you know!” Kurumi yelled. She then refused
to speak to Taisei for the whole journey back.
to tell Kurumi more about Nina's good points (to help bridge the
gap between them) but I didn't feel confident doing so while she
was holding a bow and arrow. I haven't told anyone this, but Kurumi
used to scare me. I think it was because she never smiled.
The
atmosphere on the way back was pretty depressing. I wasn't talking
to Kiyori, Kurumi wasn't speaking to Taisei, and Taisei looked
upset because he was being shunned. I didn't think things could get
any worse until a police patrol car pulled up beside us. I always
thought a bunch of teenagers carrying poles, bows, and arrows,
looked pretty conspicuous, but his main interest was something
else.
He caught
sight of Kiyori trying to shove his ax into his school bag amongst
his over flowing books.
“
You're not allowed to chop trees here!” The officer yelled
while pointing at Kiyori. He soon got out of the car and subjected
us to a ten minute lecture before removing Kiyori's ax from his
bag.
“
I know you think these woods don't belong to anyone, but
please think twice before destroying the landscape,” he said before
speeding off into the distance.
“
The ax, it's always the ax,” Kiyori muttered as he stared at
his empty hands. “Now I have to call my parents and ask for another
one, they're going to be pissed.”
almost felt sympathetic if I wasn't already angry at Kiyori for
being a bully and all-round terrible person, but it made me wonder
why the exorcists had such crappy weapons to combat terrifying
man-eating monsters.
“
I don't get it,” I asked Taisei. “Wouldn't it be easier just
to use guns?”
“
It would be,” said Taisei as he glanced up at Kurumi who was
still doing an excellent job of pretending he didn't exist. “And
there's a shot-gun sitting around if you ever need it, but it's
difficult for high school students to carry guns, so they've chosen
to equip us with less conspicuous weapons.”
“
But don't the police know about Obake?”
“
You'd think so, but they're as thick as
bricks when it comes to these things. Akito once took an officer
out on an exorcism,
you know
, just to show him that they were real, and the guy completely
flipped out. The police department thought he had a mental
breakdown. That guy ended up loosing his job and
everything.”
“
But surely the government must know something?” I
asked.
“
No of course not, maybe they used to in the past, but the
people in charge rotate all the time, so even if you did get
someone to believe you they'd soon be gone and you'd have to start
all over again. There are only so many people who can become real
exorcists, so our organization is surprisingly small. I think there
might only be a few hundred active exorcists spread out over Japan,
so we don't really have much influence at all.”
“
Oh,” I said. I just realized that the mysterious secret
organization I'd entered was a lot smaller than I had
imagined.
“
What about Souta and Itsuki, what do they use?” I remembered
that I hadn't seen either of them pull out a weapon. Itsuki had his
charms, but Souta spent most of his time standing around looking
awkward.
“”
We don't trust Souta with pointy things ever since he almost
took my arm off,” muttered Kiyori.
“
Itsuki can do some Judo now,” said Taisei. “But he doesn't
like getting his hands dirty so he does most of the charms. He's
pretty fast. His family is well-known for having high spiritual
power, so channeling energy comes easy to him. He's almost up to
the level of-” and then Taisei suddenly clamped his mouth
shut.
I was about to ask him
up to the level of
what?
Until I
realized that he was staring nervously at Kurumi who was looking
back at him with eyes more filled with fear than anger, and I
decided to drop the question.
I thought something was
definitely up, but as soon as I thought I'd sensed something
strange about the social atmosphere, it suddenly disappeared and I
assumed I must have imagined it.
back to being moody and silent, and I glanced at my hands which
were still scratched and bleeding from my constant falling. I poked
a wound which was beginning to scab, and I hissed at the pain. I
cursed my failure to stop the Obake. Someone like Itsuki probably
didn't make such rookie mistakes and injure himself.
Chapter
19
between Kiyori and I didn't improve over the following weeks. I
stopped hanging out with him at school, and he went out of his way
to shove me when we passed each other in the hall. The rainy season
had finally begun, and there wasn't much to do but watch the
constant downpour that fell from outside my window. I liked
watching it, it reflected my mood.
Like Kiyori, Akito had also become very distant with me, but
unlike Kiyori I didn't understand what caused his sudden change in
attitude. He used to be exceedingly pushy, and never gave me a
moments break, but he suddenly ceased ordering me around. I was
excited at first (like I'd finally been set free from his iron
fist) but after a few weeks the
mundaness
was beginning to bore
me.
why, but I had the feeling that he was going out of his way to
avoid me. He would quickly dash into another room if we were going
to meet in the hall, and he spent most of his waking hours locked
away in the study. I asked the others about his sudden change in
attitude, but none of them knew what I was talking about.
“
Akito?” Asked Mana while tilting her head in confusion. “He
didn't seem any different when he talked to me this morning, he
ordered Taisei to polish the floors and then lectured him on the
importance of cleaning products.”
“
Oh,” I said while averting my gaze to the floor. “He hasn't
ordered or lectured me for at least a month.”
“
I'm sure it's nothing,” Mana assured me. “Maybe this is his
way of,” she stopped to think of something to say. “Letting you
know that you're doing a good job?”
“
Ha!” Laughed Kiyori as he walked past us in the corridor and
pretended to accidentally knock me into the wall. It seemed to be
his new hobby and he looked like he was enjoying it
immensely.
“
Oi! Kiyori!” Yelled Mana as she began running after him. “You
shouldn't treat Daisuke like that!”
even a girl had more courage than I did when it came to standing up
to Kiyori.
I continued
to ask around about Akito's whereabouts only to be told that he was
busy in the study, or out running an errand. I should have taken it
as a hint and gone out of my way to avoid him as well, but I was
still naive and stupid back then.
Eventually I
couldn't take the anxiety anymore, and I decided to sit myself
outside his study and wait for him to emerge. I sat there for hours
and struggled to keep myself awake, but Akito had nowhere to run
when he decided to take a toilet break. He almost jumped out of his
skin and fled back inside when he slid open the door to find me
staring back.
“
Daisuke,” he said nervously. “What are you doing out here?
And especially at two in the morning.”
“
Hey Akito,” I replied. “I was wondering when we're going to
start training again?”