Chương 54: Book 1, Chapter 54: Creeping

John dismounted the hover disc, Yuki hopping off behind him. The rain wasn't as overpowering as it once was; although it was still coming down hard, it was more a regular storm rather than an ice-cold wall of water. Thankfully, this gave them plenty of concealment, and hopefully their absence went unnoticed. Perfectly workable for what they had to do. Kiku was undoubtedly surveilling them somehow, but with any luck, she didn't have a good way to track a small moving object amidst the rain and shadows.

Reaching into his bag, John grabbed his mage-flashlight, pressing a button and igniting the focus inside, casting a wide beam of light through the pre-dawn murk. Well, not as if any sun would be getting through this anyhow.

"Please remind me why Rin and Yosuke couldn't come along, again?" John tensely asked, swinging his light—which had a Nameless detector mounted onto it—around, scanning the immediate vicinity before picking up the flying disc after finding nothing.

"Priests have anti-yokai techniques beyond the Ofuda," Yuki explained after looking over the area for herself, ensuring they weren't being watched.

"Unfortunately, Rin counts as one enough for them, and she isn't strong enough to keep functioning when pressed, like I am. Their utility was why yokai interacted with mortals in the first place, before Unbound were invented." That made sense. If you were a kappa having a squabble with another kappa, for example, John could imagine how decisive an edge it would be to have areas where only you could go at full strength, or even having charms set up mid-fight so your opponent suddenly loses their strength.

"I see. This won't be a problem for you?" John inquired, checking his map before starting to creep forward through the trees, Yuki not far behind him. She let out a single short chuckle, shaking her head.

"No. At best, they'll dull my abilities. Absent other support, I'd still be able to win against an unimpeded Rin, albeit narrowly." Dangerous, but manageable, then. It wasn't as if the priests should have anything particularly heavy-duty, and if Kiku called for more Unbound, it'd be a while before they got here, unless she had already had them waiting nearby.

"Are you going to be okay, John?" The kitsune sidled up next to him, her voice barely higher than a whisper despite there being nobody to hear. The thought of pale robes flashed through his mind, and he bit his tongue. The plan demanded that he get close to them. Dread gnawed at the base of his spine, demanding that he flee, but he held firm. No matter what, he could do what was needed. To suggest otherwise would be weakness, and that was not something he could afford—Not now, not ever.

"I can manage," he muttered. Yuki lingered by his side for a moment, her eyes trying their best to burrow into the side of his skull, before she blinked, heading past him and taking point as they crept through the underbrush. With any luck, they'd still be asleep at the wheel when they showed up. While John didn't expect many of them to leave today, given the weather, they might still send some out.

There weren't exactly many local threats beyond yokai, and if these new Ofuda would wall off an area so effectively, they might be slacking on their patrols. He really just had to hope for the best, didn't he? The less he had to see them, the better. They just had to get in, get a sample, cause some superficial damage, and get out before they could react.

Kiku would almost certainly figure out that something was up if they just stole an Ofuda and ran, but if they made it look like a retaliatory attack, that would be their best chance to make it look like nothing of concern for her. He'd prefer she didn't suspect his new trump card, or at least had no idea how it worked. The pair moved on, low and slow. Minutes passed, and John hoped they didn't have to go too far.

He had never been to the shrine that was supposedly up this way for his own self-preservation, only tracked the movements of the priests to get a rough location, and whatever directions Aiki and Haru could provide were pretty worthless when their infiltration route was mostly off-road. Speaking of, a single, shaded path was up ahead, barely visible through the dense treeline and the rain. Thick water rivers swamped it, turning it into a muddy mess as the unrelenting storm continued to pour.

Thankfully, they were heading uphill, not down, so they didn't have to worry about any severe flooding. Still, it was a useful landmark, even if they didn't plan to use it for stealth's sake. Hmm. Flooding. John hoped that Broadstream Town was alright, the river went right through town… then again, this is far from the first storm of this magnitude that he had seen, and many of those buildings were old. Suddenly, Yuki stopped, standing up straight, nostrils flaring, and her eyes searching the woods.

"Show yourself. I have no time for games." At once, John stood straight as well, eyes widening as his pulse picked up. Quickly, he scanned the treeline, but neither his Nameless nor Kiku detector picked up anything, and his generic magic detector, even if he had it ready, would generate dozens of false positives. Not Kiku, not a Nameless. Perhaps it was one of the priests? No, that wouldn't make sense. Why would one be lurking around the brush this early during a storm?

A rustling came from the bushes ahead, and John tensed, aiming his gauntlet forward. Steely focus came to him, flowing over him like a wave as he scanned for threats while checking to ensure they weren't encircled by whoever stalked them. They weren't. Who was this? The rustling branches parted, and through them crawled an upsetting creature, one he knew too well.

The monster was a pale, hairless dog-like beast with skin overly tight over wiry, corded muscles and an almost skeletal muzzle, with thin whiskers upon the tip. The worst part were its eyes. They were dark and beady, and hard to see where it was looking, making him unsure if it would attack. What was it called again… Okuri-inu, maybe? He wondered if it was the same one who had troubled him for so long.

During his first years here, the damned canine had ambushed him in the dark several times, but had been easy to repulse with a bit of firepower, and it had entirely stopped harassing him once he got his warding working. It did look eerily familiar.

"You haven't been in contact. Speak," Yuki ordered, and the creature bowed. Bowed?

"I'm sorry, lady kitsune, you've been very busy, and to go near the silent fort is to court death!" it, no, she pleaded, long, fleshy tail tucked between her legs, eyes daring over to linger on John for a second before flicking back to the ground again. Ah. John squirmed a bit, his heart slowing as his hand flopped back down by his side. Of course Yuki found a way to recruit the damn thing. Why wouldn't she have?

If there was one similarity between Yuki and her sister, it was their ability to be everywhere at once and get involved in everything. It was a mercy one of them didn't end up back home; they'd have most world leaders wrapped around their thumb by the end of year one. The kitsune sighed, shaking her head.

"Very well. Report."

"There's a small group of five Unbound camping by the edge of the woods!" she hurriedly added, bowing deeper so her head touched the ground.

"I don't know what they're waiting for, but they showed up last night in a hurry. They had their servants set up camp, but they haven't moved since. It seems like they're waiting for something."

"Well, there's the backup we considered might be coming," Yuki mused.

"What are they waiting for, though?" The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"Maybe word from Ki—" John glanced at the Okuri-inu "—I mean, the nogitsune. Either she's waiting for us to do something to justify their presence, or she's waiting for us to be vulnerable to roll them in." His breath caught. Attacking a shrine, for instance, would be a perfect justification, even if the priests couldn't pin it on them. The flash of annoyance in Yuki's eyes told him she also realized it.

"We have to move cautiously. They could be mere annoyances if we're lucky, but I'd not wager our fates on that." Half-solid memories of stories about men and women parting clouds with blows and cleaving gouges into the earth came to John's mind, and he shivered before nodding. He had always thought them apocryphal, but given recent events, he saw no reason to chance things, even if it was unlikely Kiku could draw on anyone that powerful. Then, a spark flashed in his mind's eye.

He didn't particularly like it, but it may save this idea yet.

"We go ahead, but we don't sneak in," John stated.

"They likely don't enjoy it, but I can't imagine they know much about you, and from their perspective, our entire group shrugged off their attack and escaped. If we show up and demand recompense, like maybe some Ofuda of our own to ward off the Nameless, we might be able to extract something of value from them. A conspiracy is only as strong as the weakest link, so I doubt everyone there is in the know." Yuki frowned deeply, shaking her head before glancing at the Okuri-inu.

"Leave us," she ordered, and the yokai was quick to obey, scampering away into the bush without a word. The silence hung for a few seconds longer as she made sure their extra was gone before sighing.

"They won't give up an example of such a secret without a fight, John. At best, they'd give us some basic charms to place around the fort."

"It gets us in. Even if the lesser, normal examples aren't close enough to use as a filter for detecting the stronger Ofuda, we might be able to figure out where they have them placed, right? That would give us their methodology, which would let us locate them. Plus, if the paper is the same material, I have an idea," he rambled, the gears in his mind starting to turn. Perhaps it would work, maybe it wouldn't, but the concept was promising.

"I think, with a few extra slips of matching paper, I can do something sneaky when we actually find their Ofuda in the town." Yuki's gaze was questioning, but she didn't press, nodding.

"I'll trust you on this," she replied.

"If that's all we need, I can see this working, but are you sure you can handle it? We don't have to do this." White robes, fluttering in the breeze. Fire burned his torso, scorching his flesh as the sickly smell of pork filled the air. Sharp stone spikes dug into his arms, worming deeper like a demented root system that— Deep breaths. In. Out.

"I can," he responded.

"It has to be done, and I haven't shied away from this before. I'll let you do the talking where I can." Fuck, he hoped he could do this. Fear was useless out here; he could not allow himself to be weak. Still, he had been through far, far worse when he was on his own. How could he back down now, when he had actual support with him? The kitsune's gaze lingered on him for a moment longer.

"Then let's continue," Yuki said, turning and once more leading them forward. Occasionally, they dipped closer to the road, tracing it from a safe distance before returning to the brush. Their march was slow and methodical, keeping them well out of sight while ensuring they were heading in the right direction. Not a soul was on the road whenever he looked, and Yuki's ears never seemed to track anything in that direction for more than a few moments, so he assumed it was clear.

The woods were dense, and they didn't stay on game trails that crossed their path for long. Perhaps they could be tracked, eventually, but it wasn't their goal to remain undetected forever. No, it only had to last long enough to make it to their damned shrine and get them the advantage of surprise. Without Kiku feeding them orders, perhaps they'd be more cooperative.

She'd certainly see through their "mundane" request, but the priests probably weren't terribly aware of how versatile their local pacifistic forest hermit was. As they got closer, it was like the forest was closing in on them, every tree's shadow a potential threat. John shivered as his sense for danger started to spike, although he couldn't tell why.

"We're here. We should head back to the road," Yuki said. John poked his head around her, and he could barely see a flash of pale orange and deep black through the dense foliage. A Torii gate? Nodding, John turned to the road as his heart started pounding against his chest. He could do this. He could. After checking that nobody was coming, the pair stepped out onto the road and brushed themselves off, quickly removing the various dry leaves and branches from their clothes and hair… And tail, for Yuki.

John looked around, checking one last time for threats, before he swapped his cold focus out for the telekinetic one. Thankfully, he had a failsafe in it so it couldn't grab him, which not only saved him from accidentally contorting himself into a pretzel, but also made it really easy to clean yourself of debris… when he remembered that he had it. Several nights of design work well spent, there.

With a simple flick and a quick sweep across all his sides, John was almost clean, although he made sure to de-leaf his hair by hand. Trying to remove a tangled-up branch from your hair through sheer telekinetic force was a mistake you only made once, and he was lucky that the bald spot didn't last. Thankfully, Yuki didn't take too long to clean herself off, although John did learn that she was far more flexible than he expected, with how easily the kitsune could twist her limbs to get everything off her back.

"Am I clean?" she asked. John gave her a thumbs-up before remembering his earlier errors and quickly added.

"Yeah, you're good." With a single wordless look, they were both off, heading towards the no longer so distant torii.

'Ōkuninushi-jinja' read a metal plate hanging from the looming, twelve-foot-tall wooden torii, the slightly faded orange paint clinging to it like a half-drowned man onto a raft. As she approached, she slowly reached a dark-furred hand out towards the gate, almost hesitantly, before passing it through the area below without a hint of resistance.

"They don't have any of those Ofuda up. The only form of protection they have is the natural urge to flee from shrines that most weaker yokai that aren't 'holy' or explicitly welcomed feel," she stated, frowning.

"Strange. I would have thought that they would have fortified themselves first." She glanced over her shoulder, and John knew her wordless question instantly. Were they holding it in reserve, or did they have no more? They pressed on, passing through the gate without further discussion. The path was muddy, and John noticed that there was only one set of tracks leaving the area, with none entering. Someone left recently, someone who was likely there before the storm. A messenger, perhaps?

He wouldn't want to be alone in these woods, but maybe the priests weren't targeted by the Nameless. The perimeter stretched farther than they expected, but soon enough, a hint of wooden planks cut through the rain. A narrow, two-floor building built upon a raised stone dias dominated the clearing, hanging over everything with a strange presence John couldn't place. Below that, there was a handful of other buildings that looked almost like houses.

It was hard to see them, though, through the wood fence that surrounded the complex. The fence itself had been given a fresh coat of dark stain recently, although it was more like an overgrown trellis than a proper wall, and would keep nothing out. Fear seized his heart, and he stumbled, but caught himself quickly. As they entered the lot, it was… eerily empty. No attack was forthcoming. Aside from a single light through a shoji window, the squat, ornamented buildings betrayed no awake inhabitants.

They bore a myriad of well-made carvings adorning doors and the railings towards the edges of the overhangs, each with a deck around the exterior. The buildings were all raised, notably, like they were expecting a flood, despite how far from the river this place was. What were they waiting for? Surely they should have had someone guarding the entrance, or were they just that confident in their safety?

"It seems like they might be having a slow day," Yuki chuckled.

"Do you wish to wake them up?" He understood what she was doing, of course. She was giving him the initiative for his own mental health, but, well, he couldn't say it was unappreciated. John swapped the focus in his gauntlet and aimed at the sky. His fingers clenched. He could almost feel the electricity crackling through him in the moments before— BOOM!

The bright, piercing white bolt tore through the sky with unearthly fury, the straight bolt turning into a more normal-looking bolt after the tight beam of Entropy shelled in Order faded away, heading off into the clouds. He flexed again. BOOM! And once more for good measure. BOOM! The air turned menacing as Yuki flexed her Presence, an aura of inescapable, deep-seated dread pouring off her like a dread light.

"Wake, priests of Ōkuninushi! I would speak with you!" she roared out.

"You have interfered with matters beyond your ken!" It was honestly hard not to hear the cacophony from the buildings as the poor bastards, woken up at dark o'clock, scrambled awake as if they were actively under siege.