The Second Archon War, Interlude 3 (Patreon)

Interlude 3: The Travails of Youth

The morning dawned stormy, with purple skies. As he set out, Jun Mikazuki stopped at the shrine by the exit of his house with his two young children, Keizo and Nami. They bowed to the small family statue of the Raiden Shogun, which was depicted similar to a kneeling buddha figure, with one hand raised in benediction and the other holding a sword across her lap. The statue itself was made of porcelain, and painted in purple and earthy tones. Since he had a test that day, Keizo placed a small cup of cola at the foot of the shrine and said a short prayer for good marks.

“Please let me know all the answers and get a good grade, Raiden Shogun!” the young boy begged. He was ten, still short and a little chubby, but a good boy that Jun was proud of.

Little Nami, feeling left out, dug out a drawing she had made, purportedly of Raiden but it could have been anything, and left it at the shrine as well. At five, Jun was already confident Nami had inherited his own artistic skills, which was to say she had none. Then Jun bid farewell to his two children, who turned and walked towards the elementary school.

For his part, Jun got into his patrol car. It was one of the new models, running entirely on Electro Power. The engine was new, made with the electro crystals mined from the Desolation, and could run for nearly 600 kilometers on a single charge. The newer models coming out later this year were supposed to make 800, though Jun had never needed to travel so far. Besides, any town of means would have a Sacred Sakura tree, and hooking the car into the electro network would charge it from nothing to a full charge in under an hour.

At this hour, the streets of Aso were busy, with children hurrying to school, and people coming home from work. Jun’s own wife would be getting home from a shift at the hospital, where she would sleep through the day until the children got home from school. Not much had changed in Aso since the Raiden Shogun had claimed her rightful place as the Narukami Oshogo and supreme ruler, though there were plenty of new signs advertising services of parahumans or Vision Holders, such as an exterminator who could control rats, or a florist who used her electro vision to grow incredible flowers.

The biggest change, however, was the Thunder Sakura Tree, planted near the town’s center at an old shrine. The shrine itself had naturally been rededicated to the Raiden Shogun, and was the seat of the Yashiro Commission. The tree itself crackled and hummed, lightning arcing amongst its branches. It had been one of the first trees that the Raiden Shogun had planted, not long after she had first appeared. It had grown rapidly, and now the Thunder Sakura’s violet leaves shaded a large portion of the square, spreading even over the walls of the shrine that had been constructed around it.

“-protests still continue in every prefecture, as thousands come out to rally against the words of her Divine Exellency, the Narukami Oshogo. These backward-thinking individuals are ashamed of the past and have yet to understand True Eternity. In the words of Her Excellency, Japan must recognize the sins of the past, and walk forward into a brighter future, unhindered by-”

Grimacing, Jun pulled into a convenience store near the shrine, and turned off his car. He didn’t like hearing about the terrible loss of face of Raiden’s apology, but, well, she was the Raiden Shogun, Archon of Eternity, and Spirit of Japan. If she apologized, then surely it was the right thing to do.

“I need some coffee,” Jun muttered, getting out of his car and buckling on his sword belt. He turned towards the store, but paused as he heard his name.

“Officer Mikazuki! Officer! Please, I need your help!”

Jun turned, frowning as one of the shrine maidens ran up to him. Dressed in the traditional white robes, she was a young girl, no more than 18 or 19, and after a moment, he placed her. Aoi Nijimura, daughter of one of his acquaintances. He’d spoken at her high school not long ago, and it seemed she was taking her turn as a shrine maiden, probably as a part of a class or study.

“What’s the issue, Miss Ninijura?” Jun asked, turning and resting his hand on the pommel of his sword. It was an excellent blade, and while he had not received it from the hand of Raiden herself, it was stamped with the mark of the Isshin Blade School. Raiden had presided over the ceremony where Jun and the other graduates of the new Tenryou Police Academy had received their badges and blades.

“Someone broke into the shrine last night! They stole some things, then took off. Also, um…there’s more slimes…again. Can you take care of them? I could do it myself, but, um, I always get zapped…”

“I’ll see to it at once,” Jun promised and followed after Ninijura. He didn’t get far before he muttered a curse and drew his blade. There were a lot of slimes, at least a dozen of them, and three had congealed into the larger, more dangerous slimes. They were bouncing around the shrine and causing a great deal of damage, even as two other shrine maidens and a priest poked at them with pole arms (and one frying pan) to try to get rid of them.

Jun wasn’t a Vision Holder or a parahuman, being a simple policeman instead of a sentai. For an infestation this bad, he probably could use sentai help though. Better safe than sorry. He unclipped his radio from his belt and called, “Officer Mikazuki, I was on my way to the station, ran into some slimes and a potential robbery. There’s enough of a mess I could use some backup.”

“Copy that, Officer Mikazuki. Sentai Ryusei is on her way.”

That got a raised eyebrow from Mikazuki. Ryusei was one of the Five Stars, and one of the older and more powerful Sentai still operating. Still, he wasn’t going to complain.

Instead of waiting, he waded into the fight, drawing his sword and slicing one smaller slime neatly in two, before applying the Raiden Hamono style. It was a simple, effective form of fighting that emphasized fast strikes, quicker footwork, and no mercy. It was a good style for taking out slimes, largely because lethal force wasn’t really a concern there. Jun had taken out two more slimes, one a larger one that had required several strokes before it went down when Ryusei arrived.

“Clear the courtyard,” a raspy voice said over Jun’s radio, and he hastily evacuated, the shrine maidens and priest already waiting outside on the street. A moment later, the Sentai crashed down into the courtyard from on high in a pillar of flame, which resulted in a deafening explosion from the scattered Electro energy. A few quick balls of flame from Ryusei, and the rest of the slimes were gone, leaving only scorched pavement and a few shattered stones from the detonations.

“T-thank you, Sentai,” Nijimura managed, bowing quickly.

“It is nothing. Officer Mikazuki had it well in hand,” Ryusei wheezed. She had on her mask, which hid the burn scars that Jun knew she had, the same scars that rumor had it that she had given herself when her power first awakened.

He bowed all the same and thanked her. “There was also the matter of a robbery. Will you show us?”

“Ah, yes, this way!” Nijimura led them inside the shrine, past a door that was still coated in the sticky, sweet-smelling substance left behind by slimes, and into the inner courtyard. A wrecked clothes line could be seen, along with an overturned bucket, and an open door to what looked like a small pantry.

“Someone broke in, stole some of our clothes, and then raided the pantry. They got food everywhere, see?”

Jun peeked inside, and indeed he could see half-eaten fruits tossed to the ground, bags that had been torn open, their contents spilled out and trampled, and broken eggs and egg shells that had run into a hideous mess.

“Looks more like an animal did this than a person,” Jun said, wrinkling his nose. “You sure this wasn’t a fox or a tanuki?”

“Well, um…actually,” Nijimura blushed. “I’m…not sure. When I found them, it LOOKED like a fox that had curled up in the laundry, but when I shouted, they looked like a young girl. They ran off, and I chased them, but when we got to the fence, they looked like a fox again, and jumped over the wall. Before I could follow, Father Yoshimitsu started yelling, and then the slimes appeared, and I found you.”

Jun exchanged a look with Ryusei. “Changer?” he asked.

“Unless it’s a yokai, I think so,” Ryusei said dryly. “I’ll handle this. You can come along to handle the paperwork.”

Suppressing a sigh, Jun nodded, and they left to let Nijimura and the other shrine maidens clean up the mess. The remains of the slimes would be carefully collected, and then sent to a condenser. There were all sorts of new applications for slime condensate, from cleaning solutions to fertilizers, even finding purpose in forging blades of the Raiden Gokuden.

The trail of the thief wasn’t hard to follow, as apparently, they’d been hauling some of their ill-gotten gains with them. A trail of crumbs, more eggs, bits of fruit, and smears of food led them on a short chase down to where the river was, leading to a culvert. There were clear footprints in the mud, which started off human, but as they got closer, turned into fox prints.

“It could be a yokai,” Jun said, his tone somewhat teasing as he knelt, picking up a few tufts of fur that had gotten trapped in the sticky mud. To his mild surprise, they were pink. He lifted them to his nose and made a face, tossing them down. Definitely fox fur from the musk.

“It’s a parahuman,” Ryusei said, flames igniting around her fists. “Yokai aren’t real.”

“I would have agreed, until the Shogun appeared,” Jun said, putting his hand on his sword hilt. “If the kami are real, couldn't yokai be real as well?”

Ryusei hesitated. “You…make a valid point. Do you want to investigate first?”

Nodding, Jun stepped forward, peering into the culvert. It was big enough for a fox or a human child to enter easily, but an adult would have to bend double to manage. He listened for a moment, and heard the rustling of plastic, a growling sound, and obvious eating noises. He drew out not his sword, but his flashlight, and pointed it down the tunnel before flicking it on.

The bright beam caught not a fox, but what looked like a little girl, no more than five or six years old, trying to open a bag of cheese puffs with her teeth. Her feet were bare and muddy,  her face smeared with the food scattered about her, and she was dressed in a too large and very stained Miko’s robe. The girl had messy hair that was bright pink, but amongst the hair were two furry ears that had just stiffened straight up, along with a bushy pink tail that had a fluffy white tip. That, Jun had somewhat expected.

What he had not expected was the glowing purple Vision at the girl’s feet. That was very odd. Parahumans didn’t receive Visions. They were different from Vision Holders, who up until recently had all been graced by the Raiden Shogun with a reflection of her own powers for embodying the ideals of Eternity. Or at least, that was what the priests taught, and Jun saw no reason to question it.

“Hello there,” Jun called. “You haven’t seen a fox around here, have you?”

The little girl met Jun’s gaze for a long moment, her violet eyes as big as saucers, the pupils rapidly dilating down to points. Then she hastily stood up, the tail and ears vanishing, the robe dissolving into mist, replaced by a yellow bucket hat and a school uniform identical to the one that Nami wore. The characters on the brim, however, were nonsense, more like a child’s idea of what hiragana would be instead of the real thing.

“Oh, Mr. Policeman, you’ve saved me!” the little girl said, scrubbing at her mouth with her elbow so that her words were muffled and muddled. It did have the effect of getting rid of most of the food stains, but not all. “A vicious, but incredibly beautiful, fox demon kidnapped me! I was, um, being forced to open this bag of delectable snacks for her! You have scared her off and rescued me!”

“I…see. Why don’t you come out here so that you and I can talk?” Jun called, his voice echoing slightly in the pipe.

“Oh, um, er…yesss…I am trapped! I can’t get out!” the little girl wailed. “If I do, the incredibly crafty but wicked fox will eat me!” the girl said, kneeling in the silt of the pipe's bottom and batting her eyes at Jun.

“Really? Well, you had better hurry. There’s a rain storm in the mountains, and if we delay too long, the pipe will flood and you and the fox will both-”

The girl raced out of the pipe, her vision in one chubby hand, the bag of cheesy snacks in the other. She tried to dive between Jun’s legs, but he reached down and snagged her, gripping her firmly but tightly as she hung in his grasp like a limp fish. “Now where do you think you’re going, little miss? You have a lot to explain, breaking into the shrine and-”

“Jun! That’s a decoy!”

He blinked, looking down at the girl, then behind him. There was a splash, and flecks of mud splattered as something invisible ran through the mud. Ryusei tossed a ball of flame, which flashed around what had previously been an invisible fox, which froze at the fire. Jun looked down, but found he was holding the empty robe, stuffed with snacks that now came tumbling out.

Swearing, he turned, only to see the fox leap over the flames and towards the river. He jumped forward in a tackle, and this time wrapped his arms around the fox. “Got you!”

“ARRRROAWOWOW!” the fox screamed, and struggled mightily to get out of Jun’s grip, snarling and snapping at him.

That made the Vision it had been holding in its teeth fall out, and even though the fox managed to wriggle free, Jun snatched the Vision, standing up and holding it high as he breathed hard.

“Stop! Or I’m locking this up as evidence!” he barked.

To his shock, the fox turned back into a naked little girl, though she was wrapped in mist and clouds that obscured her form. He gaped slightly, but it wasn’t anything he hadn’t seen while bathing his own daughter over the years.

“EEEEEK! HELP, THIS DIRTY OLD PERVERT IS MOLESTING ME!” the little girl screamed, pointing at Jun.

“No he’s not. Don’t try to run, or I’ll roast you,” Ryusei snarled, raising her still-burning fists and glowering.

“Oh, I’d like to see you try, mortal,” the girl huffed, and her pointed fox ears reappeared, along with two tails that sprouted. A halo of purple foxfire formed around her, and the little girl floated up in the air. “Please, fire, against a kitsune? You’re too cute.”

“I don’t think there’s any need for that,” Jun said with a sigh. He wracked his brains, and came up with a solution. “What if we offer you WcDonalds?”

The foxfire extinguished, and the little girl dropped to the ground. The mists faded as well, but another robe had appeared draped around her, this one just as grimy and wrinkled as the other. She turned to Jun, drool dribbling down her cheek slightly, her eyes greedy. “Really? WcDonalds? I’ve always wanted to try it fresh…it’s just not the same, raiding their dumpster…”

“If you promise to stop trying to run away and return the stolen robes, you can have WcDolands,” Jun swore.

The little girl…kitsune? Looked down at herself and wrinkled her nose. “Do I have to? I just realized I was naked today. I didn’t have any clothes, so…they don’t fit me very well, but I’m not really sure how you humans make them.”

“Do you…have any parents?” Jun asked as Ryusei approached the girl warily. He made a gesture for her to wait, and she paused, still eyeing the girl skeptically.

“Hmph! I am a year and a half old, human! I am fully grown,” the girl sniffed, sticking her nose up in the air. “I left my mother’s den last fall. I am doing an excellent job of preparing for the winter this year! Look how fat I am!” The girl thumped her belly, though she wasn’t any pudgier than most six-year-olds were, and less than some. “Indeed, now that I have these wonderful hands, even those locks they put on the dumpsters won’t keep me out! I will get some of the shiny things, and then I can buy all the food from the larders with the damnable plastic containers I wish!”

“How…long have you been a…kitsune, exactly?” Jun asked slowly. He was increasingly certain that this girl wasn’t human, and was indeed a yokai, whatever skepticism he might have had earlier.

“Fufufu!” the girl laughed, lifting her tail up to her face and grinning smugly at Jun. “I have always been a yokai! For I was the most beautiful and wonderful of all the foxes! Clever enough to steal food from the humans, but not so docile as to live like those pathetic dogs or damnable cats. However, when I was gazing at my wonderful reflection yesterday, I realized that I had an ambition in life! To eat real, fresh WcDonalds.”

The girl clasped her hands together, her eyes going glassy, her lip trembling as she looked up at Jun. “Those fries…they smell…so delicious! And the chicken nuggets! Mmmm! So tender and juicy! Some ignorant human had set their bag on the bench beside them as they talked into those funny boxes you carry around, and I snatched it off the bench! It was so delectable! I knew I must have more!”

She planted her fists on her hips, and looked up at Jun. “So! Return to me my talisman, and I will consent to allow you to purchase for me a WcDonalds Smiley Meal!”

Jun slowly lowered his hand, but he didn’t offer the girl the vision. “I…Think I’ll hold on to this. But we’ll get WcDonalds. Here, hold my hand.”

The girl eyed his hand skeptically. “I do not know. I do not trust you humans. You are forever chasing me off, and putting locks on the food you were throwing away anyway. But, now the tables have turned! For you see, NOW I HAVE THE THUMBS! MWAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!”

The girl cackled madly, wiggling her fingers as if to show off her newly acquired mastery of the universe. However, at the same time, Jun felt something try to pry open his fingers and wrench away the Vision. In response, he reached over and grabbed hard. The laughter cut off, and the girl vanished, while the formerly invisible girl that had been trying to get her Vsion back suddenly appeared, her right hand firmly gripped in Jun’s left.

“Well, come along then. We’ll just go to the station. I’ll have WcDonald’s delivered.”

“NOOO! Give me back my Talisman!” the girl pleaded, tears filling her eyes and splattering down her cheeks as she struggled and wailed. “Without it, I-I… I might go back to just being a fox! I need it! It’s what makes me, me now! I know it! Without it, I’ll lose my precious thumbs! BEFORE I EVEN GOT TO TRY HAMBURGERS!”

“I’ll make sure you get to try hamburgers. You won’t lose your thumbs,” Jun promised. He tucked the Vision into a pouch at his side, it was no bigger than a 500 yen coin, though thicker and shaped more like a fox eye than a sphere.

The girl sagged in his grip, apparently giving up the fight. “Do you promise?”

“Yes,” Jun said seriously.

The girl met his eyes. “OK.”

Then she disappeared again.

Sighing, Jun shook his head. “I can still feel your fingers in mine.”

“Hmph. Well, you can’t blame me for trying,” the girl reappeared, though she once more looked like a little school girl, the hat hiding her ears and with no sign of a tail.

They walked along, Ryusei falling in beside them, the flames on her hands flickering out.

“What’s your name, by the way?” Jun asked as they walked.

“Hmm. Well, it’s hard to say without musk glands,” the girl said, wrinkling her nose. “But it’s something like ‘two-smells-beautiful-flower-musk-on-a-two-star-night.’”

“That’s…a mouthful,” Jun said slowly, shaking his head. “We need another name.”

“Trouble,” Ryusei grunted.

“Heh,” the girl smirked. “Only for you useless and nose-blind humans.”

“Hmmm, well, you did take some miko robes…what about Miko, but spelled with the older kanji?” Jun suggested.

“Fine. I shall be…Double Miko! Because two is better than one.” The twin tails sprouted behind the girl, and she giggled.

“Yae,” Jun agreed. “Yae Miko.”

“Right, sure. About that WcDonalds…also, could you let go of me? You’re hurting my hand.”

“Not a chance.”

“Hmph. You are no fun.”

And thus, began the legend of Yae Miko.

First of the Yokai.

“And everyone, say hello to our new student, Taylor!”

“Hi!”

Gazing out at all the other students in the new class, Taylor felt a little sick, and tried to hide behind her Lightning Princess Ami lunchbox. She was so nervous; her glasses fogged up a little, but she tried to ignore that.

“What don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself, Taylor?” the teacher said, smiling down at Taylor. He was kneeling next to her, and smiling. Unlike Mrs. Frenshaw, Mr. Murphy was a boy, with a big beard, not much hair on his head, but a lot of hair on his chin, and a belly. All of Taylor’s other teachers had been girls, and she wasn’t sure about how she felt about having a boy for a teacher.

“Um, h-hello,” Taylor said, waving nervously. She swallowed. “Um, my name is Taylor Hebert…a-and my dad was the coolest person ever…”

“Who’s your dad?” one of the other students, a little boy with snot encrusted on his lip said and a bright red nose. Taylor wrinkled her own nose. Boys were gross. Except her dad. Her dad was the coolest.

“My dad was Danny Hebert, also known as the Longshoreman, and he was the greatest superhero ever! Even cooler than Alexandria, or Lightning Princess Ami!” Taylor said fervently.

“No one’s cooler than Lightning Princess Ami. She has a TV show. Does your dad have a TV show?” a little girl that Taylor instantly decided she hated piped up.

“He has an action figure, and he was on an episode of PRT Heroes!” Taylor snapped. She reached a hand into her pocket, clutching her father’s Vision. “He fought the Siberian, and she’s a part of the Slaughterhouse Nine!”

“He got killed by the Siberian,” another little boy that Taylor silently swore eternal vengeance upon piped up.

“Edwardo,” Mr. Murphy chided, frowning at the little boy. He turned back to Taylor and smiled. “He was a great hero, Taylor. One of the greatest in Brockton Bay.”

“Better than Armsmaster. He smells funny,” Taylor opined, remembering when she’d met Armsmaster. He’d come over with Aunty Becky and Uncle Wyatte to help them move to their new condo, though she had to call him Mr. Colin instead of Armsmaster. Taylor had been heartbroken to have to move, but Aunty Becky had assured her that the new house was “in a nice part of town” with “good schools, and less crime.”

Taylor just knew she missed her old room, and that her new bedroom was bigger, but not as comfy as her old one.

“That’s very nice. Well, I’m sure you’ll fit in our class. Anything else you want to tell us?” Mr. Murphy asked politely. Taylor could tell he wanted her to go sit down now, but she decided she had more to say anyway.

“I used to go to Franklin Pierce Elementary, but we moved ‘cause my mom got a new job and now I come here to Wood Elementary. My best friend is Emma Barnes, and…and…”

Tears filled Taylor’s eyes, and she decided she was done talking. Her mom and Emma’s dad Alan had promised that they would still be friends and hang out, but now Emma and Taylor weren’t in the same class anymore, and that was horrible.

“I’m sure you’ll make lots of new friends here at Wood Elementary,” Mr. Murphy promised. He gently squeezed Taylor’s shoulder, then led her over to four desks put together. “This is the Butterfly Team. They have an extra seat, so you’ll be sitting with them.”

“Hi!” the snot-nosed boy who was gross said. “I’m Xavier!”

“I’b Billiam,” another little boy who talked funny said, smiling at Taylor. She looked shyly at the other girl on the Butterfly Team.

“I’m Sarah. And Mr. Murphy, William was touching my desk again!” the other girl said. She had freckles on her cheeks and straw blonde hair that would definitely change colors as she got older.

“Sarah, are you tattling, or is there a real problem?” Mr. Murphy asked as Taylor took her seat.

Sarah rolled her eyes. “I’m just telling!”

“Use your words to solve your problems please, Sarah.”

“Yeah, Sarah,” Xavier said. “You’re such a tattletale!”

“Mr. Murphy!” Sarah squawked in outrage.

“Xavier,” Mr. Murphy said firmly.

“Sorry,” Xavier muttered.

“Thank you. Now, everyone help Taylor learn the ropes.” Then Mr. Murphy turned to the class. “Alright, it’s time for the Morning Meeting! Everyone, come meet me at the carpet.”

Taylor nervously walked over to the carpet, not sure where to sit.

“You’re number 18, it’s on your desk,” Sarah told her. “I’m number 17, so you sit here, next to me, OK?”

Nodding gratefully, Taylor sat down with Sarah. She didn’t know all the songs that Mr. Murphy’s class sang, but she did know the alphabet song, and she knew Down By the Bay, so she clapped and sang along to those.

Later at recess, Taylor found herself hanging back at Butterfly Table, uncertain. She reached for her latest copy of Lightning Princess Ami to take with her to look at. She could sort of read it, but she did like to look at the pictures.

“Come on, you can play with me,” Sarah declared, taking Taylor’s hand. “I’m new too. I just started here. I used to live in Connecticut, but we moved ‘cause my dad says the weather is nicer in Brockton Bay and also the houses here go boom.”

“It’s a housing boom,” Taylor corrected. “My mom says she sold our old house for a lot of money, and we got a condo ‘cause it’s just us now.”

“Yeah that. Do you like to play jump rope?” Sarah asked, leading Taylor outside.

“Kinda…”

Looking at what Taylor was clutching in her hands, Sarah’s eyes lit up. “Lighting Princess Ami!? That’s my favorite show!”

“Mine too!” Taylor gasped, as if this were an incredible revelation. Surely, no two other girls their age were fans of the biggest shojo property in the history of Earth Bet.

The two girls giggled and sat together on one of the benches, their breath steaming in the late fall air as they looked over Taylor’s book. Sarah was kinda bossy and talked a lot, but Taylor didn’t mind. At least she would have one new friend at her new school.

Even if she was a bit of a Tattletale.