I am Succubus! - Chapter 160 (Patreon)

Alt link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iE8cmMe38GJc_P4RcKsjXkkCbCuFVl3LS1KkEs1JIcI/edit?usp=sharing

Chapter 160

Mikami and I had been getting along as well as a human could with a succubus. Our relationship was strictly professional, but there were times it seemed like she had something to get off her chest. Every job we went out to, however, still left me surprised at how skilled she was at exorcism and the occult. It gave me hope that we might actually fix Kana's onryo problem.

"Thank you for your patronage," the konbini employee said in an overly rehearsed and weary voice.

After receiving the change, I picked up the box of karaage and flew to Menagerie.

"Got you your karaage," I announced on the way in.

"Saeko?!" Mikami threw everything in her hands into the air and almost fell off her seat. She scrambled to pick things up to put away.

"A little too excited for fried chicken," I teased, putting the cartoon poultry-faced boxes on the counter.

As Mikami stuffed things into the drawer, a book in her hand caught my attention. I gleaned the title before it was thrown in everything else. How to Live With a Succubus.

"Th-That was a quick trip." Mikami popped her head up.

"Rules of traffic don't really apply to me, remember? So, reading up on succubi. Did you learn anything?" I asked as the urge to poke fun of her grew.

The occult enthusiast turned bright red.

"I-I just want to be prepared! I've heard of succubus ever since it was discovered that your race exists. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to shack up with one. Not to mention, the queen succubus," she said.

I entered through a side door and pulled open the drawer, revealing the book Mikami was just reading.

"I'm not actually royalty if that's what you're thinking, but if you want to learn about succubus, you're better off asking me than trying to learn from the fantasy erotica section of a bookstore." Smirking, I plucked the book out to read the synopsis on the back.

It was exactly what I thought it was. A steamy romance novel geared towards men and the love interest is a succubus.

"Okay, enough of that!" Mikami snatched the book from my hand and tossed it into the trash bin.

"What were you trying to learn anyway? If I need to have sex often?" I asked, leaning forward into her personal space.

"Regrettably, I'm into men." Mikami put a hand up between us. "Which! Led me to wonder if you can seduce a hunk celebrity to fall in love with me?"

"I most likely can."

Mikami filled with hope.

"But I won't," I quickly added.

That hope vanished.

"Why not?!" Mikami wailed, then got into my face while rubbing her thumb and index finger together. "Think about it. Do you know how much money we would make by playing cupid and match-maker?"

"What if one day a netorare doujin-level ugly bastard takes a liking to you, and he's willing to pay me millions of yen to make you fall in love with him?" I posed hypothetically.

She recoiled. Hard. Enough to slink into her seat and scoot several feet away from me.

"You… You wouldn't."

"I know a couple of succubus who would just to get a laugh, but not me. Doesn't sound so great when you're the one getting match-made, huh?" I fired back.

"Oh, alright. I just want a nice, young man to like me!" Mikami groaned, then grabbed the karaage container to eat while sulking..

"Have you tried dating?"

"I have! Even e-dating! I've widened my profile parameters and standards so much, but the moment someone learns about my job, they're turned off faster than a hachishaku-sama finding out the boy she's been hunting is actually a loli tomboy!" she cried.

Oddly specific.

Although I did get where Mikami was coming from. If I was just some schmuck going on a date with someone like her and was told that she exorcised ghosts for a living, then only one of two things could happen. They immediately saw a deadbeat lunatic chuunibyou, or believed her and were too scared shitless to want to start a relationship.

And with ghosts and yokai to be so active lately, as well as the spirits that continued to haunt this house…

After giving it some thought, I didn't blame her prospective dates for ditching.

"I'm feeling an intense aura of pity emanating from you directed at me." Mikami glared.

"It's the good kind of pity." I shrugged. "Anyway, how close are we down your list of clients until we exorcise my boyfriend?"

"He's up next. We'll go after lunch. I've been reading up on onryo and how the kami might relate to this case. A cursed dagger from Amterasu… used in a sort of blood ritual to seal away Tamamo no Mae… thus causing the onryo to possess him. It's so odd." She popped the last karaage into her mouth and stared blankly at the wall.

"Most people I tell this to will give me a thousand-yard stare. Not you. Doesn't it boggle your mind that Shinto gods and Takamagahara are out there?"

Mikami's answer came in the form of twirling her finger to direct my attention around the room. If she put it that way, I guess a medium would be more readily accepting of this sort of stuff than a normal person.

Absentmindedly, she folded the container's lid outward to lick the sauce, but since the nose portion of the mask was in the way, she made an awkward show of doing it. When we locked eyes, she quickly stopped and cleared her throat.

"Forget you saw that!" Mikami exclaimed.

"Sorry! Didn't mean to stare, I was just thinking… my girlfriend, Mio, she also likes her food really spicy," I said nostalgically.

"Well, she's got good taste. Flavor over— Wait, girlfriend? I thought you had a boyfriend?" she asked.

"I'm in a poly relationship. Oh, and Mio's also a succubus."

Mikami grabbed me by the collar of my school uniform.

"You're dating two people at once? How is that fair? What about me?! I haven't had a boyfriend in ages! Aaaahhhhh! Damn it all… my golden 20s is wasted on ghost hunting… Some girls are just born luckier than others…" she moped like a baby, letting me go to reach for my container of karaage to eat away the depression of her romanceless life.

Maybe not so lucky with how I botched things up with Delilah and Mio.

I let Mikami have it. Once she finished eating, we finally headed to Kana's house to perform the exorcism. Apparently, he couldn't deal with all the noise and banging while staying at the love hotel, so we compromised with Hana living at his place for the time being.

When I knocked on the door, Hana answered the door.

"Oh, Saeko! You shoulda called!" Hana said nervously.

"Why?" I asked, then saw Mio over her shoulders.

Mio, who was on the couch, coldly faced away from me. Judging by the paused game on the TV and controllers on the coffee table, I came at an inopportune time.

"Saeko?" Kana came around the corner and made awkward glances between us.

"What's with this lukewarm reception? Not sure what's eating the four of you, but we have an onryo to exorcise. You're Kana?" Mikami asked as she let herself in.

"Uh— Yeah." He stuck a hand out intending to shake, but she walked past him and into the living room to start setting up.

I followed Mikami in only to have the mask stuffed into my hand again.

"Seriously?" I asked.

"Yes, Acolyte. It's important!" Mikami insisted.

Sighing, I put on the mask. Hana couldn't hold back her laughter, pointing and cackling at the half-mask on my face.

"You look so dumb! Uwahaha— aah!"

I tightened my aura to suffocate Hana and stifle her high-pitched gaggling.

Mio and I caught each other staring.

"H-Hey, Mio… Brought you something!" I fumbled with the plastic bag, pulling out another container of the spicy karaage after stopping by the konbini again on the way here.

"Thanks." Mio took it, placed the container on the coffee table, and said nothing more.

This was beyond awkward…

It felt like we were complete strangers now. How the hell was I supposed to get through to her?

"We're going to need some space, so push all the furniture to the side," Mikami ordered.

We got to work helping. Mio hopped off the couch to push it up against the wall. While I pushed another piece of furniture, I couldn't stop throwing looks her way. The last piece of furniture was the coffee table that Kana quickly jumped in to help me lift away.

"How's Mio?" I whispered, eyes lingering on the karaage container wobbly unsteadily on the table.

"Not her usual self, hasn't talked or mentioned you at all, and is still brooding. She also hasn't had sex since that orgy a few days ago. You two really need to sit down and talk about this. What about you and your mom?" Kana asked in return.

"Haven't changed her back to human yet, so I'm going to need you for a night after this. It's still weird, thinking of her as my mom though. How's your ghost eye?"

We put the coffee table down at the corner of the room, and Kana opened his hand to show me the eyeball. It was still there, currently gazing intently at the exorcist in the room. Kana followed its gaze to her, too.

"So, Mikami… She looks like she's going to pull out a tarot card and read my fortune rather than exorcise me," Kana joked.

"She can probably do that, too. Mikami's the real deal. I've worked with her the past week, and she's really good at her job," I assured him.

Mikami laid out a plastic blue tarp and arranged red candles in a circle like it was a summoning ritual out of some horror film. I ignited them, and a wave of dread washed over me. A quick glance at others around the room told me I wasn't the only one who felt that, but Mikami was unfazed as always.

"Hey, not that I'm doubting Miss Witchcraft over here, but should we maybe call Yumi over to create some barriers for us?" Mio asked.

"Won't work. Ghosts and spirits are intangible to us," Mikami said.

"Tangy— what?" Hana cocked her head.

"Intangible. Meaning we can't physically touch them. Our magic will just pass right through. I've tried," I said, recalling the times my magic had only destroyed people's belongings when I thought to repel ghosts.

Mikami led Kana into the circle and handed each of us succubus a bundle of sticks. She paused to take a deep breath, seemingly hesitant this time around.

"Stay in the circle. Ignite on my cue. This onryo is going to hang on for dear life. Depending on how strong or violent it is, it might lash out at us during the exorcism," she explained.

We each gave her a nod, but Mikami waited on Kana's call.

"I'm ready as I'll ever be. Just get this thing out of me already," Kana said.

Mikami produced a paper talisman from her briefcase, whispered what might have been a prayer, and stuck it at the edge of the circle.

The room went unnatural black. Curtains drew closed and the locks to every door in the house clicked shut. We could still see each other thanks to the candles, but my succubus aura detected another presence in the room.

"Light them up!" Mikami ordered.

Hana, Mio, and I magically ignited the sticks in our hands, causing the room to fill with aromatic white smoke.

"Wait… it hurts!" Kana cried.

Mio and I moved to help him on reflex.

"No!" Mikami yelled. "If it hurts, then it's working. I have to pry the onryo from his soul!"

Ghostly hands shot out from Kana's body and clenched around our throats.

"Gaak! It can… touch us… but we can't… touch the ghost?" Hana croaked, waving her hands and the burning sticks across the arm.

Another ghostly arm went for Mikami, but struck something like an invisible barrier and retracted. She picked up the talisman on the ground and smirked, because doing so was dragging the same arm out of Kana.

"Come on, you stupid onryo!" Mikami pulled the talisman against a force like a game of tug of war, and her opponent was a ghost. Ghosts. With every inch of the arm she wrenched out, a flood of wailing spirits poured from Kana and escaped out the room.

"What the hell is all that?" I asked.

She was almost reluctant to answer me. "Acolyte, your boyfriend isn't possessed by just one spirit… there are thousands…"

"This vessel is mine!" Kana exclaimed, reaching out of the candle circle to wrap two hands around Mikami's throat.

"Oh, shit—"

"Kana, stop! She's trying to help you!" I shouted.

Mio cast a desperate look at me to do something.

I was a succubus. Kana might be possessed, but his body and mind was still human. While constricting my aura around him, I tried to compel him with all my might to get him to let Mikami go.

His fingers loosened enough for her to escape and gasp for breath. She quickly pulled off the prayer beads on each of her wrist and placed them onto Kana instead.

Light returned to the living room, and the candles blew out after being melted down to their base.

"What… happened?" Kana asked, slowly coming back to his senses.

"Whatever is inside you… is strong." Mikami winced as she rubbed her neck. "I need to find another way. Keep those beads on you. It will placate the onryo and stave off spirits for now."

With the exorcism having failed, we helped Mikami clean up and replace the furniture in the room. By a stroke of luck, Mio and I grabbed the coffee table to bring back.

"Can we talk?" I asked her.

"Look, thanks for the spicy fried chicken, but it's not gonna bring me swooning back into your arms and wings. Everytime I think of you now, I see that bitch Delilah. I know she's your mom, but she took away the only people I called family… Sorry." Mio stormed away as soon as we placed the coffee table back down.

Kana held my hand, and I felt the wooden beads on his wrist rub against mine.

"I'm not saying either of you are wrong, but try to think of it from Mio's perspective. How would you feel if someone hurt her, me, or Hatsumi?"

"You're putting on a brave face despite just learning that maybe a thousand ghosts live inside you," I said.

"No, I'm scared shitless. I remember the last time I was possessed. But I have to stay strong for the both of you." Kana smiled.

When we got back to Menagerie, I wanted to ask Mikami about the onryo, but she charged into the storage room to rummage through piles of mess that looked like it all belonged to a hoarder. She tugged on something that seemed firmly stuck underneath a shelf, so I went in to help pull on the handle. We pulled hard and wrenched out an old, ironbound chest which she unlocked using a key hanging around her neck.

The lock clicked open. Mikami opened the creaking chest to a tattered tome within.

"What is that?" I asked.

"My grandfather's tome. That onryo is strong. Really strong. But I'm determined that somewhere in these pages lies the answer. This won't be the end of it, and we'll exorcise Kana for sure next time," Mikami promised me.

Both of us spent the entire afternoon, pouring over the tome and the store for anything that might help. It was getting late, so we ordered ramen delivery and saved the research for later.

"Say, I thought you three were in a relationship? Looked pretty icy to me," Mikami said.

"We're… It's a long story, but we're kind of fighting right now if it can be called that. Mio wants something that I can't give," I explained as vaguely as possible that only stoked her curiosity.

"And that something is serious enough that your relationship is strained over it, hm? Normally, I would revel in a failing relationship. Serves you right— is what I would usually say. But you're my acolyte, so if you need anything, let me know. Just not when it comes to feeding your sexual desires!" she hastily added.

The last part made me laugh. Honestly, some sex might help to take my mind off things. But…

"As someone familiar with the occult, maybe you can help. I'd like to take up your offer from the first day about reading my fortune," I said.

Mikami didn't hesitate. We cleared the counter, but I was asked to be on the customer side. She flipped the sign to close, then brought two things out: the crystal ball and a deck of tarot cards.

Until recently, the supernatural had never really registered in my mind. I'd always been skeptical, passing them off as fiction or just something interesting to mindlessly talk about. Now, however, with a medium like Mikami, I might get answers to things that have been troubling me.

We began with the crystal ball. Mikami's hands hovered above it, eyes behind the mask  fixed on the smooth surface that reflected a distorted view of everything in the room. The ball fogged up.

Confused, Mikami replaced the crystal ball with the tarot cards instead. I couldn't believe my eyes when the cards shuffled themselves.

"Cool, isn't it?" Mikami smirked. "Put your hand above the deck, but don't actually touch it. Let them play out on their own."

I did as I was told, and the cards spread out flat on the table to form a pyramid. Three cards arranged themselves in a row above the tip of the pyramid.

"Oh, interesting! This is a new spread I've never seen before."

"What do they mean?" I asked.

Mikami pointed to the first card in the row of three. "The Lovers. Reverse. There is disharmony in your love life. That happens when it's too one-sided, so it becomes unbalanced. Like on a seesaw, one of you has stopped contributing. Now it won't move right."

One of us stopped contributing… Was it me?

She continued. "Next is The World. Also reverse. You're lacking closure somewhere, which explains why the crystal ball fogged up so much that even I can't see. Could be anything in your life, such as family troubles or lack of fulfillment. You have to seek the answers from those closest to you and not be afraid to lay out your emotions to obtain them."

Easier said than done…

There was one card left, and seeing it made me shudder with uncertainty.

"How about the last one? I'm getting goosebumps from it," I said.

"The Hierophant. Also reversed." Mikami's eyes furrowed with worry. "Pretty rare to get this one. It means something new is approaching for you. On the flipside, it might also harmlessly mean rebellion. Not the French Revolution rebellion, mind you. More like upheaval in established orders and a need to steer away from traditional norms—"

The pyramid of tarot cards combined themselves and shuffled again, but left the three cards on the table. I thought this was supposed to happen until I saw Mikami taken aback by what was going on. Finally, the shuffling stopped and another card was drawn on its own, placed reverse on top of The Hierophant first, and then turned sideways.

"I'm guessing that wasn't supposed to happen…"

"No… and that's The Emperor in reverse. It means tyranny. For it to be on top of The Hierophant suggests a clash of two forces. What forces? I can only guess," Mikami said.

In the back of my mind, I had an idea. The only two forces that it could mean, especially after my mom told us about what me staying as a succubus and keeping the Blade of the First Temptress would lead to.

Beatrice.

"Hey, Mikami—"

When I looked up from the cards, Mikami was squirming from being groped by a dozen ghostly hands.

"Mikami?!"

"This is the worst… I gave my prayer beads to your boyfriend, so now I'm open season for these perverted ass ghosts!" Mikami cried.