Chapter 12

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As Shouma fell to his knees thinking that he was done for, the cloth covering his face suddenly emitted a high-pitched squeal.

“Kyuuuu”

With the squeal like that of a small animal, the thing ripped itself off from Shouma’s eyes. When he opened them, Tendou stood in the open field of his vision.

“I knew it would fall for this.”

“You…are…late,” complained Shouma between his coughing fits.

It was only when he couldn’t breathe that he realized how delicious the air could be.

Tendou took a step and stood next to Shouma while scrutinizing him with an anxious look.

“Are you alright?”

“No, I’m not…okay”

Aftar finally catching his breath, Shouma looked up at Tendou. Then his eyes widened when he spotted a humanoid form standing next to the man.

“Ah-”

There was a woman in a kimono. However, she was a head taller than Tendou and Shouma and had longer arms and legs than the two men. She was lacking eyes and nose and only had a big mouth on her face, which seemed to reach to her ears as if somebody split it open with a blade. Her mouth was covered in crimson rouge while her teeth were painted in a pitch-black color.

Shouma slowly backed away.

“No-nopperabo?”

“I don’t wish to dishearten you, but she is a kaii called the Ohaguro-bettari [1]. See, unlike the Nopperabo [2] she actually has a mouth, doesn’t she?”

As if she was amused by Shouma’s surprised reaction, the Ohaguro-bettari released a soft cackle, then turned to the boy with the corner of her mouth slightly raised.

“Konnichiwa”

It was just like a woman’s voice. Though her voice was a little muffled, probably because of her lack of nose, but judging by the sound only, one would easily label her as a normal person.

Shouma bowed his head.

“Um…Konnichiwa”

“You don’t have to be afraid. She was summoned here by me, also her nature as a kaii is harmless enough to just merely startle people.”

“Is that harmless?”

“She is more harmless than a kaii that puts a deadly curse on you or causes severe injuries, don’t you think?

“…Indeed.”

At least, it was more harmless compared to the Fusuma that attacked Shouma so viciously a few moments ago. He could quite agree with that.

The book with the traditional Japanese binding, the Collected Records, rested solely in Tendou’s hand.

“It’s getting a little dark.”

Tendou flipped through the pages and blew on it as he reached the desired location. The words on the paper danced and floated in the air to eventually aggregate into a single shape.

The thing which appeared before them was a blue heron.

“What is this?”

“It’s called the Aosagibi [3].”

The Aosagibi flew around the area and illuminated the park with its radiating bluish light.

Although the park was near the busy shopping street with its usual bustling crowd of customers and traffic, it was mostly tucked away, so people didn’t seem to notice or let anyone come to investigate even if it happened to be somewhat brighter.

“So if you use that book, you are able to put the kaii inside and just call them out of it?”

“Well, only the ones who wish to cooperate. I could force them to obey, but I don’t really want to do that so there’s only a limited amount of kaii I can use.” [4]

Just then, ahead of them a small, mosquito-like whine could be heard.

“Kyuuuu”

When they took a look at it, the mass which had the look similar to a kimono just ripped in half. Only its edges were attached, but even as it moved a little, the thing almost seemed to scatter into pieces.

“Is that the… Fusuma?”

“Yes. It is a floating and wandering kaii that no blade can cut into no matter how sharp or famous it is.”

As Shouma listened to Tendou’s explanation he remembered his broken utility knife. This kaii may look like a simple cloth, but one would say its firmness is more similar to iron.

Tendou holds up his index finger.

“But even the Fusuma has one weakness.”

“And what’s that?”

“Her.”

Shouma looked up at the Ohaguro-bettari who stood beside Tendou.

“To be more precise, it’s only weakness is the teeth blackening. No matter how good or known a sword is it can’t hurt the Fusuma, but with one’s teeth dyed in black it could bite through it cleanly. All in all, she is the main weakness of the Fusuma.” [5]

The Ohaguro-bettari chuckled again and sidled up closer to the other kaii.

The Fusuma shrunk frighteningly small. “Kyuuuu”

Then it began to roll into a ball. In no time at all, it seemed to curl up into the size of a person’s palm, while gradually changing its color.

Shouma noticed that the Fusuma, which had been similar to a kimono earlier, had turned into a small, mouse-like creature. It also had a large brown, squirrel-like tail.

“A mouse?”

“It’s a flying squirrel. The Fusuma’s other names are Nobusuma, Momonga or Musasabi, these three all denote the Japanese Flying Squirrels. [6] The kaii change their appearance based on people’s perceptions. Now you can see the result of it for yourself.”

The Fusuma seemed to be crying as it curled into a small ball.

“Kyuuun…”

“Um…are you alright?”

Because of its sudden cute appearance Shouma even forgot that he had been previously attacked by this kaii. So he couldn’t help but blurt out something.

Then, the Fusuma raised its small face with a squeak and glared at Shouma.

“You, too…”

“Um”

“You too looked at me and thought ’it’s just like the Ittan-momen’!”

Shouma blinked in confusion at the little Fusuma, who started crying loudly with a bawl. He was surprised that it could even speak a human language, and didn’t expect it to react in such a human way. Although it might be strange to mark the kaii with such a phrase as “human-like”, but….

Shouma looked at Tendou as if asking for his help. He just shrugged with his shoulders and didn’t seem to want to do anything.

Shouma approached the Fusuma with a little trepidation. The more he looked at it, the more it became an ordinary rodent to him. Shouma was sure no one would think that this creature was the random assailant who caused so much stir in the neighbourhood.

“Umm”

The Fusuma raised its head to look at him. Those big and round eyes were filled with tears.

“What did you mean by ’just like the Ittan-momen’?”

“…No matter what I do and no matter how many people I scare, the Ittan-momen get all the credit for it. Because that guy is more famous and popular than me…And after all, you don’t even know me at all, do you!? You must have thought of the Ittan-momen too!”

The Fusuma screamed in frustration.

Though it is true that when Shouma heard about the characteristics of the Fusuma, his first thought had been that it’s somehow similar to the Ittan-momen, but how does that matter in this situation?

Shouma twisted his head around, not quite grasping what the little kaii was trying to imply.

“Shouma, didn’t I tell you about this before? The kaii live in constant danger of weakening if they are not spoken of and completely disappear if they are not recognized by people. The fact that all the credit of the Fusuma goes to the Ittan-momen is the same as the fact that the food you worked so hard to get for yourself is taken by someone else.”

Tendou offered this explanation as a helping hand for Shouma to understand the situation.

Although Shouma couldn’t imagine what it feels like to call the scaring of people as one’s ’achievement’, he understood what Tendou meant by it. Perhaps that the perception of people becoming nourishment for a creature itself was one of the many peculiar afflictions of the kaii.

“Well, you’re right, it’s a cruel thing when others don’t recognize your efforts in a particular situation.”

“…so you understand it?”

“The world of humans is kind of the same in a roundabout way.”

Now that somebody felt sorry for it and tried to encourage it in this pitiable state, the Fusuma slightly readjusted its position and sat back down. Then wiped away the tears from its eyes with one paw.

“On top of that, it’s not just the Ittan-momen, but another guy appeared recently who has been snatching the credit for my efforts. That’s the reason why I become so desperate. It’s because of that guy…the Random Assailant.”

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Translator’s Notes:

[1] お歯黒べったり It can be seen near shrines or temples calling out to young men, this creature mostly looks like a beautiful bride in white clothes. Despite its face it only startles the ones who got near to it, for this reason there are assumptions that this creature is simply a kitsune or tanuki who changed its shape, but there are rumours that it’s the spirit of ugly brides. (example)

[2] 野箆坊 The faceless ghosts. They mostly have mischievous characteristics and only frighten their victims with their featureless faces.

[3] 青鷺火 literal meaning ‘blue heron fire’ The other reading for this kanji is Aosaginohi. According to the legends when an animal reaches a particular age it evolves into a yokai, in this case, the heron will have blue feathers and emit an illuminating light. (example)

[4] In the original text, Tendou uses the kanji 子 (ko) to refer to the kaii in his book, which is usually used to speak about children or young animals.

[5] Back in the days, even men painted their teeth black because of the fear of the Fusuma. This custom remained in the minds of people as far as the Meiji-era. (1868-1912)

[6] Both the Momonga and the Musasabi are the Japanese names for flying squirrels, the latter stands for the Japanese Giant Flying Squirrel, while the former is the average Flying Squirrel.

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