“Neo-Tokyo is in a dire situation. Custodes Daemonium’s Japan branch, under the leadership of Satoru Ganjo, has completely taken over the nation,” Tamamo started. “It began shortly after a strange man named Hisashi Tokiya arrived. Okasan seemed to know him and had our yokai keeping an eye on him, but he soon vanished. We only learned later that he had joined up with Satoru Ganjo, and by then, it was too late.”
“Too late? What happened?” asked Anthony.
“Satoru Ganjo began to wage war against us yokai,” she said grimly. “He started by subjugating the other eight bijuu. He did it so quickly that we didn’t even realize the bijuu had been defeated until he attacked okasan directly using their power.”
“He used the bijuu’s power?” asked Anthony for clarification.
“Correct.”
Nodding, Tamamo was about to explain more when a knock echoed at the sliding paper door before it slid open.
“Excuse me, Tamamo-ojousama, I’ve brought some tea and snacks,” the one-eyed woman said.
“Oh, thank you.”
The woman entered and placed a tray in front of each person. Sitting atop the tray was green tea and what looked like tiny colorful balls covered in a brown glaze. He recognized it as mochi covered in mitarashi sauce.
Once the woman left, Tamamo began again. “I can only hazard a guess, but I believe Satoru Ganjo had long been created a device that would let him harness the power of the bijuu. However, he could not use the device until Hisashi Tokiya arrived in Japan.”
“Who is this Hisashi Tokiya?” asked Sasha.
“He is a man whose time manipulation skills are second only to your own Time Witch,” answered Tamamo. “That’s why Satoru Ganjo was able to defeat and subjugate the bijuu so quickly--by borrowing the power of Hisashi Tokiya’s time manipulation to beat them before we could realize what happened.”
Anthony took a sip of tea as he listened. It was matcha. The slightly bitter but deeply savory and earthy scent hit his tongue. It was very smooth despite the bitterness, and there was a slight hint of sweetness that offset it nicely. He sighed deeply, then decided to try the glazed mochi, which was absolutely delicious.
“Did he… beat Gitsune?” asked Anthony.
Tamamo looked like she was about to cry, but she sucked it in. “Yes, but he didn’t kill her. She’s still alive.”
“How do you know that?” asked Secilia.
“Because of this.” Tamamo held up a pendant, which had a brightly glowing gem surrounding by a resting fox. “This pendant is tied to okasana’s life. It would break if she died. That’s how I know she’s still alive.”
Anthony nodded. “Satoru Ganjo probably wants to harness her power like he’s done with the other bijuu.”
“Those are my thoughts too,” Tamamo agreed. “But we can’t let that happen. I’ve been trying to mount a rescue, but even if we gathered all the yokai in Japan, we lack the strength to fight someone who can harness the power of all nine bijuu.” Her shoulders slumped, but then she brightened. “However, with you here, we might finally be able to rescue okasan!”
“We’ll do our best to help you with this,” Anthony said immediately. Fixing the situation in Japan was the reason they were here.
“What can you tell us about Satoru Ganjo’s abilities? Or rather, can you tell us what kind of powers the Bijuu have?” asked Anthony.
His knowledge of the bijuu was limited. Lilith didn’t know much about them since she didn’t particularly care for Japan, which he believed now was because she hadn’t gotten along with Gitsune.
“You should at least know there are nine bijuu in total. There is the one-tailed Bake-danuki who has powers over illusions and transformations, the two-tailed Nekomata is a yokai of death and necromancy, the three-tailed Turtle Dragon has powers over the seas, the four-tailed Monkey King is a yokai of strength and freedom, the six-tailed Hakuryu has power over storms and weather, the seven-tailed Fenghuang is a giant bird with the power of fire and rebirth, and the eight-tailed ushi-oni is a catastrophic creature with monstrous strength.”
They listened to the Tamamo talk about the bijuu, which were yokai of incredible power. Anthony came to understand that bijuu were not always the same through every generation. A yokai who defeated a bijuu would consume it and become the new bijuu, which meant that each new iteration would have different powers. Of course, there were some bijuu that had retained their positions throughout the entirety of written history, such as the two-tailed Nekomata and eight-tailed Ushi-oni. They were also the ones whose powers were the most well-known.
“So this man has all of that power at his fingertips?” asked Secilia. “I’m not sure how we can beat that. We might be fucked.”
“I believe there are limitations to his ability to harness that power,” Tamamo said.
“What kind of limitations?” asked Sasha. “It would be good to know if there is a weakness we can exploit.”
“The power of a bijuu is not something humans were ever meant to wield,” Tamamo started. “Not only is that much power too much for a human body to handle, but the mana of a yokai is poisonous. Some of the yokai under okasan’s employ have theorized that Satoru Ganjo can only use one bijuu’s power at any given time, and he can only use their power for a limited amount of time.”
“Which means if we can force him into a prolonged fight, he can probably be beaten,” Anthony said.
“Or we can just overpower him completely,” Sasha added.
“I’m not sure it will be that easy. He was able to beat Gitsune Hagaromo, after all,” said Anthony.
Gitsune Hagaromo was another legendary figure whose power was known the world over. While her strength had never been measured, many people placed her on the same pedestal as people like Ivan the Beast King of Russia. Of course, her strengths were different, being a fox yokai. She wasn’t a physical fighter but one who relied on misdirection, illusions, and magic.
“I didn’t see him defeat oksan, but the fact that she hasn’t come here is a sign that she lost,” Tamamo said, as though to reinforce Anthony’s opinion.
“I think the first thing we should do is gather some information,” said Anthony. “We should find out what exactly happened to Gitsune. Then we should find out where she and the other bijuu are being kept, supposing Gitsune was also captured. We can create a plan once we know more.”
“I think you are right. We don’t know enough to make a good plan.” Tamamo leaned forward on her haunches and bowed low. “I am sorry for not being able to provide you with the information you require.”
“No, it’s fine.” Anthony waved her off. “I think we can get that information ourselves. However, we will need a place where Secilia can hack into Japan’s network.”
“Of course. I will have our people provide everything Secilia-dono needs to accomplish this,” Tamamo said enthusiastically, and for the first time, the tails behind her back waved as though she was happy.
“Secilia-dono… I like the sound of that. Has a nice ring to it,” Secilia mumbled.
Anthony ignored her. “Please get her a place she can jack in and access Japan’s network.”
“Of course.”
Tamamo rang a bell at her side and several yokai suddenly appeared. She ordered them not only to show Secilia to a place she could plug in but also to show them to their rooms. That was as much a dismissal as he had seen, so he stood up with his two companions and left. His last sight of Tamamo was of the young girl looking incredibly small and tired.
Anthony wondered how long it had been since she’d had someone else supporting her. He didn’t know when Satoru Ganjo took over, but this young girl had been forced into a leadership role despite her age.
“Is she going to be okay?” Anthony wondered out loud.
The yokai who was leading them turned to look his way. He was a young kappa, which was like a frog duck creature with green skin. This one bore only a slight resemblance to a human. He was about as short as a human child, but his gangly limbs made it clear he was an adult. His beak was a bright yellow, while his skin was the color of algae.
“Tamamo-sama will be fine. She has all of us at her disposal. There’s no need for you to be concerned, human,” he said with a scoff.
“Except I'm not a human,” Anthony muttered but didn’t say more.
The room they were led to had the appearance of a traditional Japanese room. His feet touched upon the woven rush grass of the tatami floor, which covered the entire room. It was quite soft under his feet. The sliding wooden lattice screens that made up the walls were covered in translucent paper, which let diffused sunlight through. He glanced at a decorate alcove with a hanging scroll containing calligraphy. He had no idea what it said.
There wasn’t much in the way of seating. There were floor cushions. Anthony thought they were called zabuton? Something like that. They were centered around a low table. Paper lanterns hanging overhead created a warm atmosphere that he found comforting. The soft and calming colors were easy on the eyes.
“Check out that view,” Secilia said, referring to the engawa that lay beyond the room itself. It was a wooden veranda that ran along the exterior and led to a beautiful garden.
“This will be your room,” the kappa said. “You can use that port over there to access the network… fat lot of good it will do you.”
The port that he gestured to was in a corner, where a table with a simple PC sat. The PC was… old. It looked like something that wouldn’t have been out of place during the early 2000s before the great war that led to the Demonic Covenant. Anthony didn’t even know if it would work. He looked back to say something to that effect, but the Kappa was already gone.
“Secilia… can you use that?” he asked.
“So long as it works,” Secilia shrugged. “I’ll know once I boot it up.”
Secilia sat down and turned on the PC. Anthony and Sasha sat behind her and watched as text scrolled across the monitor. Then a startup screen appeared.
“Man this thing is old, but it works.” Secilia cracked her knuckles. “Gimme a bit of time to run some tests. I need to see if this has the power I need. If not, I might need to build something to boost the signal before I attempt to hack Japan’s network.”