YOUKAI MOKUSHI
BY L. MOONLIGHT
7TH NIGHTMARE: DOUBLE TROUBLE (PART 1)

A beach, Kanto, Japan, 2121 AD…
The sand appeared gray in the darkness of the night. Two figures stood on the beach, with only the Moon serving as lighting. One a person in a red jumpsuit and tengu mask, the other a woman in a purple-and-white-striped bikini.
“So,” the figure in the tengu mask sighed, “Her Majesty sent you here as well?”
“My little laika,” the bikinied woman cheered, wrapping her arms around her companion, “it’s been too long!”
The other person struggled to free themselves from her tight grip. Eventually, they cleared their throat, prompting the girl to let them go.
“Have you found the Three Sacred Treasures, yet,” the woman asked, “my little laika?”
“Why must you insist on calling me that?” the masked individual groaned with a hint of irritation in their voice. “You are to refer to me as ‘Prince’, remember?”
The woman in the bikini pouted and folded her arms. “Yes, Laika-ouji,” she replied.
“Close enough…” the tengu-masked stranger responded. “Now, about those treasures…”
———
Niijigoku-shi, Japan, 2121 AD…
“Don’t you guys have hoverboards or something?” I panted, trudging behind Kii and Rie as we patrolled the city streets.
Kii rolled her eyes, before going back to talking to Rie about the previous night’s baseball game.
“We haven’t seen another youkai for HOURS!” I complained, still significantly behind the two girls.
Rie skipped over to me and took my right-hand in her palms, dragging me towards Kii. “Hey, Kii-kun, I think You-san needs a break!”
“Y’think?” Kii snickered, still walking in the same direction. “He knows what he signed up for.”
“Kii-kun, don’t be a jerk,” Rie pouted. “I’m sorry, You-san, Kii can be a bit…”
“I know.”
“ALRIGHT. Fine, Tachibana-san can take a five-minute break,” Kii sighed, stopping in her tracks and pointing towards a storefront. “Y’see that ice-cream parlor, ningen? Go have a ninety-nine, or something, and catch up with Rie and I afterwards.” Kii turned her back to me and muttered “These humans and their pathetic stamina…”
“Uh, a-actually, is it ok if I take a break, t-too?” Rie piped-up.
The oni raised an eyebrow before handwaving her best-friend with her cybernetic arm. “Five minutes, both of you. I’m heading in the direction of the city center. If you don’t show up on time, I’m going home and leaving you two to patrol on your own.”
“Kii-kun can be so cruel…” Rie sighed.
“Never mind her,” I said, “That just means more ice-cream for the two of us.”
DING-A-LING!
“Welcome,” the woman behind the counter waved, as we stepped into the American-style ice-cream parlor.
Her snow-white hair paired with her brown kimono and pink apron almost made her look like a walking Neapolitan ice-cream.
“Good afternoon, Watanabe-san,” Rie said, walking up to the counter. With a blank look, she told the lady who I was and why I was with her.
“Well, Tachibana-san, we can’t have you walking around the city on an empty stomach, can we? What would you like?”
I stared at the various frozen treats on display in the glass counter and pointed to the pistachio. “I’ll have that one, please.”
“One pistachio ice-cream coming up! And what about you, Satou-san?”
“I’ll have the usual!” Rie said, handing the woman a few yen notes. “Ice-cream’s on me, You-san!”
———
As Rie and I sat at a table underneath one of the storefront’s awnings, eating ice-cream and watching the sun set, I started to worry that Kii would abandon us.
“Oh, don’t worry about Kii-kun,” Rie smiled, shoveling a spoon of bubblegum-flavored ice-cream into her mouth, “she’ll wait for us as long as it takes!”
“But she said she’d only wait for five minutes! She can’t lie, remember?”
“I know that,” Rie giggled, “but she CAN change her mind, just like the rest of us!”
I licked my frozen treat, noticing that the streets had become busier.
“Most youkai become more active at night,” Rie said, finishing her cup of ice-cream and leaning closer toward me, her elbows on the table.
“So, why’d you and Ibarra-san decide to start fighting bad-guys, or whatever?” I asked, fully aware that Rie could already tell what I was thinking.
Rie sat back in her seat and scratched the back of her head. “I’m just helping Kii-kun out is all!”
“And what about Ibarra-san?”
“She, uh… d-doesn’t really talk about it. I mean, I-I know, since I can read her m-mind, but--”
“It’s fine,” I said. “If Ibarra-san doesn’t want me knowing, then I don’t have to know.”
———
Niijigoku City Center. The buildings encircling the plaza overlooked a large water fountain, on which Kii was sitting on the edge. She reached into the fountain, scooping up a handful of water in her hand before opening it and staring down blankly as the liquid dripped onto her knees and down her legs. The oni let out a bored sigh, glancing down the street she had just come from, looking for any sign of Rie and I.
“They’ll just have to keep patrolling on their own,” Kii grunted. “Don’t they know I have to work tomorrow?! I can’t stay up all night!”
TEKE TEKE¹Teke teke – Onomatopoeia for scratching; associated with a youkai of the same name which is said to be the severed upper-half of a corpse.
The irate barber flung her head around as she heard a scratching sound coming from behind her back. She watched as the surface-tension of the fountain water broke and a girl emerged.
“Okiku?!” Kii stammered, jumping back, expecting the figure to come out of the water. Wait, no. That was a well, not a fountain²Kii references the legend of Okiku’s Well which is believed to house the spirit of a woman named Okiku, she thought.
“No, no,” the mysterious girl cackled, “I am Kashima Reiko. What’s your name?”
“You can call me Ibarra Kii, that’s written with the chara--”
“Yes, but what is your NAME?” Reiko asked, grabbing the side of the fountain and pulling herself out of the water, revealing the top of a sailor fuku³Sailor fuku – A female Japanese school uniform; so-called due to its resemblance to a sailor suit, below which she lacked a lower body.
Kii stared blankly at Reiko, before folding her arms. “I don’t have to answer that, do I?”
“Ok, then, I have another question… Where are my legs?”
“How should I know?!” the oni grunted.
Reiko chuckled, hopping onto the plaza asphalt and walking (for lack of a better word) closer to Kii as if her arms were legs. “Alright then,” she said, “where is the Sun Arrow?”

7TH NIGHTMARE TO BE CONTINUED