Paul forced himself to appear calm as he walked behind Tatsuo, something that taxed his acting skills to the limit. The door guards to the cavern serving as the Oni clan’s great Hall were something of an eye opener. Tatsuo was perhaps fractionally taller than Paul, slender in build, and apparently, the runt of the litter.

The door guards towered over them both, looking not unlike the statues at the entrance of the mine, and wielded clubs made of twisted rebar and railroad track that Paul was certain he’d be unable to lift, much less use.

Although, once he looked past the sheer size and bulk of them he did notice two things that gave him pause. Firstly they didn’t appear much older than Tatsuo, and secondly, they appeared to be on the verge of soiling themselves they were that terrified.

At first Paul thought Aimi-chan had already paid them a visit, or at the very least, had sent a few Oni fleeing past them, to spread fear and chaos. But as he stared at the guards he was somewhat certain were probably female under all the armour, he happened to catch the gaze of one of them.

Their reaction caused him to raise an eyebrow. The guard snapped their eyes forward, and bit their lip.. her lip, he thought, despite the tiny tusks protruding upwards. Paul could see the guard was shaking, and a bead of sweat dripped from the person’s nose.

On impulse Paul spoke up.

“Hey, Tatsuo, wait a moment.”

“Yes, Paul-sama?”

Paul didn’t answer him, he went and stood in front of the guard, staring up into what he now realised were a pair of bright red eyes that were wide open in terror.

“Hey, you… why are you scared? Is it me?”

“Y..y.yes.. lord!”

The Oni’s voice was hoarse, and rather high pitched, although that could have been fear. But their answer was clear enough.

Paul’s eyebrows tried to join his hairline.

“Seriously?! You’re an Oni! You are almost twice as big as me, and probably stronger than you look, why on earth would you be scared of me?”

The guard just shook her head, shaking hard enough that the rattle of armour was very noticeable. Tatsuo came over and reaching up, placed his hand on the guards shoulder.

“It’s ok, Yuri… he won’t harm you. You have my word.”

“Thank you lord Tatsuo!”

Tatsuo stared into the guard’s eyes for moment, steadying her. And then turned to look at Paul.

“You have to understand, most of us have never met a human. To us, you are the monsters of legend, that come time and time again to destroy our homes.”

Paul slowly nodded, trying to see the world through the Oni’s eyes, metaphorically speaking. A world overrun by monsters that were individually weak, but attacked in hordes, that didn’t stop or relent but just kept coming, destroying everything time and time again, killing indiscriminately with implacable hatred..

“Ok. Now I get it! To you this is a post-apocalypse world, and we’re the zombies!”

Tatsuo nodded slowly.

“Now you see.”

“Yeah.. Hey, Yuri was it? I’m sorry for scaring you. I didn’t understand.”

The Oni stared at him for a moment, and then slowly took off her helmet. Without it Paul could see the look of shocked surprise on her face, one that was surprisingly beautiful.

“You are... sorry?”

“Yeah, sorry to have scared you, and sorry for what my kind have done. To all of you. I know it’s too little, too late. But I promise to try and make up for it. Ok?”

“Ok…”

Paul stared at the Oni for moment, looked at objectively she was actually kind of... handsome, with her deep red hair done up in an intricate set of plaits, above a face that was both strong and blocky with a solidly square jawline, but youthful enough to seem oddly vulnerable. Then he shook his head.

“Ok. Got a lot to do, see you around Yuri maybe.”

Paul caught up with Tatsuo who was giving him an odd look.

“What? She was scared! I’m not a monster, I wasn’t about to leave her like that. Poor kid was terrified.”

“Paul-sama… she thought she was going to die, and had made her peace with that.”

“Huh?!”

“She and her sister were our last line of defence, beyond here is our home, our families. It is her duty to delay any attack long enough at the cost of her life. And as you say, you humans are the monsters.”

“And they were just, standing there… waiting. Yeesh! Those two have got some guts I’ll give them that!”

“More than you realise. Apart from each other they have no family. They’re orphans our clan took in, the last of some clan that was wiped out. They asked for this duty, to repay that debt. I’ve never heard them speak of what happened to them and their clan, but I know they have nightmares of it even now. However it was their wish to fight and most likely die together. To stand and defy the monsters, and protect their adoptive clan.”

“Oh…ok. Yeah, there is no amount of apologising that would ever be enough.”

“Maybe so, but that was at least a start.”

Paul was silent as they walked though the vast cavern. The magnitude of the task before him was beginning to sink in. It didn’t help that he still had no idea of what he was going to say, what could he possibly say, to reassure the Oni.

Glancing around for inspiration, Paul studied the great hall. It seemed to be in part a natural formation, a huge space caused by water eroding away rock, which had been widened and deepened by long-gone miners seeking out veins of iron ore.

Evidently, they had also used it as a central hub to the mine. The remnants of tracks for mining carts lead into here from a dozen different directions, and there appeared to be some sort of wooden machinery that had partly been repurposed by the Oni into building materials for furniture and screens to divide up the space.

Paul frowned slightly, looking around for the source of the dim purple/blue glow that illuminated the cavern. Looking up he saw it… like a night sky the rocky ceiling was dotted with innumerable pin-pricks of light, each adding their own few photons. There were also what appeared to be empty paper lanterns, which glowed a blueish/white light. Paul was puzzled by those for moment, until he remembered that some sorts of paper glowed in presence of Uv light.. which evidently the cavern was being bathed in.

Paul frowned. He was no geologist, but he’d never heard of anything like it.

His mental maundering came to halt as Tatsuo led them to a sort of dais with a huge, thick-walled iron cylinder hung suspended between four posts at the centre. Paul blinked as he realised this was the ‘bell’ Tatsuo had mentioned. Although, it looked more like a repurposed steam boiler perhaps..

Tatsuo swung a log suspended on chains between two of the posts to ring the bell. The deep sonorant note of the bell set the air to shivering three times, and then seemed to leave the very rocks themselves vibrating in it’s wake.

Slowly the Oni appeared filtering into the cavern from elsewhere, coming out of whatever bolt holes they’d been hiding in. A large gaggle of children filed silently into the room, shepherded by another pair of grim looking guards.

Tatsuo had evidently given some sort of ‘all clear’ or assembly signal and they’d obeyed him, but every single Oni viewed Paul with wide-eyed distrust and fear, a few with hate mixed in as well. In turn Paul regarded the gathered throng thoughtfully.

There was something about the crowd that niggled at him. Apart from a smattering of older Oni, they all seemed to be late teens, few were much older than Tatsuo, and there was a disproportionately large number of young children.

Thinking about it, Paul glanced at the block of children, and in his minds eye he saw a similar small horde of children, led by a few adults escaping from a theme park being torn down. He imagined them sheltering some place, settling down, growing up… and having children of their own, all more or less at the same time as they were all the same age, or within a narrow range of each other.

He was dealing with refugees basically.

Paul stood a little straighter. He still didn’t know what he was going to say, but he knew what he had to do. He nodded at Tatsuo, who stepped forward, onto a white painted spot on the dais.

“Hoi! Everyone. Listen to the Herald for the Goddess Inari.”

Tatsuo moved aside, leaving Paul wishing he’d spoken a bit longer as he walked up to the mark, which was evidently some sort of sweet spot in the caverns acoustics judging by the way Tatsuo’s words had carried and echoed back from the furthest corners.

Taking a deep breath, Paul tried to remember what he’d learnt many years ago in the amateur dramatics society at school, and attempted to project his voice.

“On behalf of the Goddess Inari, I welcome you to her sanctuary, where all are free to live in peace, even humans, provided they respect their neighbours. My name is Paul Holmes, and yes, I am English and the appointed Herald for Inari… so I have no history with Oni and no wish to cause alarm. I apologise for our tardy greeting but until today I had no idea you were here. An oversight for which I apologise again. You are all welcome to remain here for as long as you wish, or to move above ground if you desire. You may regard this place as your home for as long as you want it.”

Paul paused, allowing the surprised murmurs to die down before he continued.

“I know, given your history, that this probably comes as a shock, but truly as long as you are respectful to the other inhabitants then you will be welcome. I will also be having words with the Other residents of this mountain and the surrounding area, and will remind them to to treat you with decency and respect. If any of them do not, and I’m afraid that people being people there probably will be a few, then I humbly ask for your cooperation by bringing the matter to my attention so that it may be dealt with fairly.”

Paul had to pause as the surf of whispers crested again, and died.

“I’m sure you are probably not inclined to trust my word alone, and frankly, if I had known of your history of mistreatment by humanity, I would’ve asked someone else to talk to you, someone who didn’t automatically cause fear and hatred in you.. but please, try to look past what other humans have done and trust that I speak as Inari’s voice.”

Paul stepped back from the mark as the Oni talked among themselves. Standing alongside Tatsuo, he murmured.

“Hopefully that’s allayed everyone’s fears enough that they’re not going to bolt out the back door.”

Tatsuo shook his head.

“There is no back door. There were other exits but we blocked them, the same time as we turned the mine into a labyrinth.”

Paul turned to look at the slender youth.

“Huh? Well, then how were you planning to escape while the guards bought you time?”

“We weren’t. They were to delay the humans long enough that those that remained inside our stronghold could die a swift and merciful death instead of falling to the humans.”

Pauls eyes went wide as he struggled to grasp the enormity of what had been narrowly averted, he hoped.

“B..but.. what about the children?”

“Their guards had orders to kill them first, then take their own lives. There are certain herbs that if taken in small doses will cause us to fall into a deep slumber, but are dangerous to use because too much and the heart will slow until it stops. We have a supply of that mixed with sugar.”

Paul shuddered almost convulsively.

“Are.. are we really that terrifying?”

Tatsuo nodded gravely.

“We have taken in those from other clans that have fallen. They have talked of Oni who’ve been captured and kept alive, to be experimented on.”

Paul nodded slowly, he doubted the Japanese government would… at least not now. But the same couldn’t be said of the Chinese government, and the Oni had come here from the mainland at various times.

“Oniisan! Oniisan!!”

Paul started, looking up as a young girl ran onto the dais, flinging herself a Tatsuo, who caught her, laughing and swung her around, as if he hadn’t been discussing a mass suicide/murder moments earlier.

The girl was about six or eight, depending on the differences in Oni physiology. She had long flowing silver blonde hair that shimmered in the uncanny light like moonlight on water, glowing subtly. Her horns were tiny stubs, jutting from her forehead above her brows, and she wore a pale pink kimono that almost matched her eyes.

She was without doubt, the cutest thing Paul had seen in some time.

“Paul-sama, may I present my sister, Jiao-tan, third of her name and future clan leader someday.”

“A pleasure to meet you Princess..”

Jiao giggled, blushing and hiding behind her indulgently smiling big brother. After a moment she stuck her head around to regard Paul.

“Are you really a Goddesses Herald?”

Paul knelt, lifting the gold plate that hung around his neck with the fingertips of one hand.

“I am indeed...at least, that’s what it says here.”

Jiao leaned in to study it, and whispered.

“You’re not very scary, for a human, you know.”

“I know, I’m trying not to be. There’s been enough of people being scared, don’t you think Princess?”

“Uhhuh… I think I like you. You’re like Oniisan.”

“I will take that as a compliment Princess Jiao, thank you.”

“Why do you keep calling me princess?”

“You’re the future ruler of your people, doesn’t that make you a princess?”

“I suppose. Oniisan says it’s a job, an important one, but one that is no more or less honourable than anyone else’s job.”

“Your Oniisan is right, it is a very serious job. But I’m English, and we as a people know the value of such titles. So forgive me if I at least, call you Princess, as a sign of respect.”

Jiao giggled and nodded.

“Then I will give you permission to call me Princess.”

Paul bowed his head slightly, and keeping his face serious he gravely spoke.

“Thank you Princess Jiao-chan. I am honoured.”

Jiao turned to look at her big brother, who instantly wiped the smile off his face, although he couldn’t, quite, hide the laughter in his fire-coloured eyes.

“I like him Oniisan! Tell everyone to be nice to him!”

“I shall Imotosan, perhaps you might start that for me?”

“Ok Oniisan, I’ll go and tell everyone!”

Jiao raced off, the long sleeves of her sakura-coloured kimono flying behind her. Paul and Tatsuo watched her go, until Paul broke the silence.

“She was born not long before you arrived here, wasn’t she?”

Tatsuo looked at him in surprise.

“How did you guess?”

“She’s not afraid.”

“Ah.. yes. She has heard the stories, but to her they are just stories. Do you truly mean to make this mountain a sanctuary?”

“Having seen her, more so than before. I would wish you all more fearless and carefree children like her.”

“So do I, Paul-sama, so do I.”

Paul shook himself, and continued in a brisker tone.

“Right. Well… I need to talk to those of your people that know this mine the best, if I’m to make a start on my goddess-given task. If I can stop the magic fading, or even reverse that, then we might just stand a chance. But first I need to know what it’s source is, and it has to be something down here.”

“Then I promise, we will give you as much help as we can!”

An hour later, and it turned out the Oni clan’s help was pretty good. Paul had a more or less complete map of the upper levels of the mine, and had eliminated most of that from consideration. The only anomaly was the odd crystals in the main cavern. He had no idea what they were, or why they emitted a low level of UV light. He suspected it was probably something like a natural version of radioactive phosphorescence. He vaguely recalled that certain radioactive minerals emitted UV light as they decayed, which then caused ‘glow-in-the-dark’ bismuth sulphate to glow green as it absorbed the UV, and re-emitted visible light.

Paul studied the map: from what the Oni had said, the lower levels were partly flooded, and not very safe. They were more of the natural network of caves the early miners had taken advantage of, widening some sections as they dug out the iron ore.

Paul sighed as he looked down at the map that took up most of the low table.

“You do not sound hopeful Paul-sama.”

Paul looked up at Tatsuo, and slowly nodded.

“I feel like I am looking for a needle that I don’t know for sure even exists, in a hay stack the size of a mountain.”

“The gods never give us easy quests. Is there anything we can do, or give you, that may help?”

“What I need is the equivalent of a bloody big magnet… wait…. Magnets, electromagnetic waves… and interference!”

Paul stared into the distance thinking hard, as Tatsuo stared at him.

“Paul-sama?”

“I need to head topside, and go get something… but I think I’ve just thought of way to bodge a Geiger counter for magic!”

Tatsuo tilted his head staring at Paul, then blinked, shaking it.

“I’ll send a guard with you, how long will it take?”

“Not long, I can ask Shoko-san to fetch what I need from my stuff, and she’s a speedy little kitsune. After that I will need a guard or two as I go over the lower levels looking for the source. Hopefully it’s a single source anyway, otherwise it’ll be difficult to pinpoint.”

Tatsuo nodded briskly, and stepped over to where a blanket served as a door, and had a low-toned conversation with the guard.

Minutes later and the guard that Tatsuo had called Yuri appeared, along with another oni guard that Paul took to be her sister, so similar in appearance were they, despite differences in colour.

Tatsuo nodded at them and turned to Paul.

“Yuri and Yuki will go with you Paul-sama.”

Paul stared at the young women, who stared back at him wide eyed and pale faced.

“You two sure? Not that I mean to imply anything about your bravery but… well, if you’d rather not, it’s ok.”

The pair exchanged a look, and Yuri, who had red eyes whereas her sister’s were green coloured, nodded once firmly.

“We will accompany you Herald-san. It is the least we can do. Besides… without us you’ll get lost.”

Paul glanced at the map, and nodded slowly.

“Valid point. I’m good at puzzles but this place would give Theseus a headache. Alright, my braves, lead on! Tatsuo, I’ll be back shortly.”

“Good! I’ll see you soon.”

The walk back to the entrance of the mine didn’t take very long, with Yuri and Yuki to guide him. However the sisters said little beyond what was necessary, so it felt rather longer to Paul, reminding him of the long and awkwardly silent afternoon drives with his father, when neither of them had much to say to each other.

Eventually they emerged blinking into the afternoon sunshine. Paul stopped in his tracks at the sight in front of him. Inari and Shoko were near to the path, on a level bit of ground… apparently having a quiet picnic.

Paul smiled at the peaceful domestic scene, and waving called out to them.

“Hey, you two!”

Shoko-san was on her feet and by his side in flash, Inari was a bit more sedate but hurried over, eyeing the twin Oni sisters looming behind him doubtfully.

“I am glad to see you back safely, they treated you well I trust?”

Paul grinned.

“Yup, despite the fact I scared them spitless almost. Inari, this is Yuri and Yuki.”

“You scared them?”

Inari stared at him incredulously, while Paul shook his head, still smiling.

“Yeah, I know. It took me a bit to wrap my head around it. But they are refugees. They’ve been hunted and hounded out of every home they’ve had for generations. To them, humans are the monsters, individually weak but hunting in packs, relentless, merciless and utterly ruthless. This is their last stand. They were quite prepared to commit mass suicide rather than be captured, they were that desperate.”

Inari’s eyes flew wide, as she looked behind Paul to the towering sisters. Paul wasn’t sure how much of her Divine abilities remained, but whatever she saw in their faces moved her to tears. Stepping forward, and past Paul, she offered her hands to the sisters.

“My temple has need of trustworthy guardians, would you be willing to serve me?”

The sisters exchanged a look, comprised of equal parts of disbelief, hope and fear. Yuri spoke up for them.

“My Lady, we must decline. We have already sworn our loyalty to the clan that took us in.”

“Ah, so, then I shall talk to your clan leader and ask if you may be assigned to us. In the meantime, please take my words back to your clan and tell them they are welcome to stay as long as you wish. You shall be safe here.”

“Thank you your Holiness… but your Herald has already offered us sanctuary.”

Inari glanced at Paul, and grinned.

“Has he now? Well, it’s good to know we’re of like mind then.”

Paul shrugged.

“What was I supposed to do, tell them no? I thought you wouldn’t mind, or if you did, I might bring you around. But either way, I wasn’t about to run them off.”

“You’d defy a Goddess for their sake?”

“Damn right I would… them and anyone else in need of help.”

Inari’s expression softened, smiling at him.

“I knew I was right agreeing to make you Herald.”

Paul raised an eyebrow.

“Huh?”

“It’s easy to loose touch with mortal concerns if one is a God or Goddess. Empathy and compassion become route duty eventually. We need our Heralds to be our conscience, to remind us of what is important and to bring our attention to matters. To carry our worshippers prayers and concerns to us. You need to have that sort of courage, and heart to carry out this duty.”

Paul thought about it a moment, then nodded.

“I… see. Probably just as well then that you’re currently mortal, and thus rather closer to the sharp end of life than usual, given that I’m something of a newbie at this job and haven’t a clue what I’m doing.”

Inari laughed, shaking her head.

“Oh, you have the makings of a fine Herald I’d say. After all, you talked your way out of a whole den of Oni and seem to have at least made some of them our friends.”

Paul pulled a wry face and dryly remarked.

“Not the toughest crowd I’ve faced. You try doing an impromptu book reading in a Glasgow pub, on a Friday night sometime. That was scary!”

That got puzzled looks from everyone, and Paul sighed.

“Never mind. Anyway, thanks to the Oni I now have a pretty good idea of where to look, and half an idea of how to look for it. Shoko-san, can you run back to the house and fetch a couple of things for me?”

“Sure! What do you need Paul-sama?”

“I need my music player and the pair of speakers that go with it. Do I need to tell you where to find them?”

“No, I know… I’ll be back as fast as I can!”

Shoko sketched a quick bob of a bow to Inari, and disappeared off through the trees in a red and white blur, hopping from bolder to tree trunk to ground as she ran. Paul stared in the direction she’d vanished for moment, then shook his head.

“Inari-sama, are all kitsune that excitable or is it just her?”

“Shoko-chan is quite steadfastly sober in comparison to most, from what I recall.”

“Ah… right. And you’re their Goddess. That had to have been exhausting.”

“There is a reason I am in the habit of sleeping when I can. In earlier times I was a Mother with several hundred new kits to watch over.”

“I think I see why sake is also associated with you Inari-sama. That’d be enough to drive most people to drink!”

Inari nodded with heartfelt emphasis.

“Yes indeed! I loved them all, but there were times...”