Eitsu's Nine Lives (永津の九生) [yuri/GL yokai reincarnation story]

35 - Mou

[author]I think, for a little while, chapter updates may not be as regular as I would like. I missed last week, and with General Life stuff rearing its head in the immediate future, updates may be a little erratic for a while.

I am determined to finish this story (and the other three), so these unscheduled breaks will not be forever. I hope you can all bear with this.[/author]

***

Eitsu walked clumsily to the door that Kana had pointed out. Pushing it open, she found herself in a waiting room, dark wooden benches in rows before a desk, where an old man with a long white beard and black robes sat stamping papers. He looked up as she entered and gestured for her to approach.

Somewhere between her entering and her reaching the desk, she let her human form slough away. She was tired. There didn't seem to be much point in maintain a semblance of normality. She arrived at the desk as a moving enigma of fur and gold and eyes and something that might have been teeth.

The old man took her red slip. "Your name please, Lady."

"Which one?"

"Any will do."

"Kesshinichabe."

"Kesshinichabe-kami... Born in Chup-tuk. Age unknown. Local cat deity. Associations with Luck and Insanity. Yes?"

"Yes."

"May I ask the purpose of your visit, Lady?"

"I'm looking for information. A shinigami... k..." The word would not come. "My love is gone because of a shinigami."

"It is the role of a shinigami to take those who need to go elsewhere, Lady," the old man said gently.

"He held her by the neck," Eitsu hissed. Something dark crept over the top of the desk, sticky and desperate. "And now... now..."

"I see." The old man extracted a token from a basket before him. It had a tiger's face inscribed on it. "I'm afraid you'll have to wait a moment. Please understand, we have so many people here. Still, I can see that you may have a valid complaint, so you will be placed higher in the waiting list. Please sit... Please wait over on that side. Someone will see you shortly."

The collection of things that was Eitsu drifted slowly to the benches that had been pointed out to her, arriving in bits and pieces. Several of the humans and some of the youkai seated there nervously scuttled over to make space. A spider-woman blinked her many eyes at Eitsu in greeting, but Eitsu returned nothing.

The lighting was dim, and did not seem to come from anywhere specifically. The ceiling was all exposed beams and peeling lamina. Old petals scuttled across the floor under the power of a small draught of air creeping under the door. Parts of the floor had decayed, revealing sagging fibres and void below.

The spider-woman chittered. "We've met before."

Eitsu didn't respond.

"The Hyakki Yagyo. You were there with your wife and child."

Something dark, seething, emerged out of the thing that was Eitsu and seized the spider-woman's face. The spider-woman chittered frantically, fearful and apologetic.

"I'm sorry, Lady! Forgive me, forgive me."

The old man at the desk pinched the bridge of his nose. "Please, no fighting."

Eitsu let go.

The waiting room continued to exist in deafening silence.

Occasionally, a name would be called, and someone would stand and disappear through a door. No one ever came back through those doors.