Come by Night

Chapter Sixteen - Hotaru's Bondage

*nogitsune/yako - Wild Fox, a 'field fox;' a malevolent fox yōkai

I writhe and struggle, but it is no good. My brother's beefy grip holds me fast. "Please, Yoshiro, put me down!" I am ignored.

I give up and watch the ground pass behind my brother's kimono. I think about my poor love. I am afraid for Isamu. His fear and sorrow that I should see his true form still tear at my heart. I want to tell him it does not matter to me that he is a yōkai. I do not hate him for what he is. That would be as useless as despising a bear. His animal nature draws me to him.

We would be in the shrine still in one another's arms if not for my brother. I hate Yoshiro for this! He has been meddling in my private business since we were children. He has ruined everything. No, I tell myself. If you had been careful when you ran off, they wouldn't have found you.

Yoshiro takes me and dumps me on the floor of my narrow room. "Cover yourself. You smell like a prostitute. Filthy woman, rutting with a demon!" His voice is filled with contempt. Then he's gone. I turn on my side and weep. Sobs wrack my body.

Oh, Isamu! Please help me! But for all I know, the priest has slain him. My tears come harder. I am lost in my despair.

"I am so hungry, Yoshiro." Natsumi's voice sounds strange. I gulp and hush, listening.

"You keep eating! You must be full! We'll have nothing left at this rate!"

"I'm hungry, Yoshiro!"

"Enough."

Time passes. I feel lifeless as I lay there. Eventually I hear the shinshuko return.

"Did you kill him?" Yoshiro demands.

"No. The nogitsune got away. I was right. That yako is behind it all, since winter. He started slow, little pranks to unhinge people, mistaken identities, misunderstandings erupting between families and neighbors. The ripple effect spreads, creating widespread negativity. I fear the poison has come to your household at last, Yoshiro-san."

My brother grunts. "How do we kill it?

"We can't. That particular kyuubi is old and very powerful. I have to seal him away."

"How are you going to do that?"

"By the grace of Inari. But to fight him I must face him directly. Fortunately, we have something he wants. He'll come to abduct your sister by nightfall."

"Hotaru?"

"You saw the evidence of what he did to her."

"Blood or not, she was willing. I saw her go to him."

"He compelled her. That beast did not merely molest and wound her, he has completely claimed her, body and soul."

I want to burst out and tell them it's a mistake! Yoshiro's right, Isamu never forced me! But I know the men will not listen to me. I am a woman, and worse, considered compromised by an evil fox spirit. Nothing I say will sway them. I hate men for their arrogance.

"He took, seeded, and marked her. She is his property, so far as the yako is concerned. How long has it been going on? You said she has been exhausted lately, sick?"

"Yes. A week maybe? I haven't paid much attention... Thought it was a woman thing."

My brother can be such a deplorable idiot.

"He's been feeding on her. Do not blame Hotaru. It's not her fault she is his victim. Her will is not her own."

"You mean she didn't do something to court that thing's attention?"

"All that's required was that he wanted her. Women are particularly vulnerable to foxes. His powers are doing this. He is inside her now. She is kitsune-tsuki - fox possessed. Hotaru is special to that creature for some reason. We must use this to our advantage."

"We should take her to the shrine then. She must be exorcised."

"We will. But to keep the town safe, we must play his own game back at him. We will keep your sister here until he comes. When I face him, run as quickly as you can to the shrine with her and do not stop."

"What about my wife?"

"I believe he is the cause of that, too. He has no real interest in Natsumi..." Their voices fade to an indistinguishable mumble when they go outside.

A few seconds later I hear footsteps. Natsumi walks past. It gives me a chill. I shiver. Unable to help myself, I creep out of my room and follow her. Natsumi doesn't appear to see me as she sits by the sunken hearth.

I watch her cover her face in her hands. Her hair rustles, slips from its combs, then parts in the back. Long tendrils of sleek black hair slither about like an octopus's tentacles. I can't help making the connection to Isamu's tails.

Her hair scoops rice from a pot on the hook and reels it in toward a gash that has split on the back of her head! No - a mouth! Futakuchi onna! Natsumi has turned into a yōkai whose hunger can never be sated.

"So hungry," she says. Her hair shovels the food between those quivering lips on her scalp.

I scream! The men burst in. They see it and stand stunned. Natsumi doesn't appear to realize anything is amiss. "Yoshiro...?" she asks, the second mouth gulping down food.

The sight is too much for my brother to bear. He runs out of the house as fast as he can. The priest grabs my shoulders and pulls me away from the yōkai with whipping hair, calling after my brother. "Yoshiro! Where are you going?"

"Come, Hotaru! It's too late for her," the shinshoku says. "But we can still save you! Come!" He takes hold of my wrist and pulls me behind him.

It is the beginning of twilight outside, and cloudy. Another storm is rolling in and everything is dyed blue in the waning light. It is ōmagatoki, the hour when evil spirits awaken and walk the earth. I stumble behind the priest, unable to free myself.

He stops short. On the far side of town there is smoke! A fire! And it is as blue as the sky.

"Kitsunebi," the priest says.

Isamu's attack has begun.