Canticle: Code Caligula

Chapter 38: Wishes of an Ant, Part 5

Mura casually strolled down the city sidewalk as advertisements blinked and flashed around him without effect. His yokai friend fiddled with the pink cellular device in her hands to no avail; a scowl already plastered across her face.

"Permanently revoked!! You bricked my goddamn cellphone; I can't believe it, I just can't believe it!!" Lilith shouted and ranted as they walked to the bar they had visited just yesterday. "You know how much this cost us? Go on, I want you to guess."

"A solid ten-thousand sols?" Mura muttered, his mind elsewhere.

"What kind of cheap bitch do you take me for?! This was seventy... seventy-thousand... and it's all gone. Just gone! I want you to know how much that meant to me. The most expensive, most valuable thing I ever owned... and it's just a plastic paperweight now!!!"

Lilith sobbed tearlessly, still actively mourning her electronic friend.

"We'll get a new one after this. I'm sorry, 'kay?" Mura said, patting her on the head.

She pouted in return, sliding the cell phone into the inner folds of her leotard. The two approached the bar and walked through the wooden door, causing a mechanical jingle to ring out.

"Welcome back, sir! I have to say, I'm happy to have such a frequent customer like you!" the bartender said with surprised glee.

The shaggy-haired demon nodded with a smile and walked around the empty tables to the restrooms. All the while on the way over, the recent string of events weighed heavily on his mental state.

Why exactly did the phone get revoked so suddenly? The answers were blatantly clear to Mura, yet believing them meant giving validity to the creeping paranoia setting in. They were being watched. Listened to, maybe monitored as well.

He knew Kirin was actively watching him previously, but with the majority of her squadron tracking down the presence of Goetia in Japanese territories resources were already stretched tight as a drum. He never detected anyone around them, but he had already been exposed to beings that could mask their power.

That only left governmental surveillance, something that wasn't supposed to exist to such an extent as far as he knew. Whatever it was, it clearly didn't like the fact that Mura was questioning his superiors.

Mura opened the men's door and was met by the familiar toilet yokai from before. The elderly yokai was dressed in a white gown, his matching silver beard was long and studiously maintained.

"The password, Tenth~?" the spirit asked Mura.

"Ugh... Grant me the boon of blue toilet paper..." he sighed, tired of saying the ridiculous line.

"Entry granted, my boy! Step on in there~!"

The yokai opened the stall door, revealing a toilet built into the floor that was made for squatting. Mura and Lilith thanked him and once they walked inside, the door slowly shut and locked behind them.

"I hate this part..." Lilith bemoaned.

Mura sighed along with his Thrall, clutching onto her as they both stepped into the toilet's opening. As soon as they did, a blue light emanated from the toilet's drainage hole and glowed brighter with each passing second.

The toilet flushed on its own, sucking both Mura and Lilith into the glowing tunnel. Their physical forms stretched, contorted and shrunk harmlessly to allow them entry; sucking them up like a vacuum cleaner catching a rubber band.

Within no time at all, Mura and Lilith were both spit out of the portal and inside of Zozo's Outpost. They landed with some grace this time around, having become more accustomed to the method of exit.