Chapter 5: Volume 1 (Act 4): Bakeneko
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"Forgive my impudence Master Yoshikuni.... but don't you feel that's somewhat unjust? Sasaoka, why didn't you prevent this? Remonstrance is part of a vassal's duty!"
"So we should have killed dogs instead?"
"That's not what I'm implying!"
"It's proper to suggest an alternative if you criticize a decision. You've just demonstrated yout discontent, Katsuyama."
"Discontent!?"
"More importantly, didn't you recommend Yoshiaki over Yoshikuni as the successor to the house? How do you plan to take responsibility for our situation?"
"How can you keep such a straight face in these grave circumstances?"
"I don't work under you, Katsuyama."
"So you've revealed your true intentions, Sasaoka!
"Enough of this! This is hardly the time!" The old master spoke up to interrupt the argument between Sasaoka and Katsuyama.
"But elder master...."
"Silence, Sasaoka. Now both of you.... Stop your quarreling and focus on what we should do. Mao, who agreed to sacrifice herself for our clan, is lying here in this state. I don't want to show her such an unsightly scene. Try and understand."
"Yes, sir!" The two of them bowed their heads out of respect for the old master and stopped bickering.
"Does anyone know what time is it?"Kayo asked again, honestly she never knew how to read the situation at all, making the other woman sigh.
"Sometime just after midnight."
"There's no way dawn won't comem is there?
"That's just not possible!" The head maid spoke tremblingly, her face was pale and she was sweating like she was afraid of something.
Click!
"What's the matter?" Odajima confused asked. A clicking sound from the bronze plate and a bell from the medicine man's sword made them all realize the situation. Both of them looked towards the door at the same time.
"A noise." Kayo replied, at the same time she looked towards the door.
"Oh no! It might be a visitor!"
"Wait!" But before Odajima could stand up completely, the medicine man reached out his hand to stop him.
"What is it?"
"It's impossible for anyone to visit...." The medicine man replied, he frowned with a slightly tense expression.
"How can you be so sure?"
"Think about it, didn't you see Yahei, the servant, go out and end up here?" The woman with fox ears took a long drag and slowly continued speaking. "We're surrounded by a barrier and the Mononoke are loitering outside, it seems... like it's about to break the salt line...."
"If everyone doesn't quickly tell the whole story, we... will die" She used her pipe to point at Yahei and then at each Sakai family's member in the room and smirked sinisterly.
"Mononoke...."
"It's here." The woman suddenly became serious and slightly narrowed her eyes as she slowly stood up after finishing bandaging the two children. She picked up the copper plate, the circles were now spinning like a pinwheel and the eye in the center was wide open. It slowly looked around as if following Mononoke. The bells of the scales that the medicine man placed outside slowly rang out, getting closer and closer to the room they were in.
"Is it a cat?" Kayo asked a little scared. Just then the plain white talismans on door began to appear with strange symbols and a black ink eye widened before they all similarly changed to red. Then the bells from the scale started to play along the salt line starting to get faster, it seemed like Mononoke hadn't found a way through yet but it would soon.
"Damn it! Why did this have to happen? Just as things were looking better...."
"Shh....." The bell continued to sound until it suddenly stopped in a room near where the lady was lying. The woman placed her index finger in the middle of her mouth to signal silence, interrupting the samurai's words. The medicine man moved according to the bells, wherever it went, he went there, with one hand forming seals, the other holding the sword.
"My dear...." The Lady also began to regain consciousness.
"Mizue.... Mizue.... Mizue....." The husband's mournful cries came out when his wife woke up. As for that woman with white fox ears staring at them, usually demons that walk like that have the intention of attacking someone or are revealing the reason why they became Bakeneko. "Mizue....?"
"Mao....." When the lady looked over the bride's dead body, she suddenly began to sob, causing the woman with fox ears to gradually droop in annoyed. The talismans on the wall with symbols were gradually disappearing again. "Mao, I'm sorry..... My poor, Mao!"
But the talismans near the bride's corpse gradually appeared with symbols and the eyes began to turn red again, like Mononoke was walking around to explore. The lady continued to cry and accidentally pulled down the white scarf on the bride's face.
When the bell rang again. This time it was closer, meaning the Mononoke had broken the salt line also alarming the other two, the woman once again disappeared and appeared next to the lady and covered her mouth. The charm in the room began to turn red and suddenly the bride's face became as bright as when she was alive as she slowly opened her eyes, tiltling her head to look over at the Lady.
"Lady Mi.... zu..... e...." The bride's voice sounds like someone is speaking in her throat and imitating the way she talks. She smiled devilishly, showing off her teeth that were stained yellow and stained with cavities. Lady Mizue couldn't scream as the fox-eared woman covered her mouth. She clawed at the woman's hand and kept screaming back.
"it's Tamaki! It's Tamaki!" The lady kept backing away and screaming someone's name with a terrified look on her face. "Forgive me!"
"Mizue?!"
"Tamaki!? Did she say Tamaki!?"
"I'll do anything to make it up to you!" The lady continued to scream and backed away as if she had just seen something terrible. "Stay away from me! Spare me!"
"Tch... Humans are so noisy. I hate them." The woman with fox ears muttered and placed the white scarf back on the bride's face. This scarf is like a separator between yin and yang, so when the lady pulled it down, she lost her yang energy, so perhaps Mononoke messed up her mind. But because of that, the woman and the medicine seller also had some clues.
"Oh no!" The bell rang more and more around the room, causing the medicine man to immediately react and as he stood up, his ankle was grabbed tightly by the bride's hand. The lady keep screaming even louder when all the talismans on the door in front of her turned red. She knocked like crazy on the door frame, wanting it to open."What the!?"
"What!?"
"Get back! Run to the back!" The medicine man screamed, many other members were also scared and ran in the direction of the other two people.
"Master Odajima!!" Kayo shouted and pulled Odajima's hand to run away together. The little girl also ran away wearing the medicine man's wooden box on her back, leaving the screaming lady at the door.
"Mi....zue?"
"Wait.... I want to see what happens." The woman with white fox ears stopped the medicine man, still calmly smoking from her pipe. The medicine seller was about to turn to scold her when he saw her tapping her hand on her pipe at a speed that looked like she was nervous. The lady continued to scream continuously, now her face had become old with many wrinkles. Somehow she was slowly opening it, causing the talismans to turn blood red. Trying to stop her but failed.
As soon as the door opened, the panorama was just thousands of red cats opening their eyes to look at her. The atmosphere was extremely tense at this time and no one said anything. Outside, there was a woman wearing a white kimono leisurely walking on the lake. Before she slowly turned around and still bowed her head, she gradually raised her right hand.
"You demon!"
"No!!" The bickering samurai wearing orange haori pulled out his katana and was about to rush out when two bare-handed girls blocked the blade. They didn't let that samurai run out.
"Yuna, Mei come back!" The woman with white fox ears felt something was wrong and screamed loudly, causing the two children to startle and move in an instant and kneel next to both sides of the woman.
"Bakeneko!" A huge group of red cats flooded into the room before being able to go to the next room which was closed by the medicine man. Immediately after that, the woman with white fox ears took a handful of dust from her perfume bag and blew red flames toward the door, creating a giant red eye that opened wide on the double doors.
"Take this" Odajima shouted and pulled out his sword to stab the door but the door suddenly became so hard that it broke his katana and sent him flying away from it.
The Monoke roared as soon as it reached the door, something could be heard burning behind the door. Then the next door opened, it was Kayo carrying the medicine man's wooden box on his back. She took the heavy salt jar and scooped up several handfuls of salt and threw it towards the door. The Mononoke continues to roar when things don't go its way and disappeared.
"What are you angry about? What's your Regret!?" The medicine man was so angry that he frowned and grimaced. As he spoke, he picked up the talismans and threw them on the walls that did not have talismans one door after another. Then giant red eyes appeared over his charm, the medicine glanced at the woman but she remained silent and smoked. Even though he didn't want to say it, this Mononoke woman was actually a more skilled exorcist than him.
"So that was the Mononoke, Bakeneko?"
"Yes...." The medicine quietly answered Odajima
"Where is Yoshiaki? Is Katsuyama dead?" The talismans on the wall all had eyes appearing in orange ink, this time surrounding the entire room and not just the wall.
"Most likely."
"That's a pity. Don't bear a grudge. And if you must, then hold it against the Bakeneko." The alcoholic samurai used his foot to kick the head maid. As for Sato, she was constantly sweating in worry and crying.
"Who was that? That was one part of the Truth and the Form of the Regret." The medicine man asked, he still frowned, maybe he was still very angry. The talismans were gradually turning red and disappearing, leaving only the woman's giant red seal-colored eyes behind. The woman with fox ears looked up and touched the eye. If this situation continued, her charm would probably break sooner or later. "Does anyone know who she is?"
"What was that?" The room once again shook violently as the talismans in the other room were destroyed and taken over by Mononoke.
"The barrier has been brokken in one room. It'll be here very soon."
"Can't you unsheathe it yet? Hurry up and do it!"
"You'll have to ask it yourself. The again, even if I manage to unsheathe the sword..... There is no guarantee I will triumph over the Mononoke's power." The medicine man calmly replied.
"What!? But you said this was the Sword of Exorcism!"
"A sword is manipulated by humans. There are limits to even my abilities."
"Heh.... hehe.... So that's it...." The woman chuckled lightly, seemingly not paying any attention to the medicine man's words.
"Then.... You pensioner and that old hag, you know something." The fox-eared woman stood up and used her kiseru to point at the old master and the head maid. The medicine man's talismans now turned that color like blood and completely disappeared. The only thing protecting them now is the woman's seals. ".... And my intuition has never been wrong"
"..... We still can retreat to the rooms futher back." The samurai looked at the woman holding a kiseru pointed at him. He didn't answer but looked away, then answered differently, using his hand to pull a handle attached to a drawing of a flower. He pulled that handle out and something attached to the handle made a clicking sound when he pulled it all the way.
The room suddenly shook and the tatami wall behind him began to checkered. The room suddenly shook and the tatami wall behind him began to checkered. Those checkered tiles gradually turned over to become a picture of a woman wearing a red kimono with long black hair. The room shook again as the woman's painting was gradually lifted up, revealing a red staircase extending underground.
"Woah...."
"What the.... Why is there a wedding kimono?" Odajima asked while looking around the room below.
"Ahahahaha! It's useless! Useless! Useless! Useless!"But suddenly Sato, who was crying just now, suddenly burst out laughing like she was crazy, making Yoshikuni smile widely. "There's no way out of this!"
"You know something, don't you?" The man with light hair asked the woman, he frowned as if trying to suppress his anger. The woman with fox ears stood at the foot of the stairs and turned to look back at Sato.
"It's all your fault! You summoned the demon! You summoned the demon! You summoned the demon!"
"Ojou-sama, the kimono...! That's the wedding kimono the demon was wearing!" Kayo kept talking, grabbing the fox-eared woman's Uchikake sleeve, attracting her attention. She was startled and looked over to see that Bakeneko's red things had eaten away the entire kimono and the clothe frame.
"I get it now. The Truth of the Bakeneko was you all along!" The bronze plate in the hand of the woman with fox ears rotated once and ended with a click, the head on the medicine seller's sword also made a click as the strange man spoke to the owner of the truth behind these things.
"Oya.... It's true that my intuition has never let me down. Now what to do.... What to do.... What to do...." The medicine stood to the right of the old master and the woman with fox ears suddenly appeared to the left of the old master. The woman chuckled devilishly, she tilted her head, then placed a finger on one cheek asking sarcastically.
"We'll die, hehe.... Ara ara.... So many choices..... or before you die, why don't you tell us the story?" At this time, Bakeneko appeared as a giant cat on the door again.