un.

          A voice kept on telling him to do so. As if he needed to be told to twice. He huffed, skipping through the steps going up the shrine to seek protection from the sacred place. To run away from the spirits that followed and wanted to harm him. But then again, the voice in his mind would probably do the same if he listened to it more.

          As if reading his mind, the voice said, “I won’t harm you. Now run faster before they catch up to you.”

          “Easy for you to say!” He grumbled but berated himself for talking to himself. He was probably going crazy. These spirits coming after him, they weren’t just ordinary ones. Not the dead ones’ souls, no. Most people didn’t believe that such things existed, but he knew they did because he could see them.

          These ones in particular were weird yokais. One of them was a huge blob of green mass with long black hair and a single large eye above its wide mouth. There were two of them and the last one was a black mass with long legs and short arms. It had no face on his head, and its mouth was on its gut.

          One of the green blobs extended its arms toward him, managing to catch his right leg even before he could step inside the shrine. They shouldn’t already be able to get close, but they seemed to be one of the more powerful ones than the ones that couldn’t even float near a hundred-meter radius of a shrine.

          He instantly felt heavy. These yokais only wanted to consume his lifeforce after all. The green blob let go of him as the black mass yokai pushed it away. They seemed to be fighting over who gets to eat him. He collapsed on the ground, his hand touching the edge of the stairs going up the shrine.

          “Ah, touchdown.” He mumbled, huffing breath after breath.

          “Yukito!” The voice in his head sounded troubled.

          Shit. It knows my name. He thought, deeming his life now over. Even the yokais know his name now. Shit, what do I do? Does this shrine even have a priest to begin with? What the hell, I’m doomed. I don’t know what mom will do if I don’t get home by eight. Shit, there’s still that homework I haven’t done. Crap, crap, crap!

          “Stop complaining in your mind, it’s making my head hurt!” The voice grumbled and it sighed. “Anyway, Keita and Tougo will be there to help you.”

          “What who?” He mumbled, “Who are you, anyway? Ah, why am I even talking to myself? I must be going crazy. Damn, that yokai did me good. Am I gonna die?”

          Raucous laughter echoed suddenly around, and mist suddenly covered the whole shrine. The lanterns outside lit up in soft purple and pink hues. The three yokais who couldn’t reach him screeched in pain, and they slowly dissipated when the mist reached them.

          “My, my,” another voice echoed toward his left. “Finally, you got lured here.”

          “Ah shit.” Yukito wanted to stand, but his body still felt slack. For a moment, he thought he should probably accept that he was doomed for life, since nothing good had ever happened in his life anyway. The one he called mom wasn’t really his real mom. He found out about it pretty late in his life but she cared for him deeply and worked hard for him just so he could live quite a quiet and comfortable life. His mom said she picked him up near a forest entrance when he was a baby, and he always thought that it was a cute joke.

          Not that he believed that.

          Other than that, he had no dad growing up. Considering his mom wasn’t really married anyway, how could he have a dad in the first place?

          “Yukito…”

          Growing up, he had a lot of friends, but he wasn’t really that close with any of them. He always felt different, sometimes, even an outcast. Maybe because he’s the odd one out. He could see weird yokais and sometimes, would scare other children.

          Once, he prepared an extra plate for the ‘kid wearing a straw hat’ and even his teachers freaked out.

          Damn, if this is how his life ended, in the hands of yokais, then what the hell, right?

          “Yukito, snap out of it.”

          He sat bolt right up and was surprised to feel his body already healed. The heaviness he felt earlier when the yokai touched his leg was gone. “Holy shit!”

          The second voice laughed again, and a third one joined him. “Hora, Keita, don’t laugh at our honored guest.”

          “Honored guest, my ass!” He grumbled, looking back as the mist dissipated too, revealing once again the bright orange sunset behind him. The lights of the lanterns had also died out. “You’re just going to eat me, huh? You lured me to this shrine so…” he paused and stepped back. “Is this even a real shrine?” He knitted his brows at the two shadows that approached him from the inner part of the temple. “Who are you? What are you?”

          “He’s surprisingly talkative, huh?” The second voice, who kept laughing, sighed. “I thought you’d be more like the master, but lo and behold, you’re one snotty little brat.”

          “Watch it.” The other one scolded him again.

          Two tall lads dressed in white and gold kagirinu garments finally showed themselves to him. One of them, the one always sniggering, wore a red hakama, while the other one wore brown.

          But that wasn’t the one that bothered him. Sure, those were traditional vestments worn by priests, but that wasn’t the point. What bothered him was the fact that they both had fox ears on top of their heads and three fox tails behind them.

          Dread lodged itself in Yukito’s throat. “Yep, enjoy the meal while you’re at it.” He mumbled mostly to himself.

          “Yukito, just calm down.” The first voice, who was always talking to him whenever he was close to any shrine, sighed again. He sounded frustrated with him now, but he was also just barely holding on to his own peace so he wouldn’t scold him.

          But Yukito was having none of that. “Calm down? Dude, you sent foxes to greet me! How am I supposed to calm down?”

          The calmer, elder fox moved forward then, holding his arm. In an instant, a sense of tranquility flowed through him. And he blinked up at the yokai before asking, “Who the hell are you?”

          He chuckled a bit now, “There, now that we’re a little calmer, perhaps we can introduce ourselves properly. And no, we will not eat you. In fact, we’re doing quite the opposite. You have a strong power within you, and lower ranking yokais are basically attracted to you. We’re here to protect you.”

          “What?”

          “Now, first and foremost,” the laughing fox moved forward too. “I am Keita, a guardian and vassal to the fox god. Pleased to meet you, Yukito-dono.”

          “Dono?”

          “And I am Tougo,” the elder one bowed his head. “It’s nice to finally meet you too, Yukito-dono.”

          Yukito’s mouth dropped to the floor. “Ha?” 

***

“Are you sure it’s safe for me to be here?” was the kid’s third question, the first two ones being ‘how was he going to get home’, and ‘where the hell are they’.

          Tougo seemed to be the more patient one, and he pointed at the sliding door before them. “Beyond that is the realm of the spirits.”

          “The what~?”

          “Such a clueless little child.” Keita chuckled, “The realm of the spirits. Well, technically, that’s where all of those who chase after you had come from.”

          “But,” Tougo glared at him and raised a lecturing finger. “It’s also where the gods reside. Going through here will allow us to go directly to their abode, and avoiding the smaller fries like those that were after you.”

          “Hmm,” Keita flicked his finger and the lanterns by the altar were lit with purple spirit fires. “You could probably say we’re heading toward the capital of the spirit world. You know, it’s where the higher ups live. It’s also where the gods live too.”

          “Oh, but wait…” Yukito stepped back a little. He looked around for a means of escape. Hospitable as the two foxes were, they were still yokai, and who knows if they were trying to trick him? Foxes were sly tricksters after all.

          “They won’t trick you.”

          “Stop reading my mind!” He suddenly blurted, making the two tall foxes look at him in surprise. “Ah… sorry. There’s this voice in my head, I think I’m going crazy.” He forced out a laugh.

          Tougo only grinned. “Well, that is normal, don’t worry. We know who’s talking to you. He’s looking after you, you know? Forgive what Keita had said about luring you here. But maybe it is our master’s intention of bringing you here too.”

          Yukito scrunched his nose. “Why, though? Because of this ‘power’ thingy you told me that I had? Dudes, I have no power, I can see yokai, but that’s just about it. I was probably born upside down, so there’s that.”

          Keita laughed again. “No. But maybe you’d know when you meet the Master soon.”

          Tougo opened the door behind the altar, revealing a wide pond after it. It was misty outside, and he wasn’t sure if he could see past the waterlilies and lily pads that floated near the exit.

          Yukito gulped, “Is this ‘master’ you’re talking about a god, then?”

          “Yes.” Both fox spirits extended their arms to gesture at the pond. “You can meet him on the other side if you wish.” Tougo offered his hand to him, “Don’t worry, Yukito-dono, you have all the right to enter the spirt world. After all, you are one of us.”