The bathroom that greeted her eyes was devoid of water or ofuda. A pungent smell assaulted her nose in their placeâthe foul stench of long-festering mold and decayed flesh. The door to the hall was open. Even from here, she could hear the deep scraping of a mass hauling itself up the stairs, dragging its body in long strokes by the arms.
Asayuki closed the door to the bedroom behind her and stepped past the cracked mirror in the bathroom, into the hall where she knew no human was waiting.
Her quarry noticed her at the same time she saw it in full. A grotesque thing playing at the vaguest humanoid shape dominated the entire stairwell. In place of legs was a long mass of flesh that reminded Asayuki of a termite queenâpulsating meat, draped over the stairs and pressing against the rails. Misshapen arms and legs flailed along its length. Its torso was far more human yet occupied the full height of the second floor, forcing it to bend its head over her. Stringy, greasy strands of thick wiry hair, a smiling grimace that stretched from one ear to the other, and bulging black eyes with no hint of white loomed as she looked up.
Its teeth parted in anticipation of feeding. Large beads of saliva hung down from its lips and its fetid breath struck like a physical wave reeking of death.
Asayuki didn't budge in the slightest. Really, it was a little below average for what she was expecting.
A vast scarlet crescent flashed into being and vanished in the same instant. Asayuki's sword clicked back into the scabbard as quickly as she had drawn it. The beast's exhalation spiked into a feral shriek as it recoiled away from her, crashing through the rail and slamming its back against the far wall. Its severed arm slammed down at her feet. A curved splatter of red decorated the wall and ceiling, marking the path of her blade in its blindingly fast strike.
"One," she murmured, stepping over the limb. "No others on this case, seems like."
The creature's shriek turned from pain to rage, its massive body surging forward like a wall of flesh to crush herâ
A flurry of bright red arcs filled the air and she sheathed her sword again. Asayuki sidestepped the creature's charge and retaliated at once, carving dozens of deep gashes into its body in the blink of an eye. Squealing, it smashed itself against the doorway and took down half the wall in its frenzy to break through, black bulbous eyes set on the cracked mirror.
A thrown ofuda reached the mirror before the beast could, ensuring its escape route remained nothing but ordinary glass. The mirror shattered on impact, spraying fragments across the floor as the monster scrabbled at the wall in vain.
"And no abilities worth noting." Asayuki's boots alternated between splashing in pools of blood and crunching shards of glass underfoot as she calmly honed in on her target.
The monster's snarling rose to a new crescendo. Drawing up to its full height as best it could in this cramped space, fresh skinless arms tore free of the gashes all over its body, five- and six-fingered hands tipped equally with nails and claws and talons swiping at the air and carving tears into the floor and walls. It threw itself at the swordswoman to tear her to piecesâ
In the span of a split second, three slashes cut five reaching limbs from the beast. Asayuki's blade speared through the roof of its mouth and twisted as the weight of its body came down, pivoting to bring it crashing to the floor at her side. Its many hands and feet spasmed and then fell still.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
"Please," she scoffed.
The creature stirred, shifted, and then kicked over onto its side. Its limbs continued to move in the rhythmic flexing of muscle caused by a dormant system with no life left to steer it. Asayuki knelt closer to her sword and drew it out from her kill, using the same motion to swipe the blood from it.
Asayuki stood up, adjusting her scarf. She lingered for a moment to appreciate the vibrant crimson hue of the blade, the moonlight reflecting down its length, before sheathing it. She exhaled, then brought out a length of talismans and wrapped the slain creature's two original arms in them. She brought them outside, setting them down on the driveway under the moonlight before returning the way she came.
The bathroom door clicked shut behind her, leaving behind the other side of the house. Once more in the bedroom, Asayuki reached out and tore off the ofuda.
Tick. Tick. Tick.
Midnight came and passed. She picked up her bag and took a moment longer to sweep the bedroom one more time. The cracked stones remained cracked and the pentagram remained undone. Several ofuda had peeled off the windows and doors they covered. Her reflection looked back at her through the mirrors. Every candle and incense stick was lit. The salt circle was still intact. And in his bed, the child slept peacefully and undisturbed.
Asayuki stepped out to greet the parents anxiously waiting for her to emerge. "I'm done."
"Did something happen?" asked the father. "Did everything go well?"
"Yes." She didn't elaborate further. "Like we agreed, you have till the end of the month. See the results for yourself before paying anything."
The mother said, "What aboutâ"
"Drain the tub and sink now." Asayuki was already on her way downstairs. "Wait until dawn to burn the ofuda. Before the next sunset, throw out everything else away from the house."
"Wait!" The mother finally got her to pause. She bowed her head and said, "Thank you very much for your service."
"â¦What are you thanking me for?" said Asayuki. "There's no need. Have a good night."
Returning to her motorcycle, she waited until the front door closed and the shadows of the two parents walked away from the entrance. Only then did Asayuki remove a second, smaller bag from her ride and dug out a dark red vial. She retrieved her katana from her bag and drew the tanto sheathed alongside it. Carefully, she tipped a few drops of blood onto the knifeâjust enough to coat the edge.
Asayuki knelt and brought the tanto down, cutting a gash into the air itself. On the other side of the rift waited her real prizeâthe severed arms of the youkai of ten thousand hands.
Everything was loaded onto her motorcycle. Asayuki leaned against it, eyes wandering to the sky as she tapped her left headpiece. "Come in," she said. "It's Asayuki."
No response at first. For a moment, she thought he was off on a job.
"...Asayuki?" A man's voice crackled through the other side. "I read you."
"Job's done. I got the arms."
"You got them?" he repeated, incredulous. "Last time I checked, you weren't assigned this week. What are you doing coming to exorcism calls?"
"This one caught my interest," she said simply. "Not to mention, you weren't doing it."
"I had it on my plate, okay? There's kind of a big backlog."
"Then no complaints with reducing it, no?"
A very audible sigh. "Anyone else on the Reverse?" he asked.
"Nobody."
"So long as it's not another mess to clean up⦠hate doing that." The sound of cloth shifting came through the call. "You should be leaving jobs to us. You have something a little bigger to focus on, don't you? Nobody's going to swoop in and steal the parts out from under our noses, so there's no rush."
"I know." Asayuki drank in the sight of the night sky. Under a full moon, she could even make out the clouds in the darkness. Absent-mindedly, her hand drifted to massaging the belts on her other arm. She murmured to herself, "I just need to remind myself who I am."
"Pardon?"
"It's nothing." She swung onto her motorcycle and let it rev to life. "Returning to base. Out."
"â¦Well, if you say so. See you around, Asayuki. Out."
Asayuki set out down the street towards the city, her scarf trailing in the wind under the full moon. She took a deep breath, savoring the taste of the cool night air, before bringing her ride roaring to full speed through the night.