The Sound of Snow

Chapter Fifteen: "May Our Fates Intertwine"

"Why don't we let the police do their job?" I said, still half-annoyed that I was doing my dad's work.

"You know why we can't do that." She said curtly, "Goto-san petitioned his death, not his arrest. It'll be a lot easier now than to try and do it once he's in jail. So let's hurry!"

We made it to the top floor hall branching into three apartment doors, crammed together like cheap hotel rooms. The last door at the end of the hall was our destination. I didn't have to read the address; the cacophonous roars of the thriving phantoms within were directive enough.

Feasting ayakashi roaring noisily on the other side, I loudly rapped my knuckles on the door. For a while no one answered. Then, incessantly without stopping I kept knocking. Eventually I heard heavy and hurried footsteps falling on the thin floor from within, but they weren't approaching the door. He was trying to pretend no one was home, I thought.

"This is the police!" I shouted through the wood. "Open up!"

Still no response.

"Suit yourself." I muttered, bracing myself.

Tensing my whole body, I used my shoulder as a battering ram and was surprised at how easily the lock caved and flew open, like it had been broken into before. Shoving the door closed and locked behind me, I was met first with the realization of ayakashi filling – and I do mean filling – the small house. Hundreds of their eyes turned to me where they gathered somewhere in the hallway opposite. Scampering rodent sized ones with massive jaws in the kitchen, bat-like squealing ones swarming the ceiling, slithering ones that circled the den, and the ones watching behind corners, every one of them stared into my soul and unanimously uttered,

"SMeLLs GOoD...!"

But before any of this registered, I was met by tall and light-haired man who looked to be in his forties, armed already with a handgun at his side. He glared at me, confused like he was expecting something else.

"Who the hell are you?!" his tension warned me not to come any nearer. Even so, his voice trembled and he continually glanced to Hiki's shining at my side. "You're not with the police... Goto sent you, didn't he!? Answer me!"

At the sound of his voice raising the ayakashi went nuts, most of them swarming the unsuspecting man, egging him on. But the bats hanging from the ceiling fan dove at me. Taking Hiki quickly, I cut through several at once. They were weak, like the type that would haunt scared little kids. The ayakashi encouraging the man to violence were the strong ones in the room, liked they'd lived here a long time. Those I could believe would belong to a man with the reputation this one apparently had. Those were true monsters seeking to cause a fight between the man and I – ultimately an even greater feast for them. But these little ones swarming me like flies... something was off. These ones couldn't care less about the man, like he wasn't the one who attracted them.

My prey – obviously unable to see the Far Shore demons I was fighting and utterly unaware of his home's infestation – screamed at me as I thinned the horde surrounding me.

I huffed in annoyance, slashing down one of the fatter phantoms. "Fine. I guess you'll have to go first. Your stress is just agitating them anyway."

I lashed for the man, a clean shot. Or it would have been if I didn't have a host of ayakashi blinding me. The man dodged into the kitchenette. At the sight of us fighting the creatures lit up with new arousal, his dogged ones now attacking me too.

"Hiiro!" I cried, "A little help here?!"

My shinki sighed. "You used to be able to handle this like a pro. In just one year without me you've gotten so soft."