Creature City 3.0

The other Namahage boy stayed crouched on the ground, hand on Prince's chest. He talked quickly and sporadically into a cellphone. The operator on the end of the line was sending an ambulance, all too used to deaths and casualties at the yearly parade.

The commander moved forward, noticing finally what Kotori was staring at. Her weapon lay curled in her hands still, a stick that crackled with blue arcs of electricity, made in the image of a cattle prod. The girl was on her knees, hair now snaking limply on the ground. Deadly thorns on the tips of her locks. Covered in blood. She assessed the situation, peppering it with bold assumptions spun from experience. The girl was obviously a young recruit of rival forces, hired to infiltrate the parade and kill high ranking members of the military under the cover of a large gathering of civilians. Perhaps she had been aiming for Demine, but had managed to kill unlucky Prince who had sensed the danger- yes, it was all coming together now- seconds before the event had happened. Now the girl was attempting to slink back into the embrace of the crowd by pretending to be a traumatized member of the public, as she knew the enemy regularly instructed their recruits to do once they had carried out their order. It was harder to identify the perpetrator if everyone looked uniformly fearful, after all. Oh, the enemy had been genius to hire young, vulnerable looking girls to do the job, she thought bitterly. After all, who would suspect them? But Kotori had seen her just in time, and now Demine did too.
"Stand up and face what you have done!" She snarled.

Kotori moved beside the commander, holding her club. She was ready to assist Demine if the Namahage pulled anything else.

Sazae followed the commander's gaze and saw who she was hollering at.
"Isn't that Maiki? The traveling acrobat?" She asked Megumi, thoughts swimming. She recalled the familiar face on a poster for the parade. Megumi squinted, looking from Sazae to the figure on the ground.
 
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Dawn caught her younger brother by the arm as hostilities began to grow between the people around the body. Dusk stopped and moved just behind her, wary too. Neither wanted to get tangled up with the law - they had far too much to hide.
"What d'you reckon's going on?" Dusk said quietly, lime eyes flickering from one person to another. Dawn's focus was captivated momentarily by the Harionago with the bloodied hair.
"Not a clue," she said after a beat of silence. "Some kind of military shit?"
The two of them looked down at the body with interest. They were half in shadow, close enough to listen in to what was being said but far enough removed that they didn't look as though they were obviously eavesdropping.
 
Maiki stood up, shaking. Saiki quickly moved to block her view. Nura stood in front of them, spreading his wings.
"Don't let her see the male," he said. His voice was cold. "Have you never heard of a Harionago before? Surely you know their instincts. Laughing at men and attacking if they laugh back? That's exactly what that man did. An unfortunate accident, but one would think you'd know the risks coming in here. They make you sign a waiver, and there is a phrase contained that explicitly states risk of death and states the nature of Harionago yokai. I can bring you a copy of the waiver if you want. Everyone who steps in here agrees to the risk of death, knows what to expect, and is in line with the law. Unless you snuck in here yourself and didn't sign the waiver, you would have known this and so would the unfortunate male."

Saiki recognised Sazae and looked at her, eyes full of fear. Oh, of all the yokai to have seen it had to be the ones she'd actually wanted to make friends and maybe perform with someday. Whilst she'd never spoken to them, she'd hoped to, and she'd seen them watching their rehearsals.
 
Kotori moved with slow understanding in front of the body and the Namahage boy who was sitting still crouched on the pavement.

Demin held herself still, lantern light shining off or her shoulder plates. The only thing that moved was her weapon, blue arcs of magic lapping at the air like tongues. Somebody else was speaking now, trying to explain away the incident. She faced them, adapting to the new circumstances. She felt her pride rise up like a wave at the idea that her original assessment had been wrong. The commander listened, all the while her mind reeling.
"That may be the case," She said, "This waiver business." The waiver meant nothing to her, and she threw the phrase away with a bored carelessness.
"But it is also an offense under the new war guidelines to assault a member of the Bridge Defense force. An unfortunate accident, yes, but unlike murdering under the protection of a waiver, an act that the perpetrator can be punished for." Her eyes glinted.

"It seems your Harionago friend is in big trouble."
 
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Dawn sparked up a happy cigarette and stayed in shadow, her eyes on the corpse and the creatures surrounding it. Dusk had returned to a raised platform to show off his fire-breathing prowess, but the elder dragon felt an ache in her ankles from wearing thigh-highs all day and decided to take a break. Besides, all of this was far more interesting: the Harionago looked fearful and the military-style creature somewhat incensed.
I wouldn't mess with that freak, Dawn mused to herself, her gaze skimming over the Harionago with languid curiosity.
//
Dusk let the flames die on his lips and the crowd before him erupted into cheers. His exposed golden-brown skin was littered with red scales that seemed to rise and surface on areas of lesser fat. His ribs, shoulders, collarbone, cheekbones and hips, to name but a few places, glittered with crimson scales. He looked down on the crowd, looking absent-mindedly for his sister, when his lime-green eyes alighted on an unexpected face. There was the Phoenix boy Jack had had them all following for months, gazing up at him. Beside him was a girl with grey skin, silvery-red hair, and antlers seeming to sprout from behind her ears and twisting above her head, adorned with flowers. She watched him with large brown eyes, their pupils horizontal like a doe's. The way her lips hung slightly open suggested she'd never seen a Chinese dragon before in her life. That, or this was a place she'd never been - from the quality of her pastel-blue summer dress, Dusk gathered that the latter was probably true.
 
"And it's an offense under the new entertainment act to attack a performer. Clause 83, section 10." Nura stepped forward as well, eyes glinting with a silent warning. "An unfortunate accident that it had to be a member of the- what was it, the Bridge Defense?" He tossed the phrase away with as much boredom as she'd tossed away the phrase about the waiver. "But we're still protected. And again, really, one would think he'd have known better. And one would think you'd have known this was a risk, too, seeing how you so clearly know the law inside and out."

Connor was now intrigued. Liavetta had danced right on up to watch the show, seeing the dead body, and Connor couldn't help but watch the Harionago, shaking on the ground with her head in her hands. He wondered if he could help. Then again, he was a void beast, not a mind changer. He couldn't blank her memory and make the girl appear normal. Still, this commander was being ridiculous. The nature of a Harionago was commonly known.
 
Commander Demine turned towards Kotori, laughing incredulously and looking to her as witness. Her arms were raised like a teetering showman appealing for volunteers.
"Did my poor brother in battle, dear Prince attack anyone? Strike this sow first? No! He merely greeted her. This was an unprovoked attack on a defenseless victim."
Kotori raised her eyes, slow and bovine to meet the commander's blazing gaze. She was more focused on holding her jacket down on the Namahage, hoping in vain to staunch the blood flow.

Hearing no response from the Oni, the commander whirled on her heels back to face Nura. She jabbed a ringed finger at the Karasu Tengu. Her face was creased into a sneer.
"Why bring up the protection of performers at all, when it is clearly unassuming young boys that need to be protected from these Harionago scum."

Megumi left Sazae in the crowd, seeing as Kotori was engaged in helping the Namahage, moving behind the commander to place a red hand on their shoulder. The commander didn't turn.
"Paramedics are here." She said in a low rumble.

A fair distance away from the Harionago and the body now, Sazae's mouth let out another frustrated scream.
"Hungry! Hungry!"
She shushed it, willing it quiet. She wanted to hear the commander put in their place. She stood on her tiptoes, trying to see over the tops of heads. Quite the crowd had gathered around them already, observing like waiting vultures to see if the first death of the night was to be confirmed.

A group clothed in neon shoved themselves through the crowd with urgency, gently telling Kotori and the other Namahage to move aside so they could gain access to the body. Kotori obliged, getting to her feet. Her hands were bloody.
 
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Nura grinned, matching her volume. Making sure the crowd could hear.
"It's in the job deal. Something I'm sure you also knew about when you took over running this place, no? We did come to personally warn you, as well, and you gave us the all clear. Waved us off, in fact! Said 'sure, it's not like I care' and sent us on our merry way. Clearly, you'd taken into account the dangers of having a Harionago on board, knew the risks- I distinctly remember those two Namahage being there, actually. You knew the risks. You even knew we were there. I saw the glint of acknowledgement in your eye, you've kept one eye on Maiki this whole parade. All three of you knew the risks. We gave a distinct warning not to laugh at the Harionago when she laughs at you. We're protected by both contract and law; everyone knows the risk of death coming in here. You especially, Commander Demine."
 
The fact was, Demine scarcely knew anything about the Harionago, and she'd been bluffing her knowledge of them throughout the entire parade and the weeks coming up to it. Sure, she'd gotten one of her men to read the waiver for her, but when the topic of Harionago came up on the ten page waiver towards the end she had gotten bored and simply signed it. All this fuss over a goddamn parade, she'd thought.
Now, whilst it had been established that the successful attempt on Prince's life had not been made by an enemy, but a civilian creature who's instinct said kill, she regretted telling the private to skim over the last few pages. Christ, who knew there were Yokai from parts of the world which operated like that? They didn't have them back home.
"It shouldn't have happened." She blustered finally. "I don't give a rats ass who said what, who talked to who." She sniffed, motioning to Maiki on the floor.
"Kid looks too human. Anyone could've mistaken her for it. You performer types didn't think to exaggerate her features, did you? Like it says you've got to. Give the public a fair chance. Maybe then that Namahage boy would've known not to laugh. That's on you."

It was a flimsy argument, but Megumi's pressing hand on her shoulder and all that beer she'd drunk made her forfeit it up. Knowing she was simply offering up lost dregs of excuses, she glanced aside, pretending to busy herself with observing the paramedics pronouncing Prince dead in the street. At some point down the line during her confrontation with Nura she'd forgotten about him in favor of proving a point. Poor bastard.

Sazae rolled her eyes. The commander's prejudice was showing blatantly again. First herself misidentified, and now another unfortunate girl. At least the commander looked suitably ruffled. The crow yokai had the informational upperhand, and Demine said her last words before limping away to lick her wounds.

"C'mon. Let's get out of here. Prince is dead, it was an accident, and nothing's gonna change that." Megumi muttered, steering the commander away finally. Even though the altercation had come to its natural end, she was aware of the keen, indignant temper of the commander. She concluded that the Karasu Tengu performer and the Harionago girl, despite never saying a word, had made a powerful enemy that afternoon.

Kotori was waiting by the paramedics, swiping at her wet face. She didn't know the guy, but there was something in her that mourned the loss of a local boy in the prime of their life. Potential wiped out totally, due to the small mistake of laughing. She reflected on the balance of life.
 
Connor drifted over to the body. A silent shadow. Liavetta could manage herself for a few minutes. He had to feed.
The Namahage's essence was still seeping into the ground, his spirit spilling through the cracks like water over a wooden table. Connor was quick to lap it up; moving his shadowy mass underneath the body, melting into his shadow, soaking up the fear and the spirit as it seeped from the body. Absorbing it.
He did love this parade. Every year there was death; every year, there was a feast for him and other void beasts like him. Fear and nightmares were one thing entirely, but the fresh spirit that everyone spilled soon after death was something of a delicacy. Unbeatable in its slightly tangy flavour, merging smoothly with his mass- nothing beat it.
Prince had been fearful when he died. Ones at this parade often were. That made it taste better.
 
The darkness of the pavements shimmered noticeably underfoot, like an oil slick, rippling and undulating. It didn't catch Kotori's eye enough to take note of it as she walked to where Megumi stood with the commander.
"Where's Sazae?" Megumi asked, once she registered Kotori's familiar scent on the winds. Kotori shrugged, too drained from the events that had played out before her to give the disappearance of Sazae amongst them much thought. The evening's fun had curdled, the plans for getting something to eat had been abandoned, she wanted to go home.
"Who knows? I thought she was with you."
Kotori scratched the back of her head, pulling loose a ribbon from her horn.
"We're three down. There was six of us before. Earnest with the commander, Saz, and.. Oh, yeah."
The commander, now sandwiched between the two Oni, looked between them with a puzzled expression.
"Yeah. Hell is Earnest?"
"I'm assuming he's traumatized, and the folks back there are busy draping a blanket over him." Megumi gestured to a throng of people already behind her.
Kotori glanced at the blood on her own hands.
"Maybe they should be doing that for me too." She wiped her hands on her shorts, getting most of the red rust off of her palms.

"Intolerable vibrations in this place." The commander said suddenly, not least because she'd drawn the disapproving eyes of the crowd whilst she fought with that Karasu Tengu. The mob, at the end of the day, liked death when it didn't happen to them. She had been unpopular with them in that fierce moment because she had reminded them that it was undesirable. She'd also picked a fight with a performer that they liked too, that they were ready to defend, which hadn't helped her case.

"Let's get out of here." Megumi slung her arm around the commander, still on alert for any signs of Sazae, but more focused on the idea that what the commander had meant by "getting out of there" was the distinct possibility of getting drunk.

Sazae, happy to be away from the commander, even if it meant not seeing her own friends that she'd fully intended to meet, explored the parade on her own. With the express intention of keeping her screeching mouth at bay, she searched for a stall selling hot food.
 
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"Here!"
Saiki had no idea if she was making a smart decision or not, but she offered hot food to Sazae. To the mouth at the back of her head. She had no idea if the girl even liked hot dogs, but they were generally a hit with most people.
 
"Oh." Sazae felt tendrils of her hair reach out, controlled by her blind, hungry mouth, grabbing and curling locks sharply around Saiki's wrist in a fumbling attempt to locate the food. Sazae turned sharply to meet whoever was offering, hoping to whatever deity there was that it wasn't another naive military boy. When she saw Saiki, she smiled nervously. A performer! From before, when- she tried not to scrutinise, taking the situation for what it was. The mouth got a stronger hold and shredded into the food. It let go of Saiki's wrist absently.
"Um, thank you." She blinked. "I saw you, before, in the crowd. With Maiki. Very impressive!" She gushed, for once genuine.
 
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Saiki blushed a little, pulling her hand back when the second mouth loosened its grip and she was sure it wouldn't drop the food. "T-Thank you! We practise for months honestly. Maiki really likes throwing me up in the air like that since I'm...well," she gestured to herself. "Small. And light. So we figured we may as well turn it into a performance. Plus it keeps her distracted from Nura, and keeps from other guys, so incidents don't happen....mostly, anyway." She glanced away, guilt filling her smaller frame as she held the wrist that second mouth had grabbed absentmindedly. "We don't mean for any of this to happen. We take every precaution we can think of, but some people just don't pay attention..."
 
Sazae put a hand up to the back of her head. The girl had recognised her back mouth, had offered food. In a way, she was touched, now that she had time to recover from the sudden interaction.
"I saw what happened." She hoped Saiki's traveling partner wasn't too affected by the events. It hadn't been her fault, after all.
"Now this war's on, these Bridge Brigade idiots think they own the place." She recalled Demine's clash with Nura bitterly. Mostly, parades were without incident, the public being aware of the risks with performers, but these newcomers with their authority, who simply tore up waivers and blundered into things without second thought, were another story.
"I'm sorry for what happened to your friend." She let out a sigh. Now the parade's foundations were not only weakened by drunkards and criminals, but the incompetent presence of the military.
 
Saiki nodded, relaxing. "Nura studied the laws inside and out specifically for situations like this. We're prepared, but we just know now that she's going to try and change the rules, get us kicked out or arrested. Which I don't think she's technically allowed to do? But who knows." She glanced away, watching the crowds. "Maiki wants to overthrow the Bridge Brigade. She keeps talking about it, making the parade how it used to be, how the people like it."
 
"Me and Prince.." The Commander started, then trailed off. Her gaze landed on an empty beer stein. She sat slumped against a bar counter, amber eyes swimming like golden koi in a pond. An upbeat jazz song played in the bar distantly, a crooning voice behind the music, singing about future calamity and damnation. The decor of The Stop was something out of a modern art gallery, black and white strips crossing the floor and chairs, blood red lining the counter. The commander liked the bar because of the clashing colors, bold and brash, and cloying music she deemed elegant. Kotori saw it all through the lens of a horrible fight at the zoo between a group of zebras, stripes and blood laid bare, and imagined the music had been chosen deliberately with morbidity in mind.

Kotori watched the commander adjust her position cautiously, then quickly moved to grab her by the shoulders when it became clear she was teetering off the bar stool.
"Steady, steady." She found herself muttering. The commander liked to drink. She liked to drink. The only difference between them perhaps in this case was that Kotori was an Oni, had a both a preference and tolerance for the stuff, whilst the commander, with her casual sporting mentality, masked a dependency on it.

Demine swatted her away, hell bent on drawing her half-opened sentence to a close.
"We've had quite the company in one another. I reckon I've known him a long time. Or did I? Maybe it was another... Actually, no, this was Prince after all. I can remember because he wore this idiot flying hat the entire time we were together. Positioned on the snowy mountains of Aèlo, wouldn't you know it. Devilish cold place. Roughly five years ago, we were on this extra job... It was to bring down a... God, what did they call it? A Changer. Yeah, a Changer that had been terrorizing the locals. Only our tincourts could match the beast. Not many other weapons can compare, firepower wise, with these things. They're big. Meaner than most junkyard dogs. Smart too. That's why they're sacred in some places, you know." She yawned, showing sharp yellow canines.

"Hell," She drawled, talking just to recount some rousing romp that painted the late Prince in a favorable light, but also made her, living, just as endearing.
"When I killed a Changer on the outskirts of Relief Town, I thought I was doing everyone a favor! 'Till they arrested me later that day for impeding upon the sanctity of its shining spirit. Whatever that meant. I quickly learnt that they're either worshipped in parts of the world, or hunted down like rats because they're bloody nuisances." She drew her mouth down into a scowl at the undignified memory.

Megumi, wanting to hear the end of the quickly slurred and summarized tale, even though she'd listened to it before, steeled herself to prompt the commander on.
"And did you bring this Changer down, then, in the end?" Megumi asked with tired interest. She lifted her head from her hands, making an attempt to truly pay attention over the hum of bar talk. Even though it was bordering on midnight, it seemed like all the nighttime prowlers had been drawn in through the tacky saloon doors of the bar. Volkof girls laughing raucously, shoving each other. Drinks seconds away from being spilt. The bar tender yelling some half-hearted words of disapproval, cleaning a glass with a dishcloth. The atmosphere had a tinge of danger in it, an old Megalodon looming under the surface of a pond, lying in wait. A fight was going to break out by the end of the night. It would be prompted by one of the Volkof girls, or perhaps by a patron from a rival gang making to start trouble, Megumi predicted sagely.

"I got her in the end." The commander nodded. Her voice took on a warm tone, as if reminiscing on a past love.
"It was just a matter of when, I suppose. Ended up hitting the Changer from behind with my tincourt. It had ambushed us, proud thing, one night on the trail back to our cabins. Leapt out of the bushes and got a hold of Prince's leg. Made to change into a kind of sabre-toothed animal of sorts. Old boy would have lost his leg had I not gotten to my gun in the knick of time. Luckily, I'd caught it out, mid-shift, it's skin was still... Rippling. Vulnerable, I suppose. Well, once I'd given it a taste of what I could do it was a matter of simply being cute. Timing things right. Two neat shots, and that was that." Demine shrugged, all good cheer and bravado. She had deigned to mention that the Changer had been dying, driven to the mountains half mad with starvation and weak with disorientation when it ambushed them.

"Prince helped me drag it back to the village after everything was done. Nice chap."
 
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At first Saiki faltered, wondering briefly who the she Saiki had brought up was, before she recalled the Commander in clarity. Yes, Maiki and the Karasu Tengu would almost certainly get some form of rash and unfair consequence for the incident today, she thought mournfully. Be it an order that decreed an end to performers' livelihoods, or something more personal, it seemed that Demine was not going to drop the matter.
Her interest piqued when Saiki told of Maiki's plot to put an end to the almost tyranical power the Brigade held. She raised an eyebrow.
"And how, do you think, she would go about doing such a thing?"
 
"Well, Nura has an in-depth knowledge of the laws of this place, right? Maiki knows about the laws that the local gangs hold. And she knows the gangs aren't exactly happy about the way the Brigade's running the show, they liked it before. There's already a lot of tensions between the rival gangs of the city, but there's unanimous hatred towards the Brigade. A little prodding in the right places would see them unleash all-out war on them. We could fight- rise up and overthrow them, and afterwards all the blame would be on the gangs rising up again. No harm to us." Saiki was grinning as she spoke of Maiki's plan. It wasn't very in-depth, as it was little more than an idea at this moment, but it was exciting nonetheless. "We just need more people on our side- people ready to fight, ready to speak with the gangs and sow the seeds of doubt and hatred."
 
Sazae, eager to do something to help the cause she felt so strongly about, fought hard to resist interrupting.
"You say you need more people in on your... plan," She said after a moment, pausing when her back mouth mumbled excitedly, expressing everying she wanted to say without words.
"I don't know if I'd be any use... But I'd like to help. I'm with you when it comes to the Brigade. Nothing good can come out of how things are at the moment."
 
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