Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Matsumoto, Nagano

May 3, 2013

6:13 P.M.

Ikeda Kurumi

I snapped when I heard the rat’s words.

I snapped so hard that I wasn’t sure what I did next, but I came back to my senses when Ichigo bit my ear. That was when I felt that my throat was aching.

"Calm down Kurumi," Ichigo pleaded into the ear that he had just bitten while hugging me tightly around the waist. "Our daughter's life is at stake here. Calm down and let's talk with it. Please."

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Matsumoto, Nagano

May 3, 2013

6:13 P.M.

Ohta Ichigo

As I continued to comfort my wife, my blood pounded in my ears as hard as it did during the punishment Dad inflicted on me for getting Kurumi pregnant.

We had barely evaded death just now. Had I not been holding her hand, had she not shrieked first before running, then I would not have had the opportunity to restrain Kurumi. If I had not restrained her...

The rat could have used magic against her, injuring Kurumi or killing her. Kurumi might have hurt the rat, making it angry enough to curse all of us. Or Kurumi might have killed it and have trapped all of us here until we die.

And speaking of Kurumi, I had never seen her like this. At her very worst Kurumi only hated someone enough to rudely talk back to them. An actual murder attempt? Complete with acting like a ghost from a high quality horror movie? Never.

'Then again, no one threatened to kill Ao before.'

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I don’t know how long it took, but Kurumi eventually calmed down, and settled for glaring hatefully at the rat.

“Now that my wife had calmed down, talk. What do you want with Kurumi?” I asked the rat while feeling cold because of my slightly sweaty shirt.

“Alright, first off what do you know about mercenaries?” it asked.

I was about to say something about how was that related to us when Kurumi beat me to it with her own thoughts.

“We don’t have time for theatrics!” My wife yelled out from my still enclosed arms as I stared at it. “My daughter is dying, right now!”

“Oh? Then you’re agreeing now? Without knowing what we want you to do?” the rat asked with a relieved tone.

I suddenly had a horrible feeling about the way this conversation was going. It was the feeling that I could best describe as being stranded on an erupting volcanic island surrounded by a sea filled with man eating sharks, watching a cloud of superheated ash descend upon you.

“Yes!“

I quickly tried to rein in my wife.

“Kurumi, stop. Let’s talk this over – ”

“There’s no other choice! Our daughter is badly injured!“

“He could be lying. The only thing I see Ao having right now is a concussion and badly infected scratches.”

“And those alone are still dangerous! Also, don’t forget that rat is a magical one! He could make Ao suddenly have all those injuries if he wants to!”

I instantly shut up as I pondered on the possibility of what Kurumi had just said. After a few moments I conceded that point.

“Alright, but we have to know first what he wants. Please.”

Kurumi looked at me for a second or two. And then she nodded. Having received what I want from my wife, I asked the rat a question.

“What precisely do you want my wife to do?”

“Again, I’m asking if she knows anything about mercenaries.”

It took me a moment to understand the rat’s answer, seeing as my wife and the word mercenary had absolutely no connection with each other in my mind.

“You want me to work as a mercenary what?” Kurumi asked before my reaction got out of my mouth.

‘Oh yeah. Mercenary could also refer to any job where the employee is only there for the money that is being paid. Good thing I didn’t laugh.’

“What else does mercenary mean, you idiot? Of course I mean a soldier for hire. Want to hear the terms now?”

“Liar.”

Kurumi and I were instantly kneeling by Ao’s side.

She looked pale and weak, in drastic contrast to the cheerful colors of the sweater and pants she had on. Despite that she was giving the rat the angriest look I had ever seen her make, when she wasn’t even supposed to move her neck because of the accident.

“Are you sure you want to insult me when your life is in my hands?” the rat asked in a wondering tone.

I quickly panicked upon realizing Kurumi wasn’t the only belligerent person I had to rein in, and that the rat doesn’t care if Ao is a young child who doesn’t know any better.

“Ao, shush. Let me and Mama talk to the rat,” I said while exchanging worried looks with Kurumi.

“Mama, the rat – ”

Kurumi quickly laid a finger on Ao’s mouth.

“Dear, he will kill you if you say anymore. Let Mama and Papa talk him into letting you go to the hospital, ok Ao?”

Ao looked sullen, as usual when she doesn’t get her way. Upon seeing Kurumi nod to me, I looked back to the rat, who was now impatiently tapping its foot.

“What…what are your terms?”

“Finally. Here are the terms for – “

“Becoming a magical girl!” Ao suddenly shouted out in a pained manner.

I swung my head back to my daughter, who had moved her mouth away from Kurumi’s hands. Kurumi looked surprised and wary of touching our daughter, something that I agree with thanks to half remembered knowledge from the field manual about first aid.

Without any intervention from us out of fear of doing more harm to her, Ao continued forcing herself to shout out phrases that seemed to have no meaningful connection.

“Mr. Elephant Head is not happy! Ms. Mother Of Many Demons, the One Who Sees And Hears All and Compassionate Monk is complaining to him! Foxes and Crows are pleading innocence! And lots of my Great Grandpa ghosts are waiting for you with sticks!”

“Oh dear heavens, she has a concussion,” Kurumi choked out. Feeling the same, I looked back to the rat to apologize and give in to its demands so we can get Ao to the hospital when I saw it staring at my daughter. A few moments later it stumbled back and said something in shock.

“You’re an akashvani. How in my Lord’s name is there an akashvani here and now?”

“Shouldn’t you worry about yourself first?” Ao retorted with what I can only call a sadistic grin.

The rat stared at Ao for a few seconds before it sat down on the street, eyes closed, and then shut up.

I turned my back on the little bastard and smiled awkwardly at my...victorious daughter. Even though I didn’t understand what was it that she won at.

“I win!” Ao finally croaked out in a happy tone. I was about to try and humor her when she suddenly coughed, whimpered, and then fainted away.

“Ao!” Kurumi screamed then looked at me.”Ichigo? What happened to her?”

I was about to check when someone else spoke from out of nowhere.

“Both her lungs had collapsed, and there is a dissection, a tear between the layers of her aorta, the biggest artery we have and located in the heart. From the looks of it, the dissection could burst blood outside of the ascending aorta any moment now. If she isn’t operated on, she’s going to die.”

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Matsumoto, Nagano

May 3, 2013

6:17 P.M.

Ikeda Kurumi

I whipped my head towards the voice’s direction. From behind us, to be specific.

The speaker was a fox whose shoulders reached up to my hips, and was as long as I was tall from the tip of its nose to the end of the longest of its nine tails. It had also had fur as white as the clouds of a clear sunny sky, and the most pleasant rice scent that I had ever smelled. Behind it was a procession of ten or so normal sized foxes, coming in pure white or normal colored fur, all of them either looking at me, my fiancé and my daughter or sending glares in the rat’s direction.

“Inari?” I asked, desperately hoping that they are some of the famous kitsune messengers of the kami Inari. Benevolent beings who will help my daughter live.

“Yes. We’re inari,” the inari confirmed to my great joy.

“Oh honorable inari,” I said as I instantly kneeled down and bowed my head all the way to the street. “My daughter needs medical help, so I beg you. Please send me and my family to the nearest hospital possible.”

After a moment I heard Ichigo move, followed by the sensation of someone rubbing shoulders with me. I presumed that like me, Ichigo was also doing a dogeza.

“Ma’am, please," my boyfriend pleaded."My daughter…we love her. Please, just let us go to a hospital. Please.”

I heard the inari start to walk towards us. And in a few seconds she was beside us, near Ao.

“We don’t need to go to the hospital right away to add more expenses than what is necessary. I can operate on her myself for free.”

“Thank you – operate?”

I sprung up from the dogeza and looked.

Instead of a huge fox, there was a beautiful woman with a waist length ponytail, surprisingly dressed in a tight, and thankfully thick, white shirt and skinny jeans. She knelt beside Ao, murmuring to herself while inspecting my daughter’s body.

“Shouldn’t that be ‘heal’ instead of ‘operate’?” Ichigo muttered beside me.

For a moment I felt panic. My fiancé didn't mutter those words in a 'too soft to hear' volume. It could definitely be heard properly by a person who was right beside us, like the inari.

“I have magic but I do have limits,” the inari said, confirming my panicked thoughts. “I cast illusions, possess, shape shift, and other things that your ancestors thought we foxes could do. I can’t naturally heal anything more than cuts, which I’m about to do to your daughter’s insides. I’m not a spirit of healing.” She continued as she placed her palms on top of Ao’s chest.

“Then what are you going to do if you can’t heal anything more than cuts?” I timidly asked as I watched her palms start glowing, quickly followed by her arms.

“I shall use what I learned in medical school to maximize the effect of my abilities.”

Her palms suddenly sank into Ao's chest, as if Ao was a basin of water. Naturally, I reacted with a half strangled scream while Ichigo put a trembling arm over my shoulders.

“Don't worry. I'm a government registered doctor. Kyoto University, Faculty of Medicine batch 1980. I am now going to perform a magically assisted surgery.”

"But - palms! My daughter! Infection!" I managed to choke out despite my current state of mind.

The inari didn’t take her hands out of my daughter's chest, but she gave me a quick glance and a smile.

"It's a matter that I already took care of. Please leave everything to me. I'm a doctor."

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I didn’t know how long the inari’s ‘surgery’ lasted, because I fainted when the inari finished healing Ao’s aorta and said that she was about to anesthetize Ao and make a cut in her chest to suck out the air.

When Ichigo woke me up, it was over. Ao was asleep before us, no longer on the simple stretcher from before but on a comfortable looking beach chair, with a plastic tube running out from under the white cotton shirt that had somehow replaced the sweater I put on her and ending in a basin of water. Her left shoulder was splinted with three stout, wooden sticks and a wrapping of very expensive looking silk extending from the shoulder down to her elbow.

Seated around Ao were the the inari, either softly talking with each other or attending to the inari doctor herself, who was now back in her original form, eating abuurage from a bowl in front of her that had a bottle of sweet chili sauce beside it. And then I saw Ao's blue violet sweater, cut in half, probably to allow the inari to make a cut in my daughter's chest.

'Thank heavens. With a cut that clean I can sew the sweater back into one piece in an afternoon.'

“Is she alright now?” I asked him, torn between waking up Ao and asking her how she feels or staying here in Ichigo’s arms and waiting for her to wake up.

“The ‘doctor’ said after this talk we should go to a hospital as soon as we can. Get that improvised chest drain replaced with a real one, along with either a better splint or a cast for her arm and the proper pain medications for a child.”

"And the ribs?"

“That’s what the pain medications were for. Ribs heal by themselves, but it takes a month or so for the healing to finish, so the patient has to bear with the pain.”

“Oh my poor daughter,” I moaned.

What I was told was horrible. Ao, a mere four year old girl, would have to bear with the pain of her broken ribs for more than a month, and the only relief we could give were painkillers and mere words of comfort.

Ichigo kissed my cheeks, and hugged me tightly. Then he silently started stroking my hair. And went on doing that for several minutes until all my worries had somewhat distanced themselves from me.

‘It’s not the prayer of fading away the negative emotions, but fading away isn’t appropriate at this moment in time.’

“So, everything’s alright now, yes?“

“No it isn’t!” I screamed as I turned around in Ichigo’s arms. “Whatever you want, fuck off rat!”

It was only after that sentence that I noticed that the one who spoke wasn’t the rat, but the Indian man that I hallucinated earlier. Momentarily confused, I quickly realized that the rat and the man were one and the same.

“Oh no I can’t,” the rat man replied. “I’m here to do my task, and that is – “

Ichigo smoothly took his arms off my shoulders and slowly stood up.

“What are you going to do Ichigo?” I asked, wondering if my boyfriend is going to beat up the rat. And if I could join in the beating.

“I’m going to talk to him love,” he said while looking downwards at me and adjusting his jogging pants at the same time.

“Just talk?” I asked, without bothering to hide the disappointment in my tone.

“Just talk. What, did you think I’m going to beat him up?” Ichigo replied with a surprised tone in his voice.

“...can I help beat him up?”

My fiance stared at me for several seconds before he sighed.

“If it comes to that, please leave that to me.”

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Matsumoto, Nagano

May 3, 2013

7:49 P.M.

Ohta Ichigo

“I’m warning you right now kid. I’ll defend myself if you attack me. Got it?” the shape shifting Indian man said as I walked nearer to him.

I took no heed of his threat because I had no desire to beat him up, no matter what Kurumi wanted or what the rat thought I would do.

Some moments later I was casually squatted in front of him. The Indian man remained seated, clothed in a colorful cotton wraparound skirt, a white turban, golden bracelets and a thick, golden necklace. His hands rested on a musical instrument that vaguely looked like a koto, had sculptured decorations, two ball shaped pieces of wood serving as a stand, and needed a cylindrical block of something held in the Indian man’s left hand to be softly pressed against the strings.

I had no doubt that it was not only a musical instrument, but also a weapon that he was ready to use on me. However I wasn’t worried. I was only there to talk, after all.

“Frankly speaking, beating you up isn’t going to fix all the harm you did to my family,“ I told him in reply to what he said earlier. “But I could let bygones be bygones if you let us out of this place and never come near us ever again.”

“Not until she signs on as a mercenary for my Lord,” the Indian man firmly replied.

I spent the next few seconds silently staring at the Indian man, while wondering how I wanted to proceed. Then I made the move that felt most comfortable to me.

“Look Mr...may I call you Mr. Rat?”

“Sure,” the Indian man answered with a shrug of his shoulders.

“Mr. Rat, let’s put aside the entire thing about coercing my wife for now and dwell on what I think is the more important question. How is Kurumi even qualified to be a mercenary in the first place? The same Kurumi who wanted nothing more but to become a housewife and work as either a home based sewing professional or cook?”

“By being overqualified compared to every other...do me a favor kid. Let’s continue using the word ‘mercenary’ because the actual term is too ridiculous for use in real life.”

“Is the actual term more descriptive of the job than using mercenary as a euphemism and needing you to make lots and lots of explanations just to describe the actual term?” I responded.

“...Yes.”

“Then damn you just say the word. Feeling stupid is nothing compared to our feelings about the medical fees and the life of my daughter.”

“Magical Girl. Your wife is overqualified to be a magical girl compared to all the other magical girls in this world.”

I stared at Mr. Rat for a few seconds before I managed to figure out my response.

“Magical Girl. As in Sailor Moon and Pretty Cure? Or do you not know anime?"

"India is second in the world by number of internet users, you slant eyed chutia," Mr. Rat answered me with a glare.

'Oh. So he really is an Indian. That answers one question and creates more questions.'

I coughed, quickly gave an apology for the accidental faux pas and then moved on.

"So...magical girl? My wife?"

"Kurumi is an exemplar of motherhood in many ways. She also has connections with military forces through your family, and can learn one of the easiest to learn yet most lethal martial arts in the world from her mother, who is already considered as a master of her art by her peers in her home. And most important of all, the ones who can see into the future swear that she is important for victory."

I quickly focused on the reason that didn't fit in with the other reasons that Mr. Rat spoke of.

"What does motherhood have to do with being a magical girl?"

"Moral compasses and sense of responsibility.”

Several moments later Mr. Rat expounded on what he said, prompted into it by the incredulous look I was giving him.

“Kurumi has a superior moral compass and sense of responsibility compared to all the other magical girls out there on this world, one that she gained because of the necessities of parenthood and with the input of both your families. You too, for that matter, have the same quality of sense of responsibility and moral compass.”

“Mr. Rat,” I slowly stated, groping for the right words to use. “I...think I have an idea of what you’re...trying to say about those things, so I’m...confident in saying that you’re wrong. Kurumi and I don’t have a superior moral compass or sense of responsibility compared to others, what happened was that we gained ourselves a moral compass and sense of responsibility faster than most people our age out of love of our incoming child and each other.”

Mr. Rat stared back at me with a puzzled expression that suddenly went away as he seemed to have realized something.

“Oh. I forgot to mention how old these magical girls are. No wonder.”

Before I had the time to properly comprehend the implication of what he just said, Mr. Rat laid everything out loud and clear.

“The oldest magical girls are all twelve years old. The youngest of them are eight. So Kurumi automatically has a better moral compass and sense of responsibility than these girls have because of her age and life experiences.”

For several seconds I silently stared at the Indian man, unsure on how to appropriately react to what I heard. Especially when I’m still missing information, and when there’s the chance that this man has been lying from the very beginning.

Mr. Rat took that opportunity to go on the offensive.

“Look. My Lord and his allies are willing to greatly compensate you and your wife. Anything you two want for yourselves, and your daughter. Money? All the gold and silver, platinum and iridium you want for conversion into cash can be given to you. A very, very long lifespan? Well...it could be negotiated upon. What else – “

“I am walking away now, to get a second opinion,” I harshly interrupted, because I felt insulted by the blatant attempt at bribery. Immediately after saying those words I slowly started to stand up, and winced because of the pins and needles sensation in my legs.

“You and your wife can also save lives if she becomes a magical girl,” the Indian man said as I was forced to wait for the sensation to go away. “Three out of five of all these gullible girls die every year, mostly because...they’re kids, I guess.”

“I said I’m getting a second opinion. Stop trying to guilt trip me and my wife with information that we currently can't verify,” I firmly said, while willing the pins and needles to go away faster.

“Can’t verify...you think I’m lying?” Mr. Rat complained.

“You could be lying all this time,” I said while glaring at him.

I finally felt the pins and needles sensation fade away enough to let me walk away from Mr. Rat.

“Look! A real war is coming, and it will be fought in every part of this world! When that time comes, how are you going to protect your kid?!”

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Matsumoto, Nagano

May 3, 2013

7:51 P.M.

Ikeda Kurumi

As I watched Ichigo walk away from the rat man, with both his middle fingers raised up in the air, I felt...both pleased and displeased.

I was pleased that my boyfriend had come around to my point of view regarding the rat man, namely that of justified open hostility. But I was displeased that I didn't get to beat the rat man up...and that my justified hostility was making me feel guilty deep inside.

'It's ok to hate just this once, right? The world could surely endure a little bit of negative thought waves for one night. Yes, it could endure just this one night. I'll be back to emitting positivity when this rat man is gone.'

"What did he do to make you angry Ichigo?" I asked, feeling curious about what he and the rat man talked about that made him so angry.

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'Three out of five dead. Magical Girls. I was chosen because I'm a teenage mother and because someone who can see the future says I'm needed. And there's an incoming war.'

"I..."

I trailed off, unable to make a response to what my boyfriend just reported to me.

"I know. That's what I felt too. That is why I'm getting a second opinion from her."

Ichigo looked in Ao's general direction, where all the inari were looking at us. Including the doctor inari from Kyoto University.

I turned around in the same direction, to ask the doctor inari a question. However, she spoke up before I managed to open my mouth.

“Ms. Ikeda Kurumi, the only thing the rat did right this day was to tell why I and my fellow servants of our lady Inari are also here to assist in recruiting you as a magical girl for our faction. Yes, everything you heard is true, I swear that in the name of Lady Inari. But since Krauncha had poisoned the well, so to speak, there is no use trying to convince you to make a decision right this moment."

The inari took a moment to glare in the direction of the rat man, who I presume must be the so called Krauncha. He was sullenly looking in my direction at that moment, and belatedly reacted to the inari's glare by sending back a look of indignation.

"I shall now return you and your family back home,” the inari declared after several moments of staring between them.

I sighed in relief and bowed down to the inari.

“I thank you for your understanding and your mercy, honorable inari.”

“It’s alright. I can’t force the mother of one of my patients to do anything she doesn’t want to. Now, let’s move your daughter to another place, shall we? It won’t do to have ourselves appear in the middle of the street and get hit by a passing vehicle."

“Ichigo,” I whispered after I stopped bowing.

“Right,” he replied. He then quickly strode towards Ao.

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Matsumoto, Nagano

May 3, 2013

7:59 P.M.

Ohta Ichigo

“Alright, put her down there,” Kurumi said as I and the inari’s companions, all of them in human form and dressed in various women’s wear you would see while walking down a city’s street, carefully carried the beach chair my daughter was seated on. Beside me, the inari carried the bowl of water where the other end of the chest drain was located, at a level lower than that of the beach chair that we carried.

Moments later, we carefully placed the beach chair in the middle of the room, quickly followed by the doctor gently putting the bowl of water under Ao’s beach chair. She then quickly turned to Kurumi and gave some instructions.

“Now, after my girls and I bring your family back home, I'll call an ambulance to your home. When the paramedics arrive, I want you to leave all the talking to me until the moment I ask you two to talk. Understood?"

Kurumi and I agreed, bearing in mind that we had no way to explain how Ao got a surgery without seriously calling into question our sanity or our competence as her parents. Worse comes to worst, we might have the Equal Employment, Children and Families Bureau coming down on our heads for this, especially since Kurumi and me were…minors of special interest in the past.

"Any more questions?"

"How about the damned rat man?" My wife suddenly asked, at the same time as her hands wrinkled Ao's cut apart sweater into a ball.

I can't help but wince at Kurumi's word choice. It may be a fact, but the tone sears the ear with anger and hate.

"We'll leave him here," the inari said in a tone of voice that told me she wasn't amused by Kurumi's tone. "Girls, let's go.”

She then suddenly snapped her fingers.

One moment it was only Kurumi, Ao, me and the foxes in there. The next, the ghosts were also in the room, crouched under the windows and to a single ghost were looking at us in…

'shock and dismay?'

"You idiots!" my self-proclaimed four times great grandfather screamed at us. And then his head disappeared into a spray of white mist and wooden splinters.