Chapter 9

Chapter 9

JGSDF Camp Fuji Regional Hospital, Sunto District, Shizuoka

May 7, 2013

2:38 P.M.

Ikeda Kurumi

I had barely begun to open my eyes when Ao swept away all my worries with a cheerful greeting from my right.

“Welcome back Mama! I missed you! See Lola, Grandma? I can read the future!”

I opened my eyes with a smile on my face…and immediately lost my good mood at the scene in front of my bed.

A frowning Mama dressed in her usual outdoor wear of jacket, blouse and jeans, and a gagging Mother dressed in a sloppily patched jeans and a thin, white shirt over breasts that makes every A-cup girl like me feel inferior had a trembling Izanami raising her hands up in the air just like a hostage, with the use of two white colored knives the length of both my palms laid side by side pressed against her neck from the front and the back.

"Mama! Mother! What are you doing to Izanami?!"

Mother, who stood behind Izanami, looked at me with a face filled with disbelief. On the other hand Mama never looked away from Izanami's face as she spoke.

"How else do you expect anyone to react when a real life zombie appears in your room?” Mama replied.

“To run away screaming,” Mother muttered while looking at Izanami in the manner of someone consulting an imaginary checklist.

"Mama, Mother, please stop that. Ichigo and I owe Izanami our lives," I insisted.

My dismay at seeing Izanami held hostage turned into heartfelt embarrassment as Mama's only reaction was to make a thoughtful hum.

"By Izanami…are you referring to the myth of Izanagi and Izanami, the creators of the islands of Japan?" Mother said in a tone filled to the brim with trepidation.

"Yes she is the goddess Izanami – "

Mama suddenly interrupted me in a very firm manner.

"No! Kurumi, there is no other god but God Almighty! All other gods being worshipped are either the answer that people who didn't know God but are truly and deeply searching for him came up with or minions of Satan misleading people into sin!"

Heartfelt embarrassment became an intense desire to draw up the blanket over my head and pretend everything that just happened was a nightmare at Mama's next actions.

"Sa ngalan ng Ama, at ng Anak, at ng Espiritu Santo, amen," Mama said as she made the famous sign of the cross that Christians do before they pray.

"Mrs. Ikeda – "

Izanami's attempt at engaging Mama in a conversation instantly failed as Mama loudly sang over her words.

"Ama namin sumasalangit ka! Sambahin ang ngalan mo!"

"Magdalena – "

Even Mother was ignored by Mama while she was fervently saying her prayer.

"Mapasa-amin ang kaharian mo! Sundin ang loob mo!"

"Lola?"

This time it was Ao's turn to be ignored by Mama.

"Dito sa lupa! Para nang sa langit!"

At this point it was apparent to everyone in the room that we can do nothing else but let Mama…embarrass herself trying to pray for the exorcism of a goddess.

"Bigyan mo kami! Ng aming kakanin! Sa araw-araw!"

Mother had already lowered her knife and slowly shook her head at the sight that Mama was showing us. On my part, I looked away from Mama towards Ao to my right, both because it was too embarrassing and I want to see my daughter again.

It was then that I saw Ao looking at me and sporting a guilt ridden face, just above the plaster cast that covered her left shoulder.

"At patawarin mo kami! Sa aming mga sala!"

"What's wrong Ao?" I asked the girl wearing a blue colored hospital gown whose only difference from the one I was wearing was in size, in a volume that was sufficient enough to let her hear them through Mama's prayer.

"Para nang pagpapatawad namin! Sa nagkakasala sa amin!"

"Mama, remember when I said that I can read the future?"

While they might not be as developed as that of a fully adult mother, my 'oh no my child did something naughty' instincts rang out like a fire alarm.

"At huwag mo kaming! Ipahintulot sa tukso!"

"Let me guess. You predicted I would wake up and Izanami would appear here. That was why Mama and Mother had weapons in their hands."

"At iadyat mo kami!"

"Yes Mama."

"Sa lahat!"

"Ikeda Ao, we will talk about how you use your abilities later on, understand?"

“Ng masama!"

As Mama ended her prayer with a bombastic 'Amen,' I finally gained the guts to look at the scene of the embarrassing accident.

Mama looked at Izanami as if she was expecting her suddenly start shrieking and start disappearing in a pillar of smoke or...or something.

No such thing happened.

"Hmm. Didn't work," Mama calmly muttered.

"Of course it wouldn't, you idiot. Izanami is a goddess," Mother said in an exasperated and embarrassed manner.

"No, I just did something wrong, so I - oh I get it. This is Japan so I should pray 'Our Father' in Japanese."

As Mama started singing the 'Our Father' in Japanese, I sighed and looked back at my daughter.

"Ao? Why?"

"Because if Lola isn't holding Ms. Izanami hostage, Lolo’s friend will instantly start shooting his gun at Ms. Izanami."

“What?”

It was at that moment that the door of the room suddenly opened, revealing Papa and a man in a military uniform looking on at Mama and Izanami.

Papa barely finished saying something I didn’t hear over Mama’s praying before the man shoved him away, aimed a pistol out of nowhere at Izanami and shouted ‘Don’t move.’

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JGSDF Camp Fuji Regional Hospital, Sunto District Shizuoka

May 7, 2013

2:40 P.M.

Ohta Ichigo

I stood where I was, in spite of the overwhelming need to rush inside the room and see to my family’s safety. Doing that would only put me between Suzumoto’s pistol and whoever he was aiming it at.

My tension vanished when I heard Magdalena interrupt her very loud prayer and shout out that she had everything under control, before quickly returning to what she was praying.

“Dear, what are you doing?! Move away from that thing!” Kentaro yelled out from where he was, on all fours and looking from behind Suzumoto’s legs.

“I said don’t worry! I’m exorcising this demon with prayer!”

‘Demon? Prayer?!’

I peeked in over Suzumoto’s shoulder, and instantly jerked at what I saw.

It was the zombie of a European woman.

Chunks of its pale, shiny skin was bitten away by something, showing the world raw, red flesh and hints of white bones.

Little maggots crawled all over the hair and skin, in such a way that the eye was drawn towards the remaining intact features of the zombie.

Unique was the kindest description I would use for the eyesores it wore. The dull red cloth makes one think of dirt, grease and sweat. The rope and the footwear reminders of the utter depths of poverty anyone who failed to find a job could fall into. And the pitiful things attempting to be jewelry evoked pity for the wearer.

“Mrs. Ikeda, please step away from the zombie – “

“She isn’t a demon or a zombie! She is the goddess Izanami, the wife of Izanagi! Stop pointing weapons at her and start treating her like a normal person!”

Confusion, elation and submission warred for dominance as I beheld my wife sitting up on her bed and roaring out her opinion to the world.

“She’s...Izanami?” Suzumoto said as he lowered the muzzle of his M9 pistol by a slight amount.

“Yes she is!” Ao chirped anxiously from her bed.

As Kentaro stood up from the floor beside me, Suzumoto stood as still as a statue. And then he slowly lowered the pistol to his waist in a low and ready position.

“Oh, you work really fast, don’t you demon?” Magdalena suddenly said out loud, accompanied by a slight poke at...Izanami’s neck with a...

‘Is that a tanto made of bone?’

“I...don’t understand,” the so called goddess squeaked, breaking me out of pondering on the durability of sharpened bones.

“A few seconds was all it took to convince people you are a, quote unquote, goddess? You’re using magic on them.”

“But I am a goddess,” Izanami wailed.

“No you’re not. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,”

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“I’m so, so embarrassed Ichigo,” my wife muttered as she hid her face into my back, her hospital gown scratching against my shirt with every movement we make.

“I feel for you, dear. Really, I do,” I said as I stared at...the absurdity in the center of the room from where I was sitting, at the foot of Kurumi’s bed.

“Papa?”

“Yes Ao?”

“...I’m sorry.”

I looked to my right, to see my daughter unable to look anywhere else but the blanket that currently only covered her legs.

"Did you see this happening when you 'read' the future?" I asked while pointing at the absurdity.

The absurdity I referred to was the sight of Izanami, standing and looking down at her feet in embarrassment and misery as Magdalena prayed with a rosary dangling right in front of Izanami’s face. And in the background spies and fully armed members of the Self Defense Forces in their respective working uniforms, Mom and Kentaro watched with a variety of reactions.

Kentaro was glaring furiously at the ones who were bent over in half from laughter or snickering maliciously, chief among them the Colonel from the Military Intelligence Command. The others looked on the spectacle with a mix of wonder and disapproval, and others studiously kept the same neutral expression that Suzumoto was wearing.

Mom alone was the only one who was doing something about the scene, by patting Izanami's shoulder while glaring at an indefatigable Magdalena.

"I was trying to stop Lolo’s friend from shooting his gun at Mrs. Izanami," Ao replied in a depressed manner. “I...I’m sorry. Please forgive me?”

I took a deep breath and exhaled it with a sigh.

On one hand, this is a young girl who was still learning morality. She could abuse this ‘gift’ of hers for her own purposes. On the other hand, she could’ve just prevented a tragedy from happening since their beds were directly across from the door. If Suzumoto had opened fire in surprise, they would’ve been in the line of fire.

"Before I forgive anything, tell me this. How do you ‘read’ the future Ao? What does it look like from your point of view?"

“Umm...remember Mama's old picture books? The ones Mama and Grandma used to teach me how to read hiragana and katakana?"

“Yes. What about them?” I asked as I felt Kurumi move her face towards Ao.

“I see the future and the past as a book with many, many pages of hiragana and katakana but no pictures whatsoever."

I raised an eyebrow, bugged by something about what she just said but with no idea as to what it was.

“And you understood every word written in your book of future and past events?” Kurumi asked.

“...no Mama.”

It was only after a blink that I felt the horror wash over me.

All this time that Ao was making life saving decisions based on her ability to see the future, she was doing so with a smart but less than ten year old child’s mastery of the Japanese language.

It was a wonder she didn’t make a mistake any time before now.

All of a sudden Kurumi leaned over my shoulder and whispered into my ear.

"Dear, can you leave this to me? Ao needs to learn a lesson about manipulating people like she just did with Mama."

"Go ahead," I agreed, because I had the same sentiment about what our daughter did.

Kurumi quickly stopped leaning on me and then I felt her turn around to look at Ao.

“Alright. Ao, we’ll forgive you. But you also did something bad to Mama, with your ability to read the future no less, so we will have to punish you. And your punishment...your punishment is one month of no play time. Instead you will spend that time studying new words with me and your Papa. Is that understood?” Kurumi declared to Ao in a tone that brooks no dissent.

I felt some relief when Ao agreed without any complaint whatsoever; however…it wasn't enough for me. I'd much rather that she never had this dangerous ability in the first place.

An instant later my ruminations were interrupted by a poke in the back.

"Ichigo, please be a dear and go stop Mama's harassment. This has gone on for long enough."

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JGSDF Camp Fuji Regional Hospital, Sunto District, Shizuoka

May 7, 2013

2:47 P.M.

Ikeda Kurumi

"On it, love," he said as he stood up from the bed and strode over in a paint stained white shirt and horribly patched blue jeans to where Mama was praying on top of Izanami's head,. Seeing this, Papa sighed and went over to Mama. As for Mama, her only reaction was a raised eyebrow at them.

Within moments, they stood on both sides of Mama. Papa then leaned over and started whispering into Mama's ear as Ichigo waited his turn to talk her into stopping.

After a few seconds it became apparent Ichigo won't have to take a turn, because Papa succeeded where everyone else failed. Mama slowly stopped praying and looked at Papa with a contemplative expression, while her fingers rolled a single bead between them.

A moment later she looked back at Izanami, who was starting to have a relieved expression on her face, and promptly wiped the relief off her face with her next words.

"A poor, little spirit brainwashed into thinking she is a goddess? Nah, that's too farfetched to believe in."

That proved too much for Izanami. She shook her head, and walked three steps away from Mama.

“Kurumi I’m extremely sorry,” Izanami said in the manner of someone trying hard not to break down and cry. “It appears I’m unwelcome here. Let’s talk about the amber, jade and obsidian some other time, please?”

Before I was able to say anything, someone intervened.

“Your holiness, you don’t have to leave,” the skew eyed Self Defense Forces member who Ichigo told me was Papa’s friend appealed to her.

“But – “

Izanami was instantly drowned out by the voices of a group of men in business suits, police and military uniforms. Except for Papa’s friend, they all quickly flew to her sides and started cajoling her into staying for a while and having a friendly conversation.

The nervous goddess quickly shot me a pleading look. In response I quickly raised my left hand to direct her attention to the IV drip inserted into my wrist, which in turn was attached to a bottle of IV fluid hanging on a metal stand.

However, I wasn’t blind to her discomfort, so I shot my fiance a look. Thankfully Ichigo understood what I wanted him to do and promptly acted.

“Excuse me! Can everyone listen to me?!”

In the blink of an eye Ichigo became the recipient of several baleful glares. Despite that, my love didn’t let the glares faze him.

“Its obvious that the holy Izanami – “

“She’s not holy!” Mama suddenly interrupted, quickly followed by Mother finally putting a finger on her mouth and shushing Mama up.

To his credit and my pride, Ichigo quickly rolled with the interruption.

“That Mrs. Izanami is already tired out by this day’s unique events. Therefore I propose that you all make an appointment with her at some other venue, for another time. How about it everyone?”

“And how do you propose we contact her, kid? Go to a temple, pray and hope she hears it?” A man in Ground Self Defense Forces uniform derided Ichigo. Behind him, by the doorway, some of the Self Defense Forces personnel coughed or bit their lips upon hearing his belittling words.

To everyone’s surprise, Izanami timidly answered his question.

“I have a cellphone. Do you want my number?”

For several moments all was quiet in the room, everyone preoccupied with staring at the goddess and, on my part at the very least, imagining her with a cellphone.

“Uhm...I bought it at Awaji? I have a subscription with Softbank? I'm paying with my salary as a miko?” she revealed in a flustered manner as the silence continued.

After several more moments of silence Izanami asked the group of men the following question in a very meek manner.

“Am I going to get arrested for not paying any tax?”

The first one to snap out of the silence was one of the business suited men.

“Oh no, no, no. We were just surprised...you don’t pay any taxes? How did you get a subscription?”

“...lots of jade because I don’t have any documents.”

“...I believe that is an easily solved matter between the National Tax Agency and you, your holiness. And I believe my co-workers in the government will do everything in their power to help you fix every legal shortcoming you have. Right, people?”

As his co-workers agreed and started reassuring Izanami, I continued staring at the goddess on account of the things she said.

‘She sidelines as a miko?’

I shook the thought away as Izanami pulled out…the famous Nokia 3310, an act that prompted the men to hesitantly bring out an assortment of iPhone, Razr and other cellphone models I'm not familiar with.

Izanami either ignored or never saw the contrast in technologies, and eagerly rattled off her own cellphone number while navigating her own cellphone. After that she started adding the numbers of the men around her to her contact list, never seeing the expressions of everyone around her.

Once she finished, Izanami turned towards me and gave me an expectant look on her face.

I quickly realized what she wanted, and…gave her the bad news that I realized just now.

"I don't think my cellphone survived our house’s collapse. Ichigo, Mother, how about your cellphones?"

A quick shake of the head from Ichigo and a sigh from Mother told the both of us that they too lost theirs.

There was only one choice left, and it's not Mama.

"Papa, can you give her your cellphone number?"

Papa just looked at me with a raised eyebrow. A moment later Mama chimed in with her own question.

"Kurumi, why should he do that?"

"Because Izanami is willing to donate amber, jade and obsidian I could sell for money to fix up our home. And I need her contact number for that."

An instant later Mama was in a headlock, courtesy of Mother. And before Mama could protest, Mother slapped her left palm over Mama's mouth.

"Your holiness I deeply, deeply apologize for her actions earlier," Mother said while maintaining the headlock as Mama struggled to get out of it. "She's one of them silly religious fanatics. You know, those people who froth at the mouth and rant at anything that says their beliefs weren't true."

Mama gave Mother an intense glare for that, while at the same time Papa woodenly took out his old Samsung Galaxy and started tapping.

“No, it was my fault,” Izanami replied in a depressed manner. “I should have hidden how I looked like.”

By the end of her reply she was once more holding her left elbow in a posture of self comforting and defensiveness. And the sight of this brought about different reactions.

Mother looked disappointed, most probably because Izanami was acting less like a goddess and more like a real person with their own personal problems. Mama thankfully had this guilty look on her face.

Behind them, Ichigo showed pity towards her while Papa had just finished tapping his cellphone. And finally the group of men and officers…I didn't like the way they were looking at Izanami.

Their stares were a close relative of the look in Ichigo's eyes whenever he sees lunch after his morning jukendo practice during weekends. That was why it was a relief when Papa finally asked Izanami her cellphone number.

After she finished exchanging contact numbers with Papa, Izanami looked up at me and waved with a smile. Then she started to slowly fade away from sight, without any sound.

A few moments later she was gone.

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JGSDF Camp Fuji Regional Hospital, Sunto District, Shizuoka

May 7, 2013

4:03 P.M.

Ohta Ichigo

“Well, that was exhausting,” Kurumi sighed out as soon as the spies, Major Suzumoto included, had left the room.

"You alright?" I asked my wife as I rubbed her back in concern, while taking quick peeks at the bed next to us.

Ao was currently being hugged gently by both Mom and Magdalena. And Kentaro sat on one of the seats, scowling at the events that happened earlier.

Mere seconds after Izanami had returned to…somewhere around Awaji, if I remember what Kurumi said during the debriefing right, the spies huddled while Suzumoto started giving instructions to the privates who escorted his colleagues to this room. Once the privates were all dismissed, Suzumoto closed the door, walked over to me, and started to softly speak.

He lectured me about the importance of communicating with Izanami, with the goal of creating an agreement between her and the government. That potential agreement had just become a matter of national security, with the lives of the Japanese people possibly at stake. And I had just derailed their plans for securing Japan’s safety.

After he finished, I softly fired back with a question about common courtesy, with the expectation that he would take it seriously. What I got instead was a bemused silence from Suzumoto, which prompted me to rudely point out the gaping hole I saw in his argument about national security.

Izanami was claiming to be the Izanami of myth, the goddess who made the islands of Japan. Taking into consideration the portrayal of many gods as being as emotional as humans, how much damage could Izanami inflict on Japan if she completely snapped from anger? Wouldn't it be better to 'test the waters' when she had time to recover from her humiliation?

Suzumoto was grasping for words to counter that when we noticed that his superiors and fellow spies had started to talk to Kurumi. We mutually dropped the topic and went towards the beds, where I got included to the ongoing debriefing as well.

The debriefing itself left a sour taste in my mouth since we were asked to recall and retell all the events that happened in our house, and in Kurumi’s case afterwards...while being constantly interrupted in mid-word with requests for further clarification about this and that particular event by both our parents and the spies. Needless to say that the storytelling session not only brought back bad memories and irritation, it also revealed that Krauncha had done my family one final injury.

He told them Ao could see the past and the future.

Kurumi and I did our best to hide Ao's supernatural power, by smoothly and shamelessly changing details of the story from how they really happened. Ao's mysterious words to Krauncha became Ao asking him if whoever his master was would be happy if he had hurt a child. Ao asking the Skinchanger if he would follow his orders regarding sabotage became Ao screaming to him for help. And so on and so forth.

After we had finished telling our respective views of that night’s events, the spies either looked at us with slight frowns or exchanged looks with one another while shaking their heads.

At first I was confused, because between Kurumi and me we had already given them plenty of information bar those regarding our daughter. Confusion became wariness when one of the business suited men, the one who walked with the Self Defense Forces members earlier, introduced himself as Mr. 'Mysterious' of the Defense Intelligence Headquarters to Ao.

Wariness turned into horror when Mr. 'Mysterious' followed up on Ao's hesitant reply by asking her to list down all her supernatural talents, including her ability to see the future.

Kurumi and I had barely started to react when he shushed the two of us in an exceedingly patronizing fashion. He told us that Krauncha had given the Japanese government his version of the events that happened in our home. Furthermore, Krauncha also provided them a cassette tape that had recorded all the events of that night in audio. Then ‘Mr. Mysterious’ finished his spiel by telling us that we will be in severe disfavor with the Japanese Government if we continued our obstruction.

My wife and I were rendered silent by his threat, and his colleagues alternated between giving us apologetic looks and giving him incredulous and disapproving stares.

As for Ao, she scowled and became extremely uncooperative in a way that made me very, very nervous for her sake.

Ao answered all of Mr. 'Mysterious' questions by performing demonstrations. However...I never wanted to know that the last time he peed on his bed was at the age of fifteen. Nor did I want to know his wife was at that very moment kissing some other man inside their living room. And worst of all I didn't want my daughter to announce his wife was doing so because she was...unsatisfied!

By the end of it all, Kentaro and I were standing at the foot of Ao’s bed, placing ourselves between her and Mr. ‘Mysterious’ for fear he might attack her in anger. Fortunately the DIH spy had his anger under control, only settling for clenching his fists and gritting his teeth when he wasn’t talking.

The debriefing was finished then and there, seeing as not only did Ao prove her powers but she also made the entire situation too awkward to continue working in. Mr. ‘Mysterious’ grunted and walked out of the room, which started the exodus of the spies from our room.

“Ichigo? Kurumi?”

I quickly looked up at Kentaro when he called me and my wife.

"Whose bright idea was it to lie to the government spy?"

Kurumi and I exchanged glances, then we looked back at Kentaro.

"It's kind of both our ideas Papa," Kurumi replied.

"To be specific, we happened to have the same sentiment of not wanting the government to find out about Ao's abilities. I didn't talk with Kurumi about lying for Ao before the debriefing, I just found out she had the same thought when she started changing the details of the events four nights ago," I added for further clarification.

"Why do that Ichigo? Kurumi?" Mom suddenly spoke up. "Lying to a government official who is doing their job is a crime. And now you two are once more at odds with the government for this stunt."

"Because I don't want my daughter to get exploited for her abilities, especially when she's still so young," Kurumi said while blinking with a disbelieving look on her face. "Ao might even get seized away from our custody, if Prime Minister Abe wants her abilities bad enough.."

"I have a different reason," I confessed. "If... assume that the Lighteaters and Skinchangers do invade Japan and the world in an all out war, and that Ao that is helping the Japanese government as a fortune teller who never fails in her predictions. What happens when the magical aliens found out that Ao is helping them?"

“No way.” Kurumi interrupted in a horried tone of voice. "Ao is just a child."

“Even so, Ao will most likely become a legitimate target to kill when that war does come about. Seeing the future is just that...helpful in war."

While Kentaro let off a curse that quickly had him censured by both Mom and Magdalena, my wife reacted by groaning and closing her eyes and forcefully massaging her forehead with both hands, regardless of the catheter in her left hand.

“Kurumi, your left hand – “

Kurumi quickly laid her hands on her lap and looked at me with a very tired expression.

“What do we do to protect Ao from that?”

“...I think I got an idea.”