Hierarchy

[Back in Ming city, Hidden Dimension]

Alex sniffed the soft tones of floral scents wafting into the ghost residence street. A strong sweet scent of peaches assaulted his nostrils, yet no peach tree was in sight. Then a sweet lingering smell of jasmine blew into his face, reminding him of his mother in the human world.

"What is it?" Arahabaki asked, noticing Alex's hesitancy to walk forward.

"I smell flowers in the air, but the trees in those ghost residences are not flowering."

Arahabaki sniffed around. "I don't smell flowers. What are you on about?"

"Because we were not humans," Kanghui replied when she overheard them.

"You both can't smell flowers?"

The two shook their heads.

"Flowers don't exist in the hidden dimension. The smell is an illusion because of your attachment to your former world."

"What do you smell here, then?"

"Can you smell fear, greed, gluttony, and lust?" She threw the strange question at Alex.

Of course, Alex couldn't smell emotions. He shook his head.

"What I smell is Ming City's entertainment street to the next right." She pointed ahead.

Arahabaki chortled as Alex asked, "Entertainment? What sort of entertainment?"

"Red-light district, or what I would call flower villages, hanamachi," Arahabaki winked at him.

"There are BROTHELS?" Alex blurted in surprise. "But why would ghosts have an entire street? I mean… do they keep their um… you know to do the um…"

Did they not say that his soul had shed the biological needs? No anatomy would surely mean no carnal desire to hump. Two translucent people making out. Won't they be able to see… Alex shivered at the image.

"Weren't you gawking at the three ladies wearing bikini when you first entered Youdu?" Arahabaki teased as he begun thrusting his hips at Alex who recoiled in disgust.

"Yeah because… I…"

"You lust, that's why. Lust is also a sort of energy too," Arahabaki winked.

Out of the blue, a small glowing rotund momunofu abruptly appeared levitating in front of them, making Arahabaki stop, to the relief of a highly flustered Alex.

Kanghui turned around, aware of the sudden presence, but she remained silent, only observing the momunofu.

Alex quickly slid over to her side, looking back on the first incident with the momunofu. He wasn't ready to watch another round of Arahabaki thrashing a place for the fun of it. Kanghui still said nothing, as though waiting for a response.

Arahabaki rolled his eyes, and his face turned to Kanghui. Alex tilted his head in curiosity at the momunofu - was it some sort of telepathic conversation mobile? Alex could hear no sound, even though it levitated in front of Arahabaki.

"Did you mess with Yaso?" Arahabaki asked in a slow, dangerous tone.

"Why would I?" Kanghui frowned at the question.

A perplexed look appeared on her face. Her eyes glowed again and shifted from side to side, almost signifying her troubled thoughts at the mere mention of Yaso.

Who was this Yaso? Even Arahabaki appeared a little disconcerted when he uttered the name. Whoever it is, Alex considered, best to not know, given how Kanghui seemed too uneasy and unsure for his liking.

"Yaso is asking if you like white fox fur with nine-tails…," Arahabaki raised his eyebrow. "Your fox is in trouble."

Nine tails. Fox. Isn't that Jiuwei the one they called Tamamo? Alex met Jiuwei once to appreciate that the great fox-like being is powerful. He shrunk a little, pretending to be invisible as Arahabaki and Kanghui stared at each other.

Given the situation of their exchange and reaction, Yaso sounded like a dangerous primeval being not to be trifled with, perhaps more formidable than both Kanghui and Arahabaki.

Alex lived a boring human life where he rarely chanced a meeting with the powerful or famous. The hidden dimension overcompensated him beyond tolerance, landing him in weird situations of a human lifetime within days.

"What did Jiuwei do and how did he get to Yaso's side?" Kanghui asked.

Arahabaki shrugged and said, "I don't know. Yaso only asked if you like fox fur."

Kanghui heaved a loud sigh and pursed her lips as she opened her palm, revealing a palm sized blackish smooth stone pendant. With a flip, Arahabaki caught the pendant and held it up in the air to examine.

"Are you sure?" Arahabaki glanced at her again, looking very unsure.

A great temptation urged Alex to inquire what the object was, but the heavy tension in the surrounding atmosphere was so thick that he could slice it with a knife.

"If Yaso soul shears Jiuwei, I have to pick up the pieces. Less troublesome," Kanghui shrugged in ambivalence.

Some with the power of soul shearing? Alex's eyes widen in horror.

"Okay… but if he says no?"

"He won't," Kanghui waved her hand.

Arahabaki placed the pendant near the momunofu's mouth and the pendant vanished together with the momunofu. Next, a blackish portal opened in front of them, tossing out a small battered body of a fox with nine tails onto a cloud of dust.

A whimper from Jiuwei made Alex feel sorry for him.

A swollen purplish eye, with greenish vapours leaking from parts of the white fur and a limp body. The nine tails bore dirt markings on the fur, a result of being stomped on.

The fox looked pathetic from the abuse at the hands of the mysterious Yaso.

"In time too, he can regenerate at the entertainment complex better," Kanghui bent and pick Jiuwei by the cuff of his neck. One of Jiuwei's paws trembled miserably in the air.

Then she smirked and threw Jiuwei at Alex, who quickly caught him. "Hold him until we get to the portal."

"Drop me and I will make your life miserable for as long as I can," Jiuwei mumbled to Alex, whose sympathies for him disappeared at his threats.

"I will drop you," Arahabaki jumped in and grabbed the fox from Alex by the cuff of his neck and asked Kanghui, "direction of the portal?"

She pointed in the direction ahead. "The large three storey compound with an enormous willow tree surrounded by plum blossoms."

Much to Alex's horror, Arahabaki's eyes glowed red in search of the said location as he dropped the limp fox-form of Jiuwei and kicked him like a soccer ball.

"He has injuries!" Alex cried out with his outstretched hands, trying to grab the flying ball of fur in mid-launch.

Alas, he failed. They heard a long whine slowly fading by the distance as the furry ball of Jiuwei flew towards their destination, growing smaller and smaller.

"He won't die," Both Kanghui and Arahabaki responded at the same time as Alex grimaced at their callousness.

Arahabaki swung an arm around Alex's neck. "Lesson one: you learnt how to flee. Good. Now lesson two: if someone threatens you even when incapacitated, they will not be grateful."

"Still, one good deed…" Alex protested.

"Lesson three: no good deed goes unpunished. Tamamo will make your next century quite miserable."

"WHY ME?" Alex hollered. "You are the one WHO KICKED HIM."

"Ahhh, pretty boy, you see. He can't fight me. He barely survived Yaso. So it's revenge by proxy," Arahabaki said and continued, "consider it tough love. If you don't want him to pick on you…"

Arahabaki made him face the sky and with his hand waving slowly across the dark horizon, "be stronger."

"You are trying to destroy me," Alex moaned as they started walking towards the growing pungent fragrance of flowers.

"Don't worry. Anyone mad enough to trespass on Yaso's territory is stupid. And if you lose to stupid, you are a moron," Arahabaki replied with a wink.

"Yaso this, Yaso that. Who is Yaso?" Alex asked.

"Heard of Ōmagatsuhi and Yasomagatsuhi in your university classes?" Arahabaki asked.

Alex shook his head.

"Magatsu? Wazawai in Japanese language class?"

Alex mumbled, "don't tell me that their names have a relationship with magatsu and wazawai, the Japanese words for disasters?"

Arahabaki nodded. "Those two are primeval beings of disasters. Ōmagatsuhi is the elder twin, followed by Yasomagatsuhi. All you need to know is that if both Yomi-no-Kuni AND Takamagahara bans a certain being or beings or entering their domain… they are catastrophic level news which you hope you never see in a million years."

Alex sighed. If only the hidden dimension had Google, he would download the list of primeval beings to avoid. Then again, avoiding all of them would make his life easier.

"You mingle with Yaso," Kanghui countered Arahabaki.

"Old buddies when we rampage. But Yaso can destroy human cities within seconds. Kanghui and I take a few minutes," Arahabaki yawned and stretched his arms as Alex went to Kanghui's side to escape his grip.

"I thought that's Ōmagatsuhi, not Yaso," Kanghui mused.

"Both share their powers," Arahabaki told them.

Pointing to Alex, Arahabaki said, "you better teach pretty boy about the hierarchy here."

"He has a rough idea," Kanghui replied.

"I mean about our kind." Arahabaki insisted.

Alex wondered why Arahabaki would sound so concerned about his well-being.

"He can learn that later, after the Courts of Hell. He can barely even see auras, let alone differentiate between ranks," Kanghui said.

"Why do I need to care about differentiating ranks? Treat everyone the same with respect - isn't that the way to get along?" Alex asked.

Both Arahabaki and Kanghui faced him with their eyebrows raised, then they started chuckling.

"Jiuwei would have licked the soles of Yaso's shoes when they met. Did Yaso spare him? Fat chance," Arahabaki said.

"There are a few you have to learn to sense from afar and avoid," came Kanghui reply after a minute of silence as the pungency of the floral scents grew stronger as they took a right into a large red gate with red lanterns floating across the top.

"Like Yaso," Arahabaki said.

"Or…," Kanghui mouthed the word and tilted her head towards Arahabaki behind his back.