Shamoji

[Boundary, Kanghui's shrine]

Alex's skin crawled while watching two spiders descend from their hiding places, only to grow into cat sized eight-legged horrors with spindly legs, scurrying to their human-form brother, the only one who can shape-shift.

Like a pet, Yata hugged and cajoled them with soft whispers, sending shivers up Alex's spine as he glanced at the horror shit show of what it looks like being embraced with eight legs.

Exactly like the movie 'Alien' with the chest bursters, except bigger and longer legs.

One spider, either Ao or Shiro to which Alex couldn't differentiate, walked up to him and eyed him with its shiny, beady eyes. Alex staggered back as the spider raised a leg.

"Heeheehee," the spider squealed as though taking delight in his fright.

Alex pinched himself. Did the spider giggle? The beady eyes seemed to trail him as it wiggled its bum.

"Ao, stop playing," Yata kicked the spider right in its brown furry bum, causing it to tumble sideways into the shrine.

"WheeeeEE." The spider flipped back on the ground and waved its front leg around like it enjoyed the kick before skipping back in front of Alex, still watching him.

"Your brother can talk?" Alex widened his eyes at Ao, the spider, who gave him a nod.

"I wouldn't call that talk, only in telepathy they make sense, but not in this form," Yata said, and the spider poked Yata with its hind leg, who smacked it away.

"Telepathy?"

"Yeah, mind-talk, but not to everyone, only close kin of the same kind," Yata shrugged.

"T-then what was Ao going to do to me?" Alex backed away when Ao sidled up to Yata, with those beady eyes still fixed on him.

Yata leaned in and whispered into his ear, "Stop acting so scared. He thinks it's fun when you are frightened."

Great, cat-sized spiders are assholes too, Alex thought as he glanced at its disconcerting beady eyes which reflected his image.

The rustling of leaves made the two spiders scamper in haste behind Yata's back as a whitish snake like form slithered through the ground at rapid speed, bursting out of the dead leaves into a cloud of thick white cotton ball-like vapors in front of the steps in a sitting position.

Kanghui told them that the Mishakuji was coming. Where were the rest? Alex peered high and low, surveying the area for their presence.

The cloud slowly dissipated revealing a silvery hair young man with a pair of large hooded eyes with purplish red irises and reptilian slits for pupils, dressed in a white body hugging t-shirt with an embroidered silver snake on the side and white jeans with the same embroidery. His eyelashes looked so thick and long, like he applied mascara and eyeliner. With a wide stretch of his arms and a few twists of his waist, the young man yawned and looked at them.

Yata nudged Alex before he could ask, "one of the Mishakuji."

"Yeah, my brethren sent me. Shamoji is my name." Shamoji stretched his legs. "Been a while since I took human form."

Alex lifted his hand and waved. "I am —"

"I know. The tag Yata can summon the rest who don't like to be bothered. So they sent me to accompany you," Shamoji interrupted him.

He took a sniff around and looked at the spiders clutching Yata's back.

"Those two have been here for a long time, always hiding when we come. Yet no progress," Shamoji commented casually.

"They are trying." Yata gently pushed the clinging, spindly legs off his shoulder while Shiro's head peeked out from behind.

"They have to try harder. If both are on par with you, I wouldn't need to turn up to take you to Kanayago." Shamoji stood up and straightened himself while taking a hesitant step forward to examine Ao while Shiro clung onto Yata's back like a child. "Spiders who make the final evolution have a lot of potential."

Shamoji turned to Alex and walked slowly towards him like a predator stalking its prey and stopped an arm's length from him. Shamoji's nostrils flared as sniffed the air around Alex and let out a low hiss, narrowing his eyes to size him up. "Your marker sent you on a suicide mission."

"S-suicide…" Alex muttered.

"Yata, there, can at least make his way past the middle of the mountain where the Tengu are. You…" Shamoji shook his head. "This is going to be interesting."

"Eh, how interesting and what can we get from Kanayago?" Yata asked.

"Why the fuck will I know anything about that old witch?"

"Don't you have a weapon from her?"

"We are Jomon, Takamagahara's rules don't apply to all the Jomon because we take precedence," Shamoji hissed at him in a low tone with a glint in his eyes.

"Then how do you…"

"Mishakuji isn't the only big Jomon serpent group, there's the Jogu, Shagotten, Shakuji, Shagoji, Sangoji, et cetera et cetera. Most of any with the names ending mostly with a -chi or a -ji is a serpent relative of us."

Yata squirmed as he thought of their population. He already known the Mishakuji for being many in multitude, like termites in a mound. Now there's more of the serpent clans, half he hadn't heard of. Too many fucking snakes.

"Like Orochi!" Alex exclaimed without thinking.

Shamoji palmed his cheek in feigned surprise. "Oh my, that big scary eight-headed serpent with a body size of mountain ranges."

"ReALLY?"

"No."

Shut down swiftly to irrelevance with the dead pan expression of Shamoji, Alex clammed up.

"So, where is the portal to Yasugi?" Yata asked.

"Anywhere near Izumo is off limits to portals now, unless you want to enter that big floaty island of Takamagahara filled with the uppity snobs."

"Then how do we get there?"

Shamoji snapped his fingers and a black car fob imprinted with the well known silver symbol of Lexus levitated in front of him. "The good old fashion human way. A 6 hour drive. That's why I am here."

"Huh? But I can't cross the barrier." Alex's head tilted at Yata's face, slowly crunching up. Did he say something wrong?

"How much did you buy that Lexus for?"

"Around 13 million yen for the LC500 with the customised chrome rims and the works. What's your drive?"

Alex stared at both of them - was it a dream. Not humans yet acting like typical males discussing cars. Where the hell did they get the money?

Yata twiddled his fingers and mumbled, "Just a… um… Mazda Roadster."

Alex dropped his jaw and gaped. He thought Yata was lying to impress him for whatever reason, when they first met about owning human property.

"Limited RF Edition?"

Yata shook his head and sighed while wringing his hands in exaggeration. "Not as rich as you guys."

"Still, not a bad car," Shamoji shrugged while grabbing the levitating key fob, and turned to Alex. "New guy, if you can see across the veil, you can hop on a ride with the mortals as long as they don't have a talisman of a primeval being in that car."

"Huh? Wait, how do you all buy these cars? How the heck did you get a licence to drive?"

Shamoji and Yata looked at each other, then turned their heads in coordinated unison to glance at Alex. "You will find out soon."

"Fine, fine. Where's your car now?"

"Around the corner, 5 minutes walk away. Needed to find somewhere isolated. Bad news to have the entire village screaming about yōkai."

"So all the way there to Yasugi?"

"Well… need to stop by for KFC," Shamoji replied as Alex stifled his laugh, remembering how the Mishakuji fussed over discarded KFC chicken on his first trip to this shrine. "But yeah, up the base, past the main bulk of the Tengu, and all we need to do is deal with the group in front of her shrine."

"So, the journey is not that dangerous?" Alex blurted out.

Shamoji threw him a dismissive glance. "I can only help persuade the Tengu. No guarantee there, but not that old witch, Kanayago. Will tell you more on the way. Six hours to talk."