Eight Million Gods-eARC (30 page)

“You’re out of money.” The host pried her free and got her up as Miriam and Nikki skirted around them. “I’ll have to pay for all your drinks if you stay.”

“But if you loved me, you’d pay for . . .” And the elevator closed on her protest.

Inside the club door, there was a tiny cubbyhole office and the club’s greeter. “Welcome,” the greeter said in Japanese. “Who is your main host?”

Miriam slapped down a hundred thousand yen bill, paying their cover, and said in loud English, “Hi, there, I just want to see my boy for a minute. I’m just going to go find him.” And plunged into the nightclub.

Nikki scurried after her. “Aren’t we supposed to wait?”

“Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.” Miriam quoted something that sounded like the
Art of War
.

Atsumori grunted in agreement.

They darted through the nightclub. There were dozens of booths, their high backs forming bubbles of privacy. Safe from prying eyes, well-dressed women were courted by handsome hosts.

Halfway through the club, Miriam ducked into a booth, yanking Nikki in after her. “
Yakuza
.”

“There are at least three here, and they’re not human.” Nikki slipped the
katana
off her shoulder and undid the lacings of the bag.

Miriam eyed the
katana
. “Let me be attackman. You play defense.”

Nikki nodded. Those were the positions they’d played on Foxcroft’s lacrosse team. Miriam’s aggression made her a star player, but Nikki had discovered a secret love of full body check on snobby girls to bleed off life’s frustration.

Miriam peeked over the top of the booth. “Okay, he moved. Let’s go.”

They found Kenichi in the far back with a woman who was having a champagne toast. He and several other hosts were gathered around her with microphones, shouting compliments and urges to drink as a bottle of champagne was opened with a loud pop.

“Drink!” the hosts shouted as a towel was held under the woman’s chin and she chugged from the bottle.

Kenichi was in the fine white suit from the scene that Nikki had written. Unlike many of the other host boys, he hadn’t bleached his hair, and his black hair and dark eyes were accented beautifully by the white fabric. The top buttons of his shirt were undone, showing off heavy gold chains.

Last time Nikki saw Kenichi, he had seemed as rich and polished as his gold chains. Compared to Leo, though, he seemed as fake as jewelry from a gumball machine.

Kenichi was in mid-shout when he saw Miriam bearing down on him. His eyes went wide, but he kept shouting until his gaze moved to Nikki. He froze in mid-shout.

Oh, yes, there is an angry god bearing down on you, scumbag.

“I need to talk to you.” Miriam caught him by the wrist. “Now.”

“Miriam-chan, I—I’m doing a call. I can’t . . .”

Miriam applied pressure to some pain point, making him yelp, and twisted his arm up behind his back. “Yes, you can.”

They started back through the nightclub, heading for the front door. Despite the fact that that Miriam still had hold of him, Kenichi kept focused on Nikki.

Miriam suddenly shoved Kenichi into an empty booth. “There’s a
yakuza
at the door.”

If they didn’t find out anything before the fighting started, this was going to be pure stupidity on their part. Scratch that—it probably was already pure stupidity.

“Where are they?” Nikki snapped, surprised when it came out in Atsumori’s deep growl of Japanese.

Miriam’s eyes went wide at the fluent Japanese, but she said nothing.

“Where’s who?” Kenichi seemed genuinely confused by the question.

“The goddess that your family worshipped and the
gaijin
she is possessing.” Nikki said.

Miriam twisted Kenichi’s arm a bit, making him wince. “We know that you called me here to turn me over to her.”

Shame washed across Kenichi’s face and was hidden away. “She would have killed me.”

“No, she wouldn’t have,” Atsumori stated. “A god is duty bound to protect those who worship them. You are the one person that she will not harm.”

Kenichi gasped and looked to Miriam. “I didn’t know. She’s just so angry all the time.”

“Tell us where she is!” Miriam said.

“They’re at the Imperial Hotel in the Kita district. She’s got a small army there now of
yakuza
and shrine maidens.”

Nikki frowned, thinking of the shrine maidens at Inari’s shrine. “If she has shrine maidens, why does she need Miriam?”

“She’s looking for someone like the
gaijin
, who she can take over easily and stay with most of the day. She can only stay in the shrine maidens for two or three hours at most. If she’s not careful, she kills them.” Kenichi’s hands were shaking as he took out a pack of cigarettes. He fumbled through lighting one. “She collects
Maneki Neko
statues. At first it seemed cute; how like a girl to collect dozens of statues of cats. Then one day, she was using one of the shrine maidens to scream at me about my failings. Mid-curse, the girl just collapsed.” He took a deep drag on his cigarette. “The dead girl stared up at me, slack jawed. The silence was blessed. For a minute, I thought, ‘I’m free of her.’ And then the nearest statue started to tremble. I realized then that she knew that she eventually would kill her shrine maidens and had gathered those statues there to take her spirit when one died. I stood there, wanting to scream, as all those cat statues stared at me with unblinking eyes.”

He took another deep drag on his cigarette. “I didn’t want to get you involved, Miriam. I’ve seen what she’s doing to that
gaijin
. He looks like death when she finally lets him go. It’s only a matter of time before she kills him. She’s killed two girls so far, and every day she destroys at least a dozen statues. It’s to the point that everywhere she goes, she leaves a trail of fine dust.”

That would explain the dust that rained down on Simon in his scene. If things continued the way Nikki’s book normally went, the destruction of the statues was just the beginning of the chaos that the goddess planned.

“What is she planning to do? What’s her big picture?”

His laugh was bitter and edged on hysterical. “You’re asking me? I don’t know. She tells me nothing. According to her, I’m the least useful thing she’s found in the world so far.”

“You have to be able to at least guess,” Nikki suggested. “Your family worshipped her—you should know who she is—what she wants.”

“She’s Iwanaga Hime,” Kenichi said. “She’s the daughter of Ohkuninushi. My grandmother used to tell me stories about her. I never believed any of them.”

Nikki had felt Atsumori cringe at the names. He had recognized them; she could ask him to explain later. “Who does she want revenge on?”

He took another calming drag on his cigarette and sighed out smoke. “It’s one of those stupid legends. Like Amaterasu hiding herself away in the cave, plunging the world into darkness. To lure her out, Ama-no-Uzume did a strip dance on an overturned washtub, making the other gods laugh until Amaterasu looked out to see what they were laughing at. When she saw her reflection in a mirror hung in a tree, she came out of the cave.”

Amaterasu was the Japanese sun goddess. Nikki had always assumed that the legend was on par with the Greek legends of Apollo and his sun chariot; entertaining but no way true. Her brain boggled slightly in the sudden awareness that there might be a being named Amaterasu somewhere in Japan and that the story had some type of truth attached to it. Surely the idea that the sun vanished when Amaterasu went into hiding was still just a story.

“Just tell us about this Iwanaga Hime,” Miriam said.

“When it was decided to send Ninigi to Japan, the gods gathered in a great hall to celebrate his departure and to gift him with presents. Susanoo, the god of storms, gave him the sword Kusanagi. Amaterasu gave him the mirror that had been used to lure her out of the cave and her necklace to prove that he was her grandson. After the banquet, Amaterasu realized her Father Izanagi’s spear was missing. Iwanaga Hime came forward and said that she had seen Ninigi with a spear. Amaterasu was furious that Iwanaga had accused her grandson. She claimed that Iwanaga was only trying to cover her own crime by blaming Ninigi and demanded that Iwanaga produce the spear. When Iwanaga couldn’t, the gods punished Iwanaga by locking her in a massive stone, deep in the heart of a mountain. There she stayed for hundreds of years until a landslide freed the stone.”

“That would seriously piss me off.” Nikki shivered at the thought of being locked in the dark for so long.

“Her rage seethes around her like flames,” Kenichi said.

“So, how did she get out of the stone?” Miriam asked.

“The seals were broken long ago,” Atsumori answered. “Most likely she was freed in the landslide but marooned without humans to give her a way to leave the rock.”

“We were the only ones in the valley that prayed to her.” Kenichi laughed bitterly. “Everyone else was smart enough to stay away from her. Our land was said to be cursed. She complains that we were all too dense for her to take and that it’s our fault she was stranded so long.”

So she stayed trapped until Simon had accidently freed her to have her revenge. She was angry with the sun goddess. What did that mean for the human race? Whatever she planned, Kenichi was clueless. They needed Simon, who hopefully had picked up more than what Nikki been able to learn from him.

“We have what we need,” Nikki said. “We should get out of here.”

Miriam peeked over the top of the booth and then slid down low in the seat. “The
yakuza
are still in the way. Is there a back door?”

“It’s by the restrooms, but it’s chained so that women cannot leave without paying.”

Which probably made it a huge fire hazard, but the
yakuza
owners were thinking bottom line, not who could get out in an emergency.

“Shit,” Miriam hissed and bounced to her feet.

One of the
yakuza
stalked up and made a grab for Miriam. She backed out of his reach. Atsumori blazed to fully engaged within Nikki, whiting the edges of her vision.

“Come with me and you won’t be hurt.” The
yakuza
started to reach for Miriam again.

“Get away from her, dog.” Atsumori shifted Nikki to block the grab.

The
yakuza
’s eyes went wide, seeing Atsumori for the first time. “
Kami!
” He backed away, reaching into his coat to pull a pistol from a shoulder harness.

Miriam caught the gun with her left hand, jerked it up, and hit the
yakuza’
s wrist with her right hand. Like a magic trick, the gun was in Miriam’s hand.

Atsumori snarled, jerking the
katana
half out of its sheath to slam the butt of the hilt into the
yakuza
’s throat. The man staggered backwards, choking, as Atsumori finished unsheathing the blade. The
yakuza
’s features blurred, and suddenly a human-sized raccoon dog stood in its place, its lips curled back to show off a muzzle full of sharp teeth.

Atsumori slashed downwards with the
katana
. The
tanuki
gave an inhuman yelp of pain, abruptly silenced as the blade sliced him open. Hot blood sprayed across Nikki.

“More are coming!” Miriam cried. “Run!”

Miriam headed for the entrance.

“Let me block,” Nikki cried.

Miriam answered by veering out of the narrow walkway, stepping up onto the booth’s seat and then leaping up onto the high back. They raced forward, side by side, Miriam bounding the valley of the booths in running jumps. In their wake, the normal noise of the club erupted into the terrified screams of women.

Atsumori surged ahead, blazing against Nikki’s awareness until she was sure that her skin gleamed with his power. The
tanuki
saw them coming and opened fire. The bullets struck the leading edge of his power and flared into swallowtail butterflies, wings brilliant gold and wet-ink black.

The
tanuki
felt like nothing more than tissue before the
katana
, shredding into pieces of a paper doll as Atsumori sliced through the
yokai
’s body. It fell, part human, part dog, part something unrecognizable.

Beyond the booths was a long bar and then the narrow entrance with the cubbyhole office. Nikki collided with a
tanuki
in the tight space. He ducked Atsumori’s swing and caught Nikki by her wrists and slammed her up against the wall, feet dangling.

“Your vessel is too small to be useful to you, lord.” The
tanuki
pressed against Nikki, pinning her with its body. Its face was still fully human, but sharp pointed teeth filled its mouth. “But she’ll be the perfect size for our princess.”

Miriam leapt from the back of the last booth onto the bar counter and came skidding along the length of it. She snatched up a huge sake bottle as she went sliding by and used it to club the
tanuki.

The male staggered, and Atsumori twisted it to his advantage, tucking up his legs and kicking it in the chest with both feet. Nikki yelped in dismay as the
kami
landed and beheaded the
tanuki
.

“Run!” Kenichi had followed them. “They’re not the only things here.”

“Shit!” Miriam caught Nikki by the left wrist and dragged her into the tiny elevator. “Something is coming.”

Nikki glanced back the way they had come. Something large skittered across the ceiling. She got the impression of impossibly long, thin, yellow-stripped legs and a huge hourglass-shaped body before the doors shut.

“Oh my God, what the hell was that?” Nikki punched the lobby button even though it was already lit. Atsumori slipped out of her, leaving her feeling hollow and rubber kneed. She was panting and trembling, and there was blood splattered across her face and chest. She felt weirdly elated; they might be running, but that had to classify as kicking butt.

“
Jorojumo
.” Atsumori’s voice sounded as winded as her own.

The elevator thankfully started to drop, albeit with painful slowness.

Apparently Kenichi wasn’t sensitive enough to pick up Atsumori’s voice. “I don’t know. All the new
yakuza
look normal, but there’s something strange about all of them.”