Asleep in Nara, Part 13 (Mikoshi-nyūdō)

This entry, set in Nara, Japan, continues the story of Sebastian’s Faustian deal with the demon Persephone.

A quick synopsis for new readers (spoilers for previous chapters, obviously):

Sebastian, an embittered American studying abroad, has stumbled into a ten-year deal with Persephone, a crossroads demon. The terms are simple: she saved his life, and he owes her ten years of service killing other demons. Sebastian’s role is to assume the mantle of Charon, Hell’s hitman. Persephone hasn’t told Sebastian how she selects her targets or why.

Persephone’s weapon of choice, a katar, is cursed and demonic in origin. Death by the blade immediately sends a soul, including demons’ souls, to Hell. But there are rules, of course. A demon cannot kill with the katar, so a human wielder is necessary. That’s where Charon comes in.

While Sebastian is new to this role, Persephone has been at work for centuries. She was in Nara, Japan, on a vacation of sorts (whatever those look like for demons), and instead she recklessly got the previous Charon killed. His name was Ken, and he was more than just a partner to her.

Persephone, enraged, unbalanced, has been on an ill-advised killing spree. She bears no attachment to Sebastian and in fact resents him. He was a convenient means to an end: vengeance against the demon who killed Ken.

But Persephone’s bloodlust wasn’t sated. She learned that Ken’s ashes were interred by Inoue, a rich man living outside of Nara, and what’s more, the man was also a demon. In the process of the hunt, Sebastian, overcome by the call of the katar, tried to seize the weapon from Persephone. His palm was cut open, his knuckles broken, and his body set on fire.

Sebastian survived and found Persephone by the murdered Inoue as she mourned at Ken’s grave. Sebastian had the opportunity to kill Persephone, but in her time of mourning, he just couldn’t bring himself to do it. He turned and walked away, leaving the katar behind.

Regretting his decision to leave Persephone alive, Sebastian has hatched a plan to summon and bind Persephone in a devil’s trap he has etched into a crossroads. So far, things are not going according to plan.

The song choice is placed late in the text, and the song will likely keep playing after you’ve finished reading. That was an intentional choice. The music becomes quite loud and cacophonous at that point. I hope you’ll sit with it and let the music and the emotions it evokes linger with you awhile.

We’ve come to the penultimate chapter. I hope you enjoy it.

As always, you can find the previous chapters here:
Part 1 (Meet Sebastian Pilgrim)
Part 2 (A Flirting Fail)
Part 3 (The Nameless Dead)
Part 4 (The Hunt)
Part 5 (A Fine Night for Murder)
Part 6 (Death and Rebirth)
Part 7 (Devil’s in the Details)
Part 8 (Habits, Old and New)
Part 9 (Adrift)
Part 10 (Went Down to the Crossroads)
Part 11 (Crossing and Dwelling)
Part 12 (Return to the Crossroads)

The figure from the north sauntered down the slope, his feet hardly rising from the ground. Dust caked his naked soles. Overgrown, gnarled toenails creeped upward and out, curling like a predator’s claws. His fingernails were only in slightly better shape.

The man’s exact height was difficult to gauge. His back was crooked, weighed down from years of wandering. He wasn’t tall. Perhaps five feet if he could stand up straight.

He shuffled as he moved, stumbling like a drunk, as wont to head east or west as he was straight ahead. His feet were disfigured, bent inward.

The man’s eyes landed on Sebastian. Each pupil corkscrewed off in different directions, so only one could focus at a time. An attempt at a grin, more like a sneer, crossed his face. A stubby tongue flicked across his lips. Saliva dripped from twisted, broken teeth. His course was set.

With assured steps, leaning heavily on his knotted walking stick, the man advanced toward oblivious Sebastian. He made no effort to conceal his approach, even vocalizing most of the way: wara wara.

When Sebastian finally opened his eyes and looked up, he was shocked to find a decrepit old monk standing in front of him. The tell-tale saffron robes draped loosely around the short man’s body. The monk was smiling, or at least Sebastian thought he was trying to smile. His broken, sharp teeth were horribly misaligned, and a number of them were missing. The inside of his mouth looked more like an odds-and-ends kitchen drawer.

Sebastian waved. The monk clutched his walking stick with both hands, leaned forward, and pressed all his body weight onto it. His back was hunched, and his head seemed to hang out and bobble at an unnatural distance beyond his body. Sebastian was completely distracted by the grotesque teeth and corkscrewed eyes.

“Uh… Konbanwa?” Sebastian said tentatively.

“Wara wara,” the monk replied. His head bobbed up and down and jerked suddenly to the side like a raptor sizing up its prey.

Sebastian couldn’t believe how short the man was and how long his neck seemed. His gaze returned to the man’s eyes, and for a moment, he glimpsed absolute clarity in the monk’s stare. The monk’s eyes spun around in their sockets, his pupils looking like the bouncing ball on a roulette wheel. They locked suddenly into place, both piercing into Sebastian, and the monk sneered.

“Jesus Christ!” Sebastian shouted. He jumped backward.

As he looked up and away from those bizarre eyeballs, the monk straightened out his crooked spine. Sebastian watched him grow half a foot in height. Sebastian’s eyes darted up to meet the man at his new eye level. The monk’s long neck wobbled upward in response. He grew another foot.

Sebastian jumped back again, looking down briefly to ensure his footing. He looked back at the monk’s head, now towering seven feet in the air. As Sebastian looked higher up, that grinning skull stretched farther into the heavens. The monk was easily twice Sebastian’s height now, with his head bobbing on a wriggling, segmented neck.

Wara wara.

The bamboo thicket sang in unison with the monk. His head swayed, snake-like, on a long pivot. Sebastian tried to stop himself, but he couldn’t look away. He craned his neck upward to follow the monk’s face. The monk’s neck stretched even higher into the air.

Sebastian looked upward so fast he lost his balance. As he was about to topple over, a hand and something sharp pressed into his back.

“Jesus! Jesus!” he screeched. Another hand cupped his ass.

“Shut up,” Persephone muttered through gritted teeth. She had sneaked right out of the shadows as Sebastian was distracted by the newcomer.

“What is this thing?” Sebastian asked.

“Shush! Stop looking up!” Persephone commanded.

Sebastian pulled his gaze downward, inspecting the terrifying ribbed throat of the creature in front of him. It undulated left and right, forward and back. Far above his head, its wara wara call floated on the breeze. Sebastian gulped.

“Persephone, what am I looking at?” Sebastian asked.

“Hopefully not its head,” Persephone said. She dug into Sebastian’s back pocket.

“Why are you groping my ass?” Sebastian asked.

“I’m getting your cigarettes, dummy,” she informed him. She, too, was staring straight ahead at the thing’s swaying neck, fighting the urge to meet its gaze.

“I thought you--”

“Please, stop speaking,” Persephone said.

She pulled Sebastian’s pack of cigarettes and his lighter from his back pocket. Slowly, calmly, she set a cigarette between her lips, cupped her right hand to shield it from the wind, and lit the tip. She placed another in Sebastian’s mouth and lit it, as well.

Sebastian was distracted by the katar on Persephone’s right hand the entire time as she moved it back and forth right in front of his face.

Persephone took a deep drag on the cigarette, watching the red halo creep along the cylinder toward her face. She pulled the cigarette from her mouth and as coolly as she could manage, blew a large smoke ring past the side of Sebastian’s head.

“Next time, why don’t you summon an even more powerful demon to kill us?” Persephone said sardonically.

Sebastian, distracted, watched the smoke ring float into the distance and dissolve. Persephone took another drag on the cigarette and blew out another ring. Sebastian didn’t know that trick, so he just sucked on the cigarette and blew out amorphous smoke clouds. After blowing a few more smoke rings, Persephone felt calmer. More importantly, she had calmed Sebastian, too.

The monster, meanwhile, kept singing its song into the wind. Its voice was cracking with impatience, with anticipation.

“Whatever you do,” Persephone said, the cigarette suspended between her lips, “do not move or say anything unless I tell you to.”

Sebastian nodded in acknowledgment.

Persephone pulled a third cigarette from the pack and then replaced the rest, along with the lighter, back in Sebastian’s pocket.

Without moving her eyes from the monster’s neck, Persephone placed the second cigarette in her mouth and then lit it with the first. Still looking straight ahead, she flicked the diminished first cigarette into the bamboo thicket.

Slowly, ever so slowly, Persephone lifted her gaze. Her eyes traced every rib of the creature’s throat. Eight feet. Nine. Ten. Higher still. Persephone sighed and shook her head, baffled by how daft Sebastian had to be to have gawked long enough for this thing to grow this tall.

Finally, Persephone reached the creature’s house-of-tortures mouth. It was slobbering all the way down its chin. Persephone took in a deep breath, sucking a quarter-inch off the cigarette’s length, and moved her eyes upward again, meeting the creature’s gaze. She didn’t move a muscle, except to follow that grinning face with her eyes. Back and forth. Back and forth. Hypnotically, back and forth.

The thing grinned at her maniacally. Its head bobbled side to side independently of its oscillating neck.

Persephone matched its gaze exactly, following its eyes as the head moved. The spinning irises didn’t distract her or trick her into looking up any higher. She kept the whole of the eyeballs in view, refusing to look even one millimeter above those chaotically spinning orbs.

Persephone reached to her lips with the hand wielding the katar, removed the cigarette, held it smoking at her side, and shouted.

“Mikoshita!”

The creature squealed. A demented stream of wara wara wara wara erupted from its mouth and swept through the bamboo. Its jagged teeth seemed to spin.

The thing’s eyes swam in circles then locked suddenly on Persephone.

“Oh shit!” Persephone screamed. The cigarette fell from her hand. “Move!” Persephone shouted as she shoved Sebastian with all her might.

The creature’s head plummeted toward Persephone. Wara wara wara wara! Its eyes spun wildly. Its razor teeth eviscerated its own tongue as it licked its lips.

Persephone had just enough time to push Sebastian out of the way, to plant her foot back on the ground, and dive in the other direction. It was just enough time to keep the creature from latching onto her throat.

The demon’s teeth seemed to multiply as they dug into Persephone’s right shoulder. The thing’s jowls burrowed into her flesh. It ripped right through the bone. The glutton tore at her muscles and devoured the wet strips of flesh.

Persephone howled in pain as her left hand punched the creature repeatedly in the throat. She clutched it by its ribbed neck and squeezed with all her strength, but it wasn’t enough to dissuade the monster. It gnawed at her shoulder socket. It ate a hole all the way through and didn’t stop until it had fully severed Persephone’s arm.

The appendage fell to the ground, and the katar clutched in its hand lay there. Useless. Inert.

Persephone jumped and slung herself onto the demon’s back. She locked her remaining arm around its throat and squeezed. Her legs locked around the thing’s torso. She crossed her ankles round one another and tightened her thighs around the monster’s rib cage until she heard a crack. Then she squeezed even harder and pulled the creature backwards.

The thing fell over backwards with a crash, landing on Persephone and knocking the wind out of her. She refused to relent. The monster wouldn’t be deterred either. The creature’s long neck stretched down and bit into Persephone’s right ankle. Again, Persephone let out a yelp of pain. Her foot was gone in a matter of seconds.

“Charon!” she screamed. “Run!”

I deserve this, she told herself. I got Ken killed. I didn’t choose his successor carefully enough. I didn’t even train this one. Careless. Far too careless. I deserve this.

The monster was eating through Persephone’s knee cap now. Soon, it would bite its way free of its restraint and then finish consuming first Persephone, then Sebastian. Persephone’s lower leg came loose and fell to the ground. She gripped with her thighs as tightly as she could, but even if she managed to break its ribs and pierce its heart, this beast would persist. She and Sebastian were doomed.

“Blood in Your Mouth”

Sebastian, dumbfounded, watched as the monk-creature consumed Persephone’s ankle. He watched her foot flop to the ground and twitch. He watched as the thing gnawed her knee into oblivion. He watched as her footless calf fell to the ground. He watched.

His mind told him to run. Persephone was a demon. She could leave that body any time she wanted. Sebastian, however, was only human. He needed to run. He needed to get out of there.

As Persephone shrieked in pain, though, Sebastian couldn’t convince himself to flee. Like in the moment he had watched her mourning over Ken’s grave, he felt some strange emotion he couldn’t identify. It wasn’t exactly pity and it wasn’t exactly empathy. But it was a kind of understanding, a kinship. He couldn’t stand seeing her suffer like this. And this time, he could do something other than walk away.

Sebastian sprinted for Persephone’s severed right arm. He pried his fingers into hers, forcing that dead grip open. He scooped up the katar and turned to face his foe.

The monster had eaten all the way up Persephone’s right leg, and it was chewing into her hip socket now. It would consume her whole body within mere minutes. Persephone, though, refused to give up. She was repeatedly drawing her left foot back and jamming her heel into the monster’s gut, determined to at least break something before she had to abandon this body.

She hadn’t bothered scouting the area well enough, though, and didn’t even know where the nearest compatible body would be. For all she knew, she would have to flee all the way to Tokyo to find a suitable human to possess.

Plus, Persephone was picky when it came to hosts. She didn’t select just any old body. She preferred to possess people on the periphery, abandoned by society, those who had been so beaten down that they welcomed her presence. She liked that feeling of being the hero. Barnabas had often castigated her for it. It was inefficient, it was egocentric, and it was so pathetically altruistic. Persephone couldn’t stop herself, though. She needed more than just a host; she needed someone to save.

The monster suddenly stopped eating through Persephone’s pelvis and yowled. Its head and teeth ripped out of Persephone’s body and thrashed bloodily in the air.

Sebastian pulled the blade out of the monster’s chest and rammed it in again. Again. And again.

“Charon, no! Run!” Persephone screamed. The monster shook her loose. The back of her head smashed into the ground.

The creature’s teeth descended on Sebastian. It went straight for his right hand, and Sebastian greeted its ravenous mouth with the katar blade. He shoved his hand fully inside the monster’s jaws and jammed the blade into the the roof of its mouth. His forearm was shredded by the creature’s teeth. As the demon tried to clamp down on his arm, Sebastian twisted his wrist.

The monster let out one final howl before collapsing. Sebastian, not satisfied the creature was slain, pulled the katar out and punched the blade into the top of the monster’s skull. The creature went limp.

Moments later, the beast was reduced to ashes and scattered to the wind. The demon’s swan song drifted through the bamboo: Wara wara...

Sebastian fell down, panting. It’s dead. Holy Christ God Amighty, it’s dead!

He studied Persephone’s decimated body and, with a pang of guilt, immediately knew what he had to do. He marched to her mangled form and grabbed her remaining leg.

Persephone, at the apex of shock, didn’t know how to react. Sebastian had been foolhardy, but brave. He’d prevailed. He had slain a greater demon while she had been all but destroyed. She was impressed--in awe, really. She hesitated to say it aloud, but she was proud.

She was also entirely caught off guard when Sebastian dragged her body to the crossroads and into the devil’s trap he had so meticulously crafted there.

Persephone smashed her hand against the invisible wall of her supernatural prison. She had been careless again, and now she was trapped.

“You little shit!” Persephone shouted. She slammed her hand repeatedly against the invisible barrier. “Let me out! Let me out now!”

“No,” Sebastian said, “I don’t think I will.”

He retrieved his cigarettes from his back pocket, lit one as slowly as he could manage, and inspected the devil’s trap to ensure it was intact. Persephone’s hands searched the interior perimeter. The trap was solid. There was no escape.

Sebastian stood there, casually puffing on his cigarette. Persephone, seated on her one remaining ass cheek, glared indignantly at Sebastian.

“I saved your life tonight,” Sebastian said. He exhaled a long stream of smoke. “I think it’s time we revisited the terms of our deal.”

***[The photo is my own, taken along the entryway to Wakamiya Shrine in Nara Park]