Mura eyed the polished ring on his finger, smiling lightly to himself. The impact of the last few days hadn’t really donned on him until now. He truly was a Jikininki. A weapon that surpassed priceless was in his possession and he was about to travel to an entirely new world. The weight of Mura’s newfound title would be a heavy burden to bear, but definitely one worth the effort.

“Hey, would ya lookie there! Here comes the captain!” Old Hob said with a shout of surprise.

Around the bending path they could hear the faint clicking sound of boots approaching. Soon enough a figure with ashen-grey skin met their gaze as she walked towards them. The woman was roughly Mura’s height with long light blue hair that resembled the crystal clear waters of the ocean. Her matching eyes sparkled in the sunlight, like two sapphires refined to perfection.

“Greetings, Tenth. I will be your instructor and guide for this operation. My name is Kirin, but you may refer to me as ‘sir’ or ‘captain’. Understood?”

Both Mura and Lilith were a bit taken aback by her strict formalness. This truly was a trained officer, not some run-of-the-mill mercenary.

“Of course, Captain. My name is Mura, this is my friend and Thrall Lilith.”

Lilith’s eyes narrowed in on the lack of any bags or food in the captain’s possession.

“The smithy here said you were out getting lunch?” She said as her stomach growled.

“I was, just not any for you. My humblest apologies,” Kirin said with the most unapologetic tone she could muster.

Kirin was dressed in peculiar armor that Mura had never seen before. He looked down at her waist, where a small cape bearing the emblem of the empire was attached to her right hip. She wore black shorts with white boots and stockings, along with a black turtleneck top. It was made from thick fabric that was currently zipped up; dividing through the collar itself down to the breastbone.

Overtop this was some kind of armor that hugged her abdomen, with suspender-like straps over her chest. What struck Mura the most were the poofy shoulders of her ensemble, emblazoned with golden arcane sigils.

“They’re magic-repelling seals, they protect my entire body from nearly any type of spell that could be hurled my way,” Kirin explained, clearly noticing the stares fixated on her clothing.

Mura blushed lightly, slightly embarrassed and hoping she didn’t assume he was ogling her body. She crossed her gloved arms at Mura, the black material completely covering any skin she had on her upper limbs.

“I take it you’ve received your weapon?”

Mura nodded in response as Lilith did the same.

“Very well, farewell Mister Hob. We must be on our way, come now Mura,” Kirin bluntly stated.

She began to immediately walk away from them, forcing Mura and Lilith to quickly walk after her.

“Thank you so much, Old Hob!” Lilith shouted behind her.

“Yes! Thanks again!” Mura yelled back.

Old Hob simply laughed and waved goodbye, watching as they left his humble workshop.

❇ ❇ ❇

Outskirts of Ashuradō — An hour later. Mura, Lilith and Kirin had walked a few kilometers to the outer reaches of the city; across the large bridge connecting the metropolis to the lush plains of Yomi.

Along the way, Kirin briefed the two on their mission and the locations and details they’d need. She explained a few faux pas to avoid while in Japan and aside from that, spent the remainder of the time in complete silence as Mura and Lilith dragged behind her.

“We need to invest in a treadmill when we get our first paycheck…” Lilith groaned.

“You’ll have plenty of time to rest your feet on the human podcars,” Kirin said back.

“Podcars? Neither of us can drive, you know?” Mura reminded her.

Kirin simply smirked as the trio approached the towering border wall guarding the city from intruders. She stopped, standing on the green grass and placing her hand on the stone structure.

“Human technology is far more advanced than our own. We can only derive so much from their gadgets and whatnot without knowing the finer intricacies. Needless to say Mura, podcars aren’t actual cars. They’re like a small train for a party of two to six people.”

Lilith’s eyes beamed with excitement.

“T-That’s right, I kinda remember now! They run on tracks above the ground, I always loved looking out at the city from high up!”

“Oh yeah, sometimes I forget you were human once!” Mura said in surprise. “Maybe we can uncover some clues about your past there, see what you remember?”

Lilith’s smile grew at her friend’s words as she looked forward to the added possibility of recovering her lost memories. Meanwhile, Kirin removed a small white spray bottle from her back pocket.

“Stick out your tongues. This is polyglot spray, it lets you speak and understand any languages you’ll need to know while in the human realm,” the captain spoke.

Mura and Lilith complied, sticking their tongues out as Kirin sprayed a small dose of the bottle’s contents into their mouths. The mist settled on their tongues, burning the pink flesh after a few seconds passed.

“Ow! It hurts like a bitch, why couldn’t you have warned me first?!” Mura yelled.

“Take it easy. Just keep swallowing, you two; it helps with the pain,” Kirin calmly instructed. “After some time, you should feel a sense of warmth within your temples and forehead. That means the spray completed its task. Luckily you only need to suffer it once.”

Sure enough, Mura felt an odd warm feeling spread throughout his skull; as if he had just taken a shot of strong whiskey.

—At least I’ll never have to do that again. I suppose it’s for the best though, I couldn’t have gotten by from the little Japanese I knew growing up around foreign demons here.

“Now what, captain? Any other crazy shit we need to do?” Lilith said in a snarky tone, her tongue still pulsating.

“No, nothing of that magnitude. I’ll open the portal to the human realm soon. Before I do, take this Mura,” Kirin said, handing him a small plastic card.

“What is it?”

“A financial card, just with human currency on it. Our agents prepared it in advance for you. You should be able to live comfortably while on your investigation using this; the funds are exactly one million Japanese yen. That’s equal to roughly a million sols, by comparison.” Kirin explained, taking a small piece of chalk out of her pocket as well.

“More gifts?” Lilith questioned with raised eyebrows.

“Well, you’ll be needing this to return home. It’s chalk fashioned from materialized magic essence. When you draw the sigil for the gate that I’ll open soon, you can cross back into Yomi.”

Mura remembered what Kirin had told them on the long walk over. She explained that the way to the human world would be complex. Within Yomi, they could open a portal that led to anywhere on Earth they chose. However, on Earth any portals made would only lead back to a singular place in Yomi.

—So I guess we can’t use this stuff to teleport around the Earth once we’re there… It’s pretty much a one-and-done type of thing.

Mura accepted the chalk and stashed it with the credit card inside his coat pocket. Afterwards, Kirin took a piece of her own magical chalk and slowly drew a large circle on the wall in front of them. Once she had completed it, she drew a five-pointed star within the ring and finally completed the sigil by striking two intersecting diagonal lines across the entire drawing.

The white chalk lines burst into a blue light and slowly caused the stone within the circle’s outline to spread open. Mura and Lilith took a step back in shock as the concreate wall seemed to pull apart and separate within the sigil. The affected parts of the wall were bending and slowly being pulled into a blue, shining void as if they were paper sheets in a vacuum.

“That’s incredible... I’ve never seen anything like it,” Mura gasped in astonishment while space warped in front of his eyes.

“It’s quite beautiful, but fleeting. The gate will only stay open for a brief time,” Kirin spoke, placing her hand in front of the blue swirling portal. “Deliver us to Zoshu, Japan… Monido Prefecture,” Kirin spoke to the void, causing it to glow and turn a golden-white hue in response.

“So, this is perfectly safe… right?” Lilith said in a nervous voice.

“Yes, now step in. I’ll follow after you,” Kirin commanded.

Mura grabbed Lilith’s hand, squeezing it tightly as he stared into the ivory void.

“Well… this is it, buddy.” Mura stated.

“Yep, no time like they present as they say…” Lilith anxiously replied back.

Mura and Lilith took a slow, running start until they were both sprinting. As they neared the gaping maw of the portal’s entrance, the duo jumped inside and were immediately sucked into a torrent of flashing colors and rainbow visages.

—It’s… so… fast!

It felt as if they were strapped to the outside of a rocket-powered jet plane. Yet, the feeling on Mura’s skin felt more akin to being dragged through the ocean at Mach speeds.

His and Lilith’s screams were drowned out for several seconds as they raced through reality and realms until finally they neared a shining portal similar to the one they opened initially. The two were flung out of the opening onto a wooden floor where they landed on top of one another in a crumpled heap.

“What… the hell… was that…” Mura gasped.

“That was terrifying… but really… freakin’… awesome,” Lilith breathlessly replied.

The portal’s exit gate, which was located on the ceiling inside the establishment they had arrived at, shined brightly for a brief moment.

Without warning, Kirin herself was spat out of the ceiling as well. She arrived elegantly on her feet as her boots made contact with the wooden floor, giving out a resounding thud.

“You didn’t throw up… Congratulations,” Kirin said.

Mura turned to look up at his guide, noticing she had barely missed stepping on him and Lilith.

“Y-Yeah um, thanks,” Mura stuttered out.

Kirin nodded and walked ahead of them, up to what looked like a bar littered with several telephones and a brightly-lit pink neon sign above. They had arrived within some sort of wooden building, warmly lit with no windows or occupants other than themselves. There were a few empty leather couches and easy-chairs with potted plants scattered about. The room resembled a receptionist’s office melded with a jazz lounge.

“What is this place?” Lilith said as Mura stood and helped her to her feet.

“It’s a safehouse for those who travel between realms. They exist almost everywhere here on Earth, think of them like airports for those who portal travel… just infinitely smaller and less crowded,” Kirin explained, tapping a metal bell on the bar’s counter.

“So anyone who arrives from a portal ends up at one of these places?” Mura asked.

“Pretty much. You just say a specific place you want to be warped to, and the portal spits you out at the safehouse closest to that location,” Kirin replied.

There was silence for a moment, until it was broken by Kirin repeatedly tapping the bell again and again. Mura and Lilith approached the bar and looked up at the neon sign overhead. It simply read “Zozo Communications” in pink letters.

Lilith peaked over the bar counter and discovered why Kirin was ringing the bell so much. On the other side was a small, impish boy that resembled a goblin. His skin was the slightest tinge of blue with pointed ears and circular black sunglasses resting on the bridge of his nose. The boy had a black fisherman’s cap on with a white shirt and suspenders.

Currently, this boy was snoring away in an oversized-yet-comfortable chair with his feet on a smaller table. A fan with ribbons attached was blowing a gentle breeze onto his face as drool ran down his chin.

Kirin, having enough of the boy snoozing through her efforts, pounded the bar’s counter with her fist. The crash on the wooden surface was so loud Mura flinched, thinking she nearly cracked it in half.

“Zozo! Wake the hell up and do your job!” she shouted as the boy awakened in a startled fright, nearly soiling himself.

“Aiiiiie!!! You scare me dead!” Zozo bawled at her, catching his breath as his heart thumped away.

“You aren’t dead, are you? You’d know if you were,” Kirin replied coldly.

“Whatever expression is, Zozo don’t care! You want entry into hume-world?! Don’t be a big shitty!!”

Mura and Lilith looked at each other, then back at Kirin.

“Why is he talking like that?” Mura asked.

“It’s because of Zozo’s Tamashi Genkai: Oracle Bone. It allows him to make infinite clones of himself; all of them sharing a connected consciousness. Sounds pretty powerful, but in reality it isn’t,” Kirin explained. “His mind is being shared by billions of replicants, so his thoughts and speech get reduced to that of a toddler to save power.”

“Soooooo… is this the real deal or a copy?” Lilith questioned back.

“It’s a copy, no one knows where the original is. Still, he has the realm’s largest communications business. This is what demons and shinigami used before we mastered human technology to send messages. A Zozo clone mans every one of the safehouses on Earth and a few in Yomi too.”

Mura crossed his arms with a smile.

“I say good on the little guy. I’ve never heard of someone using their Tamashi Genkai for anything besides fighting. Depending on what you have, guess you could make a decent bit of cash from it,” he said, giving a thumbs-up to the blue imp.

Zozo mimicked him back, jumping up energetically and standing on his chair to flash his extended thumb.

“So sorry for the snooze, Scary Lady! I open the safe place for you now!” Zozo said proudly as a vein pulsated in Kirin’s forehead.

Zozo leapt off his chair, causing it to swivel around. He ran over to a command console that was hidden from their sight; going to work on inputting a long and complex password. With an exaggerated twirl of his finger and a juvenile grin, Zozo pressed the final button he needed.

A woman’s robotic voice emitted from a speaker located on the ceiling, causing Mura and Lilith to instinctively look up.

“Now opening safehouse entrance~” the mechanical voice chirped in a delightful tone.

To signal this declaration, the wooden wall directly next to Zozo’s bar begin to shift and distort. No doorway or passage appeared before them. Instead, the entire wooden wall rippled consistently like water.

“Let’s go, a new world awaits you both,” Kirin spoke, signaling them to follow.

Kirin walked forward towards the bizarre, flowing wall. Upon making contact, she simply disappeared into the material as if being absorbed.

“You know… normally I would have been impressed by that. But the portal trip still takes number one in the craziest things I’ve ever seen,” Lilith stated.

Mura smirked and walked forward with his friend, passing through the illusionary wall themselves out into the human world. What met their eyes was beyond anything they ever could have expected.

“Mura, I… I stand corrected. This is the craziest thing I’ve ever seen.”