Chapter One

Chapter One

Setsura regained consciousness around two o’clock that afternoon. He groggily opened his eyes. “And I was having such a nice dream.” He sounded in his own head like an old geezer. His tongue felt like a soggy piece of cardboard.

“They say the worse off the patient, the better the dreams. How are you feeling?” Mephisto posed the kind of question expected of an attending physician.

“Sluggish. I still can’t move my hands and legs.”

“You should soon be at least as functional as I am.”

“You look like crap. How many people have you malpracticed to death anyway?”

“You might want to mean that literally after this. I intend to settle things with that sparring partner of yours once and for all.”

“You met?”

“Hardly surprising, I would think,” Mephisto said in a blasé tone of voice. “Would you rather we hit it off like kindred spirits?”

“So you didn’t kill him?” Setsura asked. He quickly added, “No. I don’t know how many aces he’s got up his sleeve, but he’s not an easy man to kill. Call it a draw. You’ll have to fill me in on the details. By the way, what about Miss Kanan? I have the feeling that she accompanied me here.”

“She’s in the special containment ward.”

“She’s where?” He half sat up, before collapsing back on the bed. “Man, the quality of care here has really hit the skids. I shouldn’t be surprised that a visitor ends up turning into a patient.”

Mephisto ignored the dig. He pulled up an armchair and sat down next to the bed. Leaving out one particular detail, he recounted the events of the night before. It took a good thirty minutes.

During this time, Setsura made only one comment. “So that woman showed up here?” He asked, referring to Takako Kanan, “Is she all right?”

“Unfortunately her blood was taken. I have to ask, but how could this have happened while she was with you? Surely you could protect a single woman—even unconscious. What’s going on? Don’t worry. Leave her care up to me. You root out the nest of the perpetrator who drank her blood.”

Setsura didn’t react or say anything until Mephisto had stopped talking.

“There’s something else I must ask you as well,” Mephisto said. “How did you escape that woman? Your devil wire was lying in pieces all over the floor.”

“I don’t remember,” Setsura said simply. He flexed his fingers beneath the blanket. “Still feels like I’m wearing a hundred pounds on each wrist. Time doesn’t heal all wounds.”

“Your body temperature is eighty degrees. Your pulse is forty. Constant chills. No appetite. As I told you, the same as me.”

“Then what am I going through all this for, you quack?”

“Further recuperation is going to have to wait on new information to emerge,” Mephisto coolly declared. “More importantly, the funeral for the Elder is tonight. Do you think you will make it?”

Setsura fell silent for a second. “Him?”

“Who else? The cause of death was getting his heart torn out. Though according to Yakou, the woman was severely burned in the process. The woman who was after you reportedly had half her face burned off. The malice and bitterness has got to be miles deep and getting deeper. I saw it myself. That world of theirs is in motion. Probably because of her. I imagine she ordered it to come pick her up.”

“Hysteria can move the world. Their world may be enclosed within that ship. Where is it headed next?”

“Finding that out is your job.”

Setsura focused his bleary eyes on Mephisto’s face. “What’s on your mind?”

“A patient with nine lives like a cat. In any case, what about the funeral? Yakou is practically mad with fury. There will be blood. Toyama is dispatching their best men to serve as Miss Kanan’s personal bodyguards.”

Setsura pressed his hands against the mattress and slowly raised the upper half of his body. Jerking his chin at the wall opposite, he said, “Stand over there.”

Only one man in Shinjuku could order Doctor Mephisto around like that. And only one man in Shinjuku whose lead Mephisto would follow. His cape appeared to melt into the white wall. The expression on his face was perfectly at peace. But the Demon Physician was no doubt delighted.

Setsura laced his fingers together and pushed out his palms. He winced and shook his head.

“Hey,” said Mephisto.

“Relax,” Setsura replied cheekily. “I may be a bit under the weather, but if my methods can’t be trusted, then it’ll be up to you to hold the line.”

He shook his hands, warming up. Not the slightest shadow of a doubt clouded his beautiful countenance. Though he couldn’t help feeling a bit off his game here and there.

Mephisto’s hands remained inside his cape. More than his hands could emerge from there. The rays of the July afternoon sun streamed through the windows like milk pouring into sluggish, warm water, further suffusing the eerie growing vibe.

Setsura abruptly stopped “warming up.” A beautiful hand emerged from Mephisto’s cape. A sharp ping rang out. Something shattered a yard in front of Setsura and in a flash flew apart. For several seconds Setsura didn’t move. Then he sighed like a student who failed his entrance exams.

“Should I send for a physical therapist?” asked Mephisto, and not at all glibly.

He’d sent his qi flying. Setsura’s wires had neatly sliced through it. And yet the two of them looked like their dog died.

“That’s the strongest qi you’ve got?” Setsura asked, massaging his shoulders.

“Yes. And you made short work of it.”

“That was my best effort. Crank it up a notch and you’d be wiping the floor with me. You should check yourself into the hospital as well. Physician, heal thyself.”

“I shall think it over.” Mephisto glanced down at his right hand. “In the meantime, has anything we’ve been discussing given you an inkling about where they’ve relocated their safe house?”

“No. But it’s clear they can warp space and time. Ancient China had an amazingly advanced civilization. They packed their entire world into that little ship and sailed it here.”

“I can’t say I’m familiar with the origins of that kind of technology or with the phenomena. How about yourself?”

“Ditto,” Setsura said in a tired voice. “Sounds like a self-contained universe. Having experienced it yourself, what do you think?”

Mephisto shook his head. “I don’t know.”

During the Five Dynasties period at the end of the first millennium, one of the merchants who ran the public market became friends with an old apothecary. Every evening the old man vanished into a jar in his shop. The merchant wanted to see what it was like inside.

The old man gladly invited him in for a look. The merchant found himself in another world, in a room filled with rare furniture. Drinking wine finer than any he’d known back in his world, he looked outside the room. Lakes and forests and mountains filled the earth and sky to the distant horizon. This world was indeed complete in every way.

The merchant recognized the old man as a wizard, and sojourned with him deep in the mountains in order to learn the secrets of his craft. But he was never able to master the dark arts and eventually had to leave. He never saw the old man again.

Hence the origins of the so-called “universe in a bottle.”

These four demons came from epochs much older than the sources of such stories. So their ability to employ such secret arts was hardly surprising.

Setsura got out of bed. Mephisto said, “If you intend to leave the hospital, you should at least get an examination first.”

“Forget it. It’ll be evening soon. That’s their time. My job is finding out where they are.”

“Have any clues about where they are?”

“I would if these were the usual suspects.”

Mephisto looked out the window as Setsura pulled off the hospital gown. “So we’re going to have more invalids on our hands,” he muttered under his breath.

Setsura retrieved his clothing from the sterilization closet. He stopped and glanced over his shoulder. He’d never heard Mephisto refer to his patients and cases as anything but. Ryuuki’s penetrator qi was something else indeed, worming inside the body, casting a shadow over the handsome doctor’s vocabulary.

Mephisto took note as well. “Not that my caseload will be increasing. This city may be appropriate to their needs, but that doesn’t mean they are appropriate to this city. If they aren’t eliminated quickly, Shinjuku will be steeped in blood.”

“No matter whose blood they drink, they won’t become any more talkative. We’ve got to do something before the mayor flips out and orders the chief of police to launch a vampire hunt. You need to develop the equivalent of a vampire mosquito net, or some kind of blood serum that can counteract being bitten.”

“I am working on it. What about the Elder’s funeral? He obviously thought highly of you. It should begin at the Toyama housing project soon after sunset.”

“I’ll see you there.”

“Good luck.”

Setsura paused at the door and glanced at the window. The one man in this city more attractive than himself stood there motionless, as if projecting his own gloom over the metropolis.

Setsura got in touch with Yoshiko Toya as soon as he got home. He had several sources on retainer, but none of them had anything. One said he should ask Toya. But she didn’t have any information at her fingertips about new Chinese in the city.

The sky grew a deeper shade of blue. Impatience was darkening his own face about the time Toya called him back. “I forgot something,” the heavy voice said. “You asked about anybody familiar with Chinese traditions and legends. There is a man. In Arakimachi.”

“His name?”

“Toujuurou Niwa. Sixty-nine. Professor emeritus at Waseda University. His specialty is ancient Chinese history.”

“Sounds rather run-of-the-mill.”

“And yet you had to ask me.”

This reminder was accompanied by a grunt and a belch. Out of politeness, the telephone connection was always blamed for such noises. But it happened when meeting her in person too. Considering her general girth and physique, the observer was less liable to laugh than to gape.

“Got it,” he said, the dumpling-like face of the information peddler popping up in the back of his mind as he spoke. “So what about him isn’t so run-of-the-mill?”

“Twenty-five years ago, not just his college but the profession as a whole hounded him into an early retirement. The Japanese Historical Society, the Ancient History Research Association, the Federation of Chinese Historical Literature Collections—they all gave him the boot. The guy got himself involved in some real funny business.”

“Like what?”

“That’ll cost you another twenty.”

Toya struck a hard bargain, and did it with a smile on her face. She was fat as a pig and as miserly and hard-nosed as Scrooge. But it wasn’t her extraordinary intelligence-gathering skills—that meant she’d never go begging for work—it was the comical way she waddled around that earned her the title, “Lard of the Dark.”

“Deal.”

“Much appreciated.” A belch.

“No problem.”

“The professor specialized in the underside of ancient Chinese history. Legends, fairy tales, magic. Ghosts and goblins, that sort of stuff. Nothing unusual about that alone. But the goal of his research was to prove that it was all real. Though even that’s not so far out there. Except in the middle of one conference, he pulled off a stunt that sent the old-school types right over the edge.”

“Which was?” The darkening world outside the window cast shadows across Setsura’s face.

“Magic,” Toya said breezily. “Sorcery. Before an assembly of dignitaries and blowhards, he gave a demo in the Chinese black arts. They probably thought he’d pull a rabbit out of a hat or something. Not the real damn thing. The conference room erupted in pandemonium. According to the minutes, two people there died of shock.”

“So they kicked him out. Hardly unexpected in the outside world.”

“That’s for sure. A performance like that would win him a standing ovation here.”

“He got a family?”

“He lives by himself. He was married, but his wife died ten years ago. All his kids live in the outside world. And he’s since gone a little nuts.”

“What’s his address?”

She told him, and he thanked her and was about to hang up.

“Hold on a second.” She cut another one.

“Yeah?” He waited but Toya said nothing. “Something you ate disagreed with you?” he joked.

“Mmm. So something happen that you’re not saying?”

“Why would you think that?” It occurred to Setsura that he might be laying on the unflappable attitude a bit thick.

“No idea. The intel I’m seeing and hearing isn’t any different from before. The craziest shit in the world could be right over the horizon and this city just shrugs it off. Frankly, that’s what scares the crap out of me.”

“Huh.”

“Still, it’s my job to know everything that’s going down that’s connected to this city. Problem is, that’s the only thing I’ve got a handle on. There’s plenty I’m clueless about. What kind of hair gel the guy in the house next door uses? What he eats for breakfast? What’s happening on that level is completely off my radar screens. And right now, it’s happening everywhere in Shinjuku. You get my point?”

“What is your point?” Setsura asked, still in his laid-back tone of voice.

“I’m not so sure myself. Maybe it’s because I’m getting more intel than usual. Maybe it’s because I’m getting less. Maybe it’s because I’m getting reports all telling me the same thing. Maybe it’s because the nights are longer and darker than usual. Maybe it’s because the days keep getting shorter. Or maybe I’m just beat. The only thing I do know is that I’ve caught a constant case of the creeps. There’s a curse on this place.”

“This is Demon City.”

Toya was quiet for a minute. “Good to hear,” she said. “Good to hear. At least you’re the same as always. Just as I expected. You’re a citizen of Demon City. It’s in your bones. When the apocalypse comes, I’m sticking by you.”

“Fine with me.”

“Helps me sleep at night.” Her voice was filled with trust. “I have no idea what’s going to happen next, but whatever it is, you’ll think of something. Hang in there, okay? Urp.”

She said goodbye and hung up.

Fifty yards from Aki Senbei was a side street that was always dank and dark even in the middle of the day. An old man in a long gray robe stood at the back of the street, eyes closed. He held a rusty, dented funnel in his parched right hand. The narrow end was pressed against his ear.

If one in the thousands of passersby on the main thoroughfare had stopped and taken note of the old man’s strange behavior—had glanced at the funnel and seen that it was pointed at a small senbei shop—what he was up to would still remain a puzzle.

“Three eight Arakimachi—” mumbled the deeply creviced, glistening, leech-like lips. “Once Ryuuki showed he couldn’t get the job done, I set out at once. Still, I didn’t think Setsura would return home so quickly. My listening device couldn’t penetrate the walls of the hospital. It’s much more useful here.”

Based on the old man’s running self-commentary, he’d tailed Setsura from Mephisto Hospital. Contrary to appearances, an evil killer instinct suffused every fiber of this particular senior citizen. For he was none other than Kikiou.

After setting up the new safe house, he’d set out in the middle of the day to bring down their most dangerous enemy, Setsura Aki.

Feeling a presence behind him, Kikiou spun around.

In a deep, dark corner of the street where the sun didn’t shine and not even the people who lived there were curious about exploring, two points of light stared back from the inky shadows.

The growl that issued forth was suffused with echoes of hunger. With an eerie smile, Kikiou casually approached this monster—that was born and grew up in an eternal night.

The listening device had not only intercepted Setsura’s voice, but Toya’s as well. Now he stashed it inside his robes and reached into a burlap bag dangling from his shoulder. By the time he’d retrieved the object, the ravenous eyes were a mere three feet away.

He tossed the object. To normal eyes, it seemed to melt into the gloom and disappear. It was a small square box a little over an inch square. It emitted a low sound as it fell to the ground.

The two points of light started, and backed up several steps. Kikiou took another object from the bag and transferred it to his mouth.

It was like the thing that Mephisto had put into his mouth at their manor. The mouth of the porcelain jar was capped with a metal ring and lid. A metallic pipe jutted out of the lid.

Kikiou sucked on the short end of the pipe, drawing in his cheeks. And then blew it out. Without a sound, a mist covered the ground between himself and the beast. It formed into the shape of an umbrella about eighteen inches in diameter and fell toward the strange box.

Something quavered in the midst of the impenetrable darkness. An ear-piercing screech rang out. The creaking of a hinge. A wondrous aroma filled the shadows.

The nose-wrinkling smell of a fresh slaughter—not at all appealing to the human senses. The cloud of scent expanded. Less than two seconds later, the pair of eyes changed. The ferocity melted like snow in summer. Eyes brimming, their owner slowly crawled up to Kikiou. The small box was the only thing between them.

And yet before the fourth footfall, the glowing eyes suddenly disappeared. And then the rest of the creature’s body—whose presence suggested it must be quite large—vanished as well. It was as if some large thing had suddenly emerged between the man and the monster and swallowed it whole.

“Kiii—” screeched the hinge. With that, every other sound died as well.

Several minutes later, Kikiou emerged from this forgotten little alleyway—avoided even by the residents of the neighborhood. Under the bright sunlight, he examined the little box with an air of satisfaction. He flashed a smile in the direction of Aki Senbei and set off towards Shinjuku Station at a brisk clip.

In this dark alley, abandoned by humans for several years now, a scrambling horde of little shadows greedily devoured the desiccated corpse of the large cat that had appeared there several minutes before.