Pilgrim Omnibus 2: (Books 4-6), page 10
“We mean you no harm,” said Kudzu. “We are simply looking for someone to make contact with here, perhaps there is an elder?”
The woman pointed toward the docks, where there was a home that seemed a bit larger than the others.
“If that’s where you are telling us to go, then, uhh… that’s where we will.” Jelmay turned in the direction she was pointing, the woman nearly jumping in front of him, fear in her eyes.
“You should leave.”
The way she looked at him made Danzen bristle to some degree, his hand going to the hilt of his sword. Bawa stepped forward, the light at the tip of his tail changing to a white-blue that mirrored the color of the stratosphere.
“There is nothing to be afraid of,” the other kitsune told the villager. “We are merely here seeking information and, as my counterpart said, to make contact.”
“Don’t forget lodging. I am not sleeping outside again. I want a comfortable bed, a bath—we could all use a bath, especially you, fox—and a good meal.”
Kudzu growled at Jelmay.
“Is there a tavern?” Danzen asked. “Some place where we can eat? We will decide on lodging later.”
“There,” the villager said, once again pointing to the same building.
“Yes,” said Bawa. “That’s right. I’d forgotten that about the village elder.”
“What’s that?” Jelmay asked.
“Ah, yes, you will have to see for yourself. Thank you for your time,” Bawa told the woman. “We won’t bother you any longer.”
****
From what Danzen could tell, the tavern was a series of three smaller huts that had been joined together, the outward-facing room, where patrons would normally be, completely empty. The tables seemed dirty, and a few of the chair legs even had cobwebs, a dingy nature to the space, the dust bunnies floating in the upper rafters.
“This can’t be the place,” Jelmay said as he took a look around. Yato was next to him, Kudzu and Bawa behind Danzen. For his part, Sansar had remained outside, where he would keep guard, the three-legged raven now perched on one of the rooftops.
“Hello?” Jelmay asked aloud. “Anybody home?”
A woman exploded out of the kitchen, a frantic look on her face, her chef’s apron covered in food scraps and stains. “What… what are you doing here?” she asked, confusion tracing across her face. “Who… who are you?”
“Pfft! What does it look like we’re doing here?” asked Jelmay. “We are here for a meal and for some information. We want to meet the elder. As to who we are, well, my name is Nomtoi, this is, um, Soko,” he said, motioning toward Kudzu. “The scary-looking tough guy is Khamdo, and the other fox is named Usagi.”
“Jelmay…” Kudzu hissed.
“Don’t you mean Nomtoi?”
“What about me?” Yato asked.
“Oh, and her, she’s… nope, that’s not it. Sorry, I can be forgetful. This is Menya, yes, Menya. Anyway, we are here to see the elder.”
“I see…” The woman smoothed her hands over her apron. “Elder Bahjee is, um, preoccupied at the moment.”
Jelmay threw his hands up into the air in a flash of annoyance. “Pilgrim, I mean, Khamdo, do your voice thing. I’m getting hungry and cranky.”
“—We are passing through,” Kudzu said in a calm voice, “and we would like to ask about the area, particularly if there are any—”
“—Strange occurrences and things that do well to be examined by a pair of knowledgeable kitsunes,” said Bawa, grinning at the woman. “Oddly enough, I’ve yet to officially meet this Elder Bahjee, but I have heard plenty about him. I’m sure he would like to meet us.”
“Ummm…” Once again, the woman smoothed her hand over her apron. A man stepped out of the kitchen behind her, also wearing the same food-splattered apron, his eyes bloodshot, his long hair pulled back into a tight topknot.
“We have visitors?” he asked, slightly bewildered.
“They would like to meet Elder Bahjee,” the woman whispered.
“But…” The man’s eyes darted to the door on the left, which was currently shut. “But he is preoccupied.”
“They are insistent.”
“Perhaps it would be best if we come back at another time…” Bawa began to say.
“Absolutely not.” Rather than argue, Jelmay shouldered through the door and immediately let out a loud snort when he saw what was on the other side.
“Elder Bahjee!” The two behind the counter scrambled to stop Jelmay, the man grabbing a butcher knife, and nearly cutting the woman as they collided with one another.
“This is getting out of hand,” Yato said, Danzen sensing that she was prepared to summon her weapons.
“By Sunyata’s convoluted fate! Ha! Ho! You guys have to get in here!” Jelmay called from the other room at about the same time that the two chefs breached the doorway. The sound of a sword being withdrawn from a scabbard pushed Danzen forward, the former assassin ready for a fight. Upon reaching the door, he found Jelmay with his sword drawn, the two chefs looking like they were going to pounce on him, the male cook still with a butcher knife.
Danzen’s eyes dropped to an enormously fat man seated on the ground, trays upon trays of food stacked around him, a wicked scowl on his face made more prominent by the way his white mustache hung.
“Tell them to leave,” Jelmay said as he pointed the sword at who Danzen could only assume was Elder Bahjee. “Tell them to leave or I will…” Jelmay smiled at the elder. “You know what I will do.”
“Ahem, yes, yes, of course! These are my guests,” the elder said, his frown lifting into a thin line, jowls swinging. “So, get back to the kitchen and make enough food for all of us.”
“My Lord?” the woman asked.
“You heard me. These… these are my guests!”
The two chefs slipped around Danzen, and once they were gone, Yato and the two kitsunes entered the space. Jelmay, who still had his sword drawn, started laughing again as he returned his weapon to his scabbard. “You bastard. You old bastard.”
“What?” Elder Bahjee asked, no longer able to contain the grin on his face. “You would do the same.”
“Ha! You bet I would. Hell, I have done the same!” Jelmay deposited some of his items in the corner and plopped down in front of the elder and went for some of the food scraps. He grabbed the bone that still had a little meat on it and began chewing. “You clever bastard. I love it!”
“What’s going on here?” Kudzu asked, her hair standing to attention, the white fox still on high alert.
“You should ask your friend here.” Jelmay pointed his bone he had been gnawing on at Bawa. “Surely, he knew. He is from this area, after all.”
“I’ve never met the elder before…”
“I’m so confused,” said Yato.
“Wha—? Seriously? After all we’ve been through? You don’t know a bakeneko when you see one? I’m ashamed of that; you see me every day, Lady Pilgrim. By now you should recognize a bakeneko. He’s a bakeneko. Like me!” Jelmay morphed into his cat form and tossed his bone over to a stack. “Elder Bahjee. Heh. I knew it when I heard the name. I just knew it.”
“The villagers don’t know,” the heavyset man told him. “And I intend to keep it that way.”
“Don’t worry, I’m not here to challenge you. And they don’t have to know. I’m not interested in this village either, way too remote for my tastes. What can I say? I enjoy the finer things in life.” As if to illustrate his point, Jelmay shook his bag of jewelry.
“Quite a pull you got there…”
“You…” Kudzu glared at the elder. “You’re a bakeneko?”
“She’s a smart fox, isn’t she?” Elder Bahjee asked.
“Watch it…”
“Hrrm. I haven’t seen a white one before. Are they all this angry?”
“Pretty much.” Jelmay lifted what was left of an apple with his paw and took a bite out of it. “How long have you been running this place, Bahj?”
“Fifty years now?” Elder Bahjee bit down on his lip, his mustache drooping. “Maybe sixty? I’ve lost track. Definitely a few generations have come and gone.”
“And let me guess, you told them all to not trust outsiders, right?”
He nodded as if this were common sense. “Of course I did. Easier to keep control that way. We have plenty of food, best not to be forced to share it with stragglers who make their way to the Outer Region.”
“So… it’s really a bakeneko, like Jelmay?” Yato asked Danzen so only he could hear.
“They…” Danzen sighed, recalling how he had first encountered Jelmay. “They are known to do things like this. Although…” He looked at Elder Bahjee again. He didn’t seem as bewildered as Jelmay had been back in Suja Village, Danzen recalling that Jelmay had been trapped in his transformation to some degree. This didn’t look to be the case here; Elder Bahjee looked completely comfortable in his skin, natural and used to it.
“I hate to break it to you, Bahj, but things are about to change around here.”
“What do you mean?” Elder Bahjee asked, his bushy white eyebrows narrowing on Jelmay to some degree. He slicked his hand through his curly white hair. “S-speak up.”
“What can I say? We are planning to open the northern passage. Not only that, we are looking for remnants.”
The elder laughed. “Har! You must be joking. That’s not the job of a bakeneko.”
“True, but it is what I have decided to do with my time. Which is why we are here.”
“And what makes you think I want to help you?”
“Because all bakeneko like to help each other.”
The two smiled at one another and both began laughing at the same time, Elder Bahjee laughing so hard that he tipped over, sending some of the plates stacked near him to the ground.
“I don’t know if that is the case, and you know that. Generally, we try to carve out our territories and keep to them,” the elder finally said, “but you do make a compelling argument.”
“Does he?” Yato asked quietly.
“I do, don’t I? It’s about time, it’s about damn time. What’s so great about this village anyway?” Jelmay went for a small bread roll. He stuffed it in his mouth, his whiskers lifting as he happily chewed the roll. “Not bad. But back to this village. It seems a bit depressing, if you ask me, about as lively as a home for the elderly. I suppose being by the lake has its advantages, especially with fish.” He gestured toward the fish bones on one of the plates, the head still attached, eyes dead and glossy.
“Like you said, or did I say it? I believe I said it. Like I said…” Elder Bahjee started laughing again. “We each carve out our little slice of paradise and stick to it. What has made you decide to join these…” He squinted at Danzen for a moment, his nostrils flaring wide. “Not what I would call a friendly fellow here. That blood.”
“Yes, he is half-demon and a bit brood-y. Couldn’t you tell by his overall demeanor? Look at those muscles, how chiseled his features are, the dark and dangerous look in his eyes.” Jelmay scooped a paw into a bit of gravy and put it in his mouth. “He tries to hide it, but we know. All yokai know, at least smarter ones.”
Yato glanced at Danzen again; he didn’t make any indication that this banter bothered him. While he was ready for Jelmay to get to the point, he recognized now when the bakeneko was buttering someone up, which was one of his specialties. To see him do it on his own kind was another thing entirely.
“And this other human?” Elder Bahjee asked, as if Yato wasn’t standing there. “Not the same, but she does have a hardened nature about her.”
“She is my new favorite.”
“Yes, yes,” Elder Bahjee said as he ripped the meat off a thigh bone and flicked the bone onto a plate. “Then we get to the kitsunes, which aren’t to my taste.”
“Can’t blame you there,” said Jelmay.
“Why would such a strange group seek out this village? Before we get to that, why would you come to the Outer Regions anyway? Surely you aren’t serious about opening the northern passage.”
“We are,” said Jelmay, “and you forgot our companion outside. A yatagarasu named Sansar.”
This statement caused Elder Bahjee to carefully consider what he said next, the bakeneko waiting a full minute in which he picked at one of his plates before finally replying. “You were joined by… a yatagarasu?”
“Do you want me to call him in to prove it? I can open the window.”
“Actually, yes. I have never seen one before.”
Jelmay waddled to his feet and went over to a very small window, no larger than a bread box. He morphed into his human form again so he would be tall enough to reach the window. About this time, the two chefs came into the room, both with nervous looks on their faces as they began placing plates of food on the ground. They retrieved some of the plates with scraps on them, but not all of them, their actions telling Danzen that they had grown accustomed to the elder’s eating habits and how he liked to nibble.
By the time they were gone, Jelmay had the window open. “Sansar, someone wants to meet you.” He returned to where he had been sitting and plopped down, Jelmay’s eyes bulging as he looked at the food that had been set out on the floor.
“We’re going to eat on the floor?” Kudzu asked.
Both Jelmay and Elder Bahjee laughed.
“You already eat on the floor,” Jelmay told her.
“It just seems…”
“Fine, do what you want, I don’t care.” Jelmay reached for a small fish and tossed it in his mouth. Bawa joined him, as did Yato, Danzen remaining at the back of the room with Kudzu. Sansar appeared in the window, flapping his black wings. He had to stretch them behind his back to get into the space, but once he was in, he hopped down on the floor and looked between Jelmay and Elder Bahjee.
“He’s a bakeneko,” Jelmay told the raven.
“I can see that.”
Elder Bahjee clapped. “I didn’t believe him! I really didn’t believe him! Sansar, right?”
“Yes,” Sansar said as he hopped forward. “It is a pleasure to meet you.”
“You can call me Bahjee.” The elder went for more food, chewing with his mouth open as he took in the group once again. “I just can’t believe you came all this way out,” he said, wiping his mouth with his sleeve.
“We need a place to stay for the night,” Jelmay told him, “and we are looking for information. Perhaps an exchange can be made?”
“Yes, an exchange.” Elder Bahjee slurped down the fish. “I do have something that needs done around here.”
“Go on…”
“There are rice fields north of here, on the other side of the mountain. It is quite flat there and there is runoff from the peaks, which keeps the soil nice and moist. Lately, a family of treacherous oni have been taking the rice for themselves. These oni live high in the mountains, and they come down at night and steal whatever they’d like. The fall will be here sooner than we think, and if we don’t get our grain supplies in order, it’s going to be a tough winter. Well, not for me, but for the villagers.”
Kudzu shook her head, but she didn’t say anything.
“So you want to deal with these oni?” Danzen asked.
“Yes, the demon-blooded one catches on quickly. You are looking for remnants and perhaps some type of partnership here, and I would be the person that would be able to help you in that regard, considering my knowledge of the region and my connections. Take care of the oni and I’ll tell you what I know. This is a very interesting region, you know, with a lot of things that you may have never encountered in the west.”
“Well ahead of you there,” Jelmay said. “And if it’s a bunch of filthy oni that need killing, it’s oni that we will kill.”
Yet again, Danzen couldn’t get away from the profession that he had spent his life perfecting. He had no desire to kill these yokai, and perhaps there was a way to convince them to stop their raids. But he had a feeling by the way that Elder Bahjee described them next that this would be impossible:
“They’re nasty, nasty creatures, these oni. I’ll have you know that they have eaten one of the villagers, a girl who was helping her father in the field. The poor lass! Not only that, their skin is nearly impenetrable.” He took another bite of food, chewing loudly. “I have sent the hunting party out, but they are too afraid to actually venture into the mountains and chase them down. They did, however, find themselves at a vantage point where they were able to shoot arrows at the ogres. Not a single one was injured. These are no ordinary hunters, mind you; they are the men that are responsible for supplying our meat for the winter, once the lake freezes over. They are expert marksmen, and rarely miss.”
“I’d be more worried about the information you plan to give us after we have completed this task,” Jelmay said in a calculated way. “We are looking for remnants, notable ones.”
“Yes, you mentioned that, but you haven’t mentioned why. There are plenty of people looking for remnants in these regions.”
“We aren’t looking for them for that reason,” Jelmay said. “We’re not bandits, nor are we trying to forge weapons or talismans, anything of the sort. Our goal in collecting remnants is to gather enough of them that we will be able to rebuild Sunyata.”
Once again, Elder Bahjee paused. “Rebuild Sunyata?”
“Yes,” Jelmay said in a soft voice, which would have felt more serious had his face and whiskers not been covered in food. “That is the reason we are opening up the northern passage, so we can explore that region as well and make the transportation of remnants between here and Genshin Valley easier.”
Elder Bahjee raised an eyebrow at him. “And why do you want to rebuild Sunyata?”
“For obvious reasons. The world can’t exist on two planes, one being this one, and the other being hell itself. But there is another reason. His father,” Jelmay said, pointing his thumb at Danzen, “is the ruler of Diyu. And Pilgrim here has daddy issues.”
The two bakeneko started to laugh again, Jelmay nearly falling over this time, Kudzu scowling at both of them.
“I’m kidding, well, not fully kidding. His father really is the ruler, and he is a thorn in our side, as is his demented brother. But that’s a story for another day. Right now our focus is on collecting remnants, so we can see if it’s even possible. After all, we can’t just have Diyu to look forward to once we die.”
