Border Patrol, M.E.L.

part 1

Tonight, me, Rouxgaroux, and Felix were back-up for all the things that go bump in the night. Our unit was volunteered for extra duty. A really stuck-up way to say we were babysitting the local police forces during Samhain celebrations. We had it coming.

Mabon had been different this year. All of us could tell, even the human parts of our unit. The elite of Magic Entities Liason and the Ministry of Liminal Affairs expected their divinators to give a heads up. All they could tell is the same vague kind of danger. “Catastrophe! Something big is coming. Yuletide shows a destiny nobody wanted to know.” My reaction wasn’t exactly civil. Felix snarled and Lou rolled his eyes so hard, he almost fainted. No timeline, no specifics, no nothing. The divinators scurried away, back to their little hidy-holes. Ugh.

So where was I? Ah, yes. How did we fuck up so badly, that we got volunteered for every possible and impossible extra work for a lunar year? It was quite the opposite, actually. We had been the main attraction at the Kyoto Moonlight Market, bottling the nasty parasitic dreams. We did what nobody else could, I’m not proud, how we achieved it, and I’m sure Auntie will let me pay dearly, but we got the job done.

Of course, M.E.L. had to label it misconduct, and we three wound up with lots of extra duty and an enormous mountain of paperwork to fill out. I didn’t mind it much but Lou had family, and Felix was newlywed. His husband baked the most delicious cupcakes I had the pleasure to stuff into my face.

The medicine seller had been the linchpin in that case. That he has been the source and the antidote, did nothing to protect him from hoards of pissed off yokai. Those dreams had targeted the divine and supernatural entities. A tanuki prince almost died.

Dreaming oneself to death isn’t pretty. We ended up protecting the perpetrator until we could safely guarantee a justified sentence. Every tribe wanted a piece of the medicine seller, and I’m pretty sure he has some nasty curses placed upon him by now.

The ministry sent my former boss, Minister Secretary Kagekamui, to overlook the case. The Tanuki Clan, as impressed as they were, they had their wishes fullfilled by the Minister himself. The banishing rite was excruciating to watch, even for me.

Mark, our guest ranger from the US, just left the building. He must be the most peculiar being I encountered so far. His unmatched dark aura sent shivers down my spine, and that means something.

I’m sure his presence in Japan is just the beginning. Otherwise, he’s a fun guy with an inexhaustible amount of funny, tragic, and weird trench stories. He had shared his experiences with a new kind of entity, or a supernatural disease, he wasn’t sure how to classify. Even the Minister scratched his head at the case. Our librarian kept bouncing out of joy over the time she’d need to spend in the archives. I still haven’t guessed what kind of monster Mark was, but boy, am I glad he is on our side.