Justified little yokai u.., p.1
Justified: Little Yōkai Urban Fantasy Series Book 5, page 1
JUSTIFIED
LITTLE YŌKAI URBAN FANTASY SERIES BOOK 5
SCOTT WALKER
FIREFLY TALES, LLC
CONTENTS
Books By Scott Walker
Exclusive Access to “Shadowed”
Glossary of Japanese Terms
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Glossary
Acknowledgments
About the Author
BOOKS BY SCOTT WALKER
THE LITTLE YŌKAI SERIES
(Urban Fantasy)
Caged
Hunted
Mirrored
Betrayed
Justified
Released (2023)
DUO SERIES
(VAL & TIMMERON)
Cloak and Dagger
THE DARK BONDS SERIES
Runed
ANTHOLOGIES
Folklore Tales of Old Japan
Daily Story Seeds
EXCLUSIVE ACCESS TO “SHADOWED”
Sign up for the Scott Is Writing Readers Group and get your exclusive copy of Shadowed, the Little Yōkai prequel:
As a freshly minted Bureau of Souls agent, Keiko Miller figured her first week wouldn't be too stressful.
A drug dealing oni, a powerful gokudo crime boss, and a mortalization client seeking protection soon prove her wrong. Within days of accepting her badge, Keiko must choose between the values in her heart and the oath she swore to uphold…
Click the link below to start reading:
https://scottiswriting.com/little-yokai-shadowed
GLOSSARY OF JAPANESE TERMS
Justified includes several Japanese words and phrases, as well as references to specific gods and Yōkai spirits. A glossary of terms is provided at the end of this book.
To all the spirits still seeking their families.
ONE
I sipped my semi-warm Grounds Floor mocha, scanned my current caseload, and concluded I would need a lot more caffeinated fuel to get through it all.
Like, a lot more.
But fate seemed determined to deny me that simple pleasure.
My Bureau desk phone rang. On the other end was a fellow Bureau of Souls agent, in this case a Jewel routing inbound calls.
"Miller-san, I've got a call from County about a possible 303. Would you take it?"
"Sure." A moment later, I heard the click of the Jewel's line dropping out. "This is Agent Miller, how may I help you?"
"Hi, this is Shen Hsu at County General. We've got a mortal patient exhibiting symptoms that may be a Yōkai attack. We’d like to have an agent check them out.”
I’d lost count of how many times someone believed they were the target of a malicious Yōkai attack. And I'm talking Yōkai, too, not just mortals. Sorting out whether a spirit was truly responsible for a crime was often a lot harder than pulling a blood test or checking someone's heart rate.
And most of the time, there was no cause for alarm. Most of the time, whatever symptoms or phenomenon the supposed victim had experienced could be explained without involving a Yōkai.
But sometimes they couldn’t.
"Do you have a release form?” I asked.
"Yes, he authorized the release of his medical information.”
I checked the time and ignored the list of cases filling my monitor. “I can be there in an hour.”
I looked around the Pen, specifically for Daniel Yoshida, Valeria Martinez, or Kimiko Tamaki. This was the kind of thing they might want to tag along for. I didn't see them, so I slipped downstairs to sub level one and peeked into Archives.
The two Mirrors down there, Koji Oshiro and Emi Saito, politely declined my invitation. They'd just received an artifact brought in by an agent, a long, thin knife with potentially powerful magic attributes. The Mirrors were busy assessing its properties and prepping it for shipping back to Kyoto.
So, I drove alone to the hospital, which was west of DTLA and on the other side of the 110 Freeway. The front desk directed me to the ER, where I found Shen.
"Thanks for coming, Agent Miller."
"No problem. You've got the medical release?" He handed me a copy. "Thank you. So, what do we have?"
"Adam Reynolds. Cisgender Male. Age thirty-eight. Admitted last night at twenty-one-oh-three hours after his roommate drove him here. Roommate says he started off having trouble with his memory earlier in the week, but the symptoms worsened.”
“How much worse?”
Shen handed me a folder containing the patient’s files. “Reynolds is exhibiting cognitive difficulties.”
“History?” I asked.
“No reported trauma, no history of cognitive impairment. Initial blood tests and diagnostics evaluation are negative. No traces of drugs or alcohol.”
I was no doctor, but I imagined there were several potential causes for the symptoms. If Reynolds' only symptom was memory loss, I was leaning towards this being another false alarm. More than once a freshly minted, well-intentioned but over-eager physician had called the Bureau claiming they'd diagnosed a Yōkai attack.
Shen was in his fifties. Unlikely he was new to medicine or was chasing an outlier diagnosis instead of the most likely cause.
"Why am I really here?" I asked. The doctor bit his lip, his eyes dodging to the file in my hand. “Look, I can't help you if you don't level with me.”
Shen took a deep breath.
"The patient requested an agent check him out, but I encouraged him to. Two years ago, a nikusui leeched my brother. It was bad. By the time we realized how long it had been going on, the damage to his memory was permanent. We never found out who did it. Reynolds is presenting with the same symptoms my brother had early on. I know this looks like a long shot, but…"
Ah.
Okay, maybe Shen was chasing the outlier. Nikusui were vampiric Yōkai who could drain your life force. If they leeched too much of it, well, you get the idea. They could also use their thrall abilities to force you to obey their verbal instructions.
Given that particular combo of powers, you could imagine how easily they managed to evade law enforcement. Didn't help that most victims didn't even realize what was happening, since leeching didn't require anything complicated. Nikusui could drain your life force from a few feet away, and you'd never know it.
I felt bad about Shen's brother, and if the roles were reversed, I'd probably draw the same conclusion.
"Well, let's have a look,” I said. Wouldn’t take more than fifteen minutes to see if Shen was right.
The doctor showed me to Reynolds’ bed. The guy barely opened his eyelids at the sound of Shen pulling back the privacy curtain.
“This is Agent Miller,” Shen said.
Reynolds blinked a few times, focused on me. He elevated the bed until he was in a more upright position.
“Right. Hey.” The word was laconic and soft.
“I'm from the Bureau of Souls. I understand you requested an agent. Is that correct?”
Reynolds nodded slowly. “Mmm-hmm.”
He had brown hair, cut short. Looked younger than his age. He also looked like he'd just run a marathon. His movements were molasses slow. I held out my badge, watched him blink slowly as he examined it.
"Would you like me to come back later?” I asked.
"No." A weak grin. "I’m just slow, that's all."
"All right. Stop me if you change your mind." He nodded. "The staff say your roommate brought you here last night around nine o'clock. Do you remember that?"
"No. Last thing I remember was coming home from work.”
"And you stayed home?”
Reynolds frowned for a moment. He seemed sharper now, his eyes more focused. "Wait. No. No, I went out to dinner. Tony. I was meeting Tony at the, uh...the noodle shop."
"Remember the name of the place?"
Several seconds went by before he shook his head. "Sorry, some stuff's still fuzzy right."
"What does Tony look like?"
"I’ve got a picture of him." He reached for his cell phone, fumbled with it, swiped at the screen for a long time. "Huh. Thought for sure I'd taken a picture of him."
"It's okay.”
Reynolds looked at me with a concerned expression. “What’s wrong with me? The docs say there’s nothing physically wrong with me.”
I ran down the obvious possibilities, decided if this was a Yōkai attack, it was likely a leeching by a nikusui. One question would help confirm that.
"How’s your taste?” I asked.
Reynolds frowned. “Taste? I can still taste fine. I mean, stuff seems sweeter than normal, but that’s all.”
Leeching.
“May I cast a spell? It might reveal some more insight into what’s behind your symptoms.”
“It’s not going to hurt, right?”
I smiled. “Not a bit. And I’m not just
Shen was already prepared. He handed Reynolds a blank form. “That’s your authorization to allow Agent Miller to perform a spell on you.” Reynolds read and signed the form.
I cast a han of seeing. Reynolds had a faint glow around his body. Much like the blue light my magical koi Madara showed me when I looked at Yōkai, but this was white.
No doubt Reynolds had been the target of some kind of spell or Yōkai magic. All signs pointed to a nikusui leeching Reynolds’ life force. Based on the symptoms and the presence of the aura, a nikusui had been leeching his life force for a while.
Why Reynolds had been targeted in general was easy to guess.
All nikusui had the ability to drain the life force from any living entity: plant, animal, human, or Yōkai. Some nikusui claimed they needed to regularly leech life force from other entities in order to survive.
The Bureau had worked with various organizations around the world to develop alternative sources, including genetically modified plants with unnaturally high life forces.
The nikusui claimed the life force of a mortal was like a high-protein smoothie, animals were fast food, and the GMO plant substitutes were the equivalent of gruel. Yōkai were a mixed bag. Some had strong life forces, others had one so weak the nikusui didn't even bother leeching them.
Why Reynolds had been specifically targeted was, based on the statistics, most likely just bad luck. Profilers had not detected any kind of pattern for why nikusui selected the victims they did.
Shen looked at me in anticipation, but I kept my eyes on Reynolds.
“I’ve detected the presence of residual magic,” I said.
Reynolds closed his eyes, sighed. “Son of a bitch.”
Shen said, “Don't freak out. Now that we know what we're dealing with, we can tackle it more effectively. I want to start you on a regimen of acetylcholinesterase inhibitors to help with your memory, and I'll add NSAIDs for your fatigue. Sound good?"
"Sure, doc, whatever you think will help."
Shen stepped out of the room.
“I was told your roommate brought you in,” I said.
Reynolds waggled his hand in the air. “If they say so. I have no memory of it."
“What’s his name?”
“Keith Davers.”
“Do you have his phone number?” I asked. “I’d like to talk with him.”
Reynolds consulted his cell, read out a number.
I wrote it down. "Thanks. Is there any chance you've been exposed to magic recently?”
A wry smile from Reynolds. “How would I know?” After a moment, he lost his humorous expression. “Honestly, not that I know of. Keith’s mortal. And I don’t have Yōkai friends.”
I’m thinking you do, and his name’s Tony.
“How about at work?” I asked. “Do any of your coworkers cast or use magic?”
“I work at Apex Data Analytics. We’re in fintech. Not a lot of magic going on there, you know?”
“Fintech?”
"Finance and technology. We provide backend services to lenders."
I closed my notebook. “Okay, thanks. I’ll be in touch.”
“Hey, what if this nikusui comes after me again?”
“I don’t know yet if you’re a victim of leeching. But they rarely continue leeching a target once the victim becomes aware of the attack. Oh, and I’d like to take your test results back to my office and have another agent look at them. Would that be okay?”
“Sure.”
Shen stepped back in the room.
“I’m all done here,” I said.
“I’ll walk you out,” the physician replied.
Once we were in the hall, he said, “Thanks a lot, Agent. Really.”
“Just doing my job. And you were right. Something’s happened to Reynolds.”
Shen grunted. "You don't think it's a leeching."
I did, though I aimed for objectivity when working a case. "I think a leeching is a definite possibility, but I'd like to run all this by another agent who's better trained than I am."
"Thank you, Agent Miller. It's too late to help my brother, but I’ll feel better if Reynolds recovers.”
I smiled. “Me, too.”
I drove back to the office, turning over the implications in my head. I only knew of one nikusui in Los Angeles — my not really a boyfriend but definitely more than a friend named Mondai — though I was sure there were far more than that. Mondai had assured me he’d never leeched a mortal, and he didn’t need to do it. If he ever felt the desire for life force, he’d turn to the plants in his house or go to a park.
We'd been on a handful of dates in public over the past two months, tentatively testing the depths of each other's waters. I wasn't seeing any red flags.
My paranoia whispered, that’s a red flag in itself.
I called Davers on my way back to the office.
"This is Agent Keiko Miller of the Bureau of Souls. I'm trying to reach Keith Davers."
"Yep. Adam said you'd be calling. What do you want to know?"
"Anything out of the ordinary about Mr. Reynolds' behavior," I replied.
"So, Adam started forgetting stuff around a week ago. Small stuff at first, then he was forgetting entire chunks of time. He got home last night, and I’m not even sure how me made it in one piece. He had no recollection of where he'd been since lunchtime. I freaked out and brought him to the hospital."
"Where had he been?”
“Earlier in the day, he’d said he was meeting this guy named Tony at some noodle shop. I don't know. Adam first mentioned him two weeks ago. I’ve never met the guy. Kinda worried he doesn’t really exist, you know?”
I wrote it all down.
“Anything else out of the ordinary you remember?”
“Naw, just the memory stuff and sometimes being confused. Like dementia. Look, you have any idea what’s happened to him?”
“Still putting the pieces together." I gave him my work number, asked him to call me if he thought of anything else.
Back at the office, I walked through the warded entrance and said a prayer to Inari, the fox goddess. Madara had only failed to hide my Yōkai signature once at work, but that was just two months ago.
I was still on pins and needles, fearful of tripping the alarm a second time. I could always wave away a single incident. A second or third time would start raising eyebrows.
The Pen was busier now, lots of agents coming and going. I swung by Daniel Yoshida's desk.
"Yoshida-san, what's going on?"
"Latest update out of Kyoto. They've marked it sensitive, so keep this within the ranks for now." I nodded. "Apparently we've collected intel over the past month that indicates Nurarihyon's preparing to neutralize some of his most vocal competition. Nurarihyon's gone silent, which is equally troubling. He failed to show for a routine meeting with the Bureau, hasn't responded to inquiries. Three weeks since anyone's seen him in public."
I whistled. "If the Lord of the Yōkai decides to go to war, that's going to be a whole new level of awfulness.”
Yoshida grimly nodded. "Kyoto can't tell if the Yōkai there are attempting to hold their own or actually topple Nurarihyon. There's a lot of dust in the air."
"It's weird to think someone might take his place," I said.
"Just have to wait and see. For now, the Chief’s asking all agents to reach out to the local community, see if this is public knowledge. And if it is, get a sense of their sentiment."
"Pound the pavement and make some bows."
A nod. "But don't ignore the mortal community. This is going to affect them, too."
