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- The Full Moon above the Mountains -
Having one special day too close to another can lead to trouble, especially near the night of the full moon.
Muhyo fumed with worry, his eyebrows tangled into a knot, frowning even more tightly than when he was sleep-deprived. He was a genius Executor of the highest order; he could do anything. Or at least he should be able to. But he had never really been able to do much about animals. Stupid animals who had nothing better to do than to be loved by and lean on humans. He couldn't say he liked or hated them, but he couldn't just execute them like the usual evil spirits, so he more or less let them run wild when it didn’t directly concern him.
Animals were unpredictable. Too dependent and arbitrary. Just like his stupid assistant. Roji was always sticking right beside him no matter the circumstance, like a cocklebur hooked on clothes, if you’d try to remove it, it’d just end up sticking right back on. Some, if not all, canines had this same habit.
Unfortunately for Muhyo, these two things combined have created his current dilemma: his assistant, with fluffy ears and a scraggly dog tail like reeds in the wind, like a big hound who hadn’t seen his owner in 10 days, pounced on him with force somehow not unlike him.
He smelled of soft fur rubbed against rich dirt, sulfur, and the tatami flooring under them. Normally, Muhyo would have pushed him away or scolded him by now, but he wasn’t even sure Roji could understand human language at the moment.
After many attempts to resist, to no avail, Muhyo Toru could only lie down and endure the torture of being buried in the blond hair scratching his nostrils.
In fact, in his final mental analysis, he found himself most responsible for things developing to this point.
_____
From early in the morning that day, the Muhyo Bureau of Supernatural Investigation had been restless. His ever-lark of an assistant was up at dawn and began tinkering around in the kitchen. Normally, Muhyo Toru would have stood up and taught this guy a lesson for disturbing his sleep, but today he decided to cover his head and continue to pretend to sleep.
Yesterday, when they went to the supermarket together, Kusano Jiro excitedly told him that this year his birthday was just two days behind the Moon Festival, so why don’t we make it a small moon viewing party on the rooftop? And then he proceeded to say he already told all their friends to postpone his birthday party and make it on the day of the Moon Festival. With that, he had bought a bunch of ingredients to make Tsukimi Mochi.
Muhyo grimaced but decided not to burst Roji’s bubble. This Moon Festival would not be a fun time for Magic Lawyers. That 15th night of the Lunar calendar would be much more haunted because the full moon usually attracted bad energy and spirits. And with the Moon Festival, any and all energy would just be amplified. Not to mention that on the Moon Festival, there were theories to suggest that a more insidious atmosphere would allow even more spirits to walk among them during the event. Needless to say, Yoichi and the others, and of course their own office would probably be busy. It's not like they hadn’t experienced that spike of spiritual inflow around this time in the past few years. Even if the dates didn’t overlap, that increase in energy was unmistakable.
The short executor shot a glare to his giddy assistant, who was happily stuffing cheap veggies into a flimsy plastic bag. Forget it. Let him experience it again and he’ll remember soon enough.
And now, as soon as it was time to open for business, the phone started ringing non-stop. He heard his assistant put down the mochi he was making and hurriedly ran back and forth between the kitchen and the living room. Muhyo chuckled lightly at his assistant's dismay. It was still good to get work, after all.
Another phone rang. He stirred and sat up in bed as Roji ran out to answer the phone. He wasn't going to be able to sleep more today anyway.
“Ah- Muhyo, you’re awake?” His assistant came straight to his bed after hanging up the phone.
“You woke me up a while ago with all your ruckus, idiot.”
He immediately lifted the starry quilt and got out of bed. The autumn morning was a bit cool, so Roji immediately took a cloak out of the little nightstand and put it on him.
“So, I think we just got a huge job request just now. We might have to go right away…”
“That phone call just now?”
“Well, the place is a bit far away. It's in the Iya Mountains*. We can go just as soon as I finish making food for the road, ok?”
“And who said we were going?”
“I-Is that a no?” Roji sounded a little uneasy. It took him Muhyo a moment to notice that the idiot’s expression was as full of anticipation as if he were going to a vegetable sale, not at all like he was going on a long business trip on his birthday.
Muhyo sighed. “Just tell me who requested the job.”
Roji lowered his head and twiddled his thumbs. He hesitated before speaking shyly.
“It's a request from a hot spring hotel. The hotel has been haunted for several days and scared away their guests…”
I see. Muhyo’s eyes narrowed into slits.
“...Hmph, okay.”
“Really!?” His assistant's expression immediately blossomed like a flower bud after seeing the sun.
Roji excitedly went to hug and nudge Muhyo around. “You also wanted to go to a hot spring with me, huh, Muhyo? ~”
“No!! Get off me you stinking octopus!!”
What a wonderful coincidence. On his birthday last year, he and Muhyo had also gone to a hot spring for his birthday, although Muhyo would recount that he had been forcefully dragged there. Thinking back to his boss’s reluctant look, but still indulging him to come on this trip in the end, Roji felt a warmth in his heart. At least today he had the legitimate excuse of this being a business trip, otherwise, he would’ve been too embarrassed to pester Muhyo to go somewhere together – the truth was they really didn’t have the spare money to go on vacation. Truly a wonderful coincidence.
He was sitting on a long-distance bus, watching Muhyo dozing off in the window seat next to him. With the bumps of the bus, he swayed back and forth like a little roly-poly, so Roji gently pulled him in to lay on his lap. Luckily, Muhyo was too tired to decline. This scene felt much like a dream, the kind of dream that makes you giggle while you fall asleep.
Roji pulled up the cloak on his sleeping boss and kept his gaze for a while to make sure it did not disturb his sleep before shuffling a bit closer to the window. The bus left the city with tall buildings, passed through large stretches of farmland, and slowly entered the mountains. Some hills have already entered autumn in advance and were painted orange-golden hues with seasonal colors, shining against the azure and dark green background.
It was already past the afternoon when they arrived at the transfer point. They still had to take a bus to enter the mountains where the hotel was located. Roji skillfully carried his sleeping boss on his back, carried their luggage, got off the bus, and went to the platform to make a call to the hotel. He was just in time to catch the last train, so he politely declined the hotel's offer to pick them up.
Apart from them, there were only a few elderly people and backpackers on the bus into the mountains. After finding an empty seat in the back row, Roji let his boss rest his head on his legs again and continue sleeping. Not long after setting off, the little head on his leg moved restlessly.
“Muhyo, did you wake up? Sleep ok?”
The small man groggily slurred his words. “...we changed bus…?”
Roji felt somewhat depressed as he got up, regardless of whether he had slept enough or not.
“Yeah. We'll be there in about an hour.”
He slowly sat up and let his assistant straighten his cloak that had been moved during his nap.
“One hour…”
The executor raised his eyes to look at the sky outside the window and sneered. “It'll be a bit troublesome if we can't arrive before dusk.”
“D-don’t say scary stuff like that out of nowhere…are you sensing something weird on the bus?”
Roji was so frightened by his words that his back went cold. Looking around the car, the driver and passengers at least looked human on the outside. What was left of the sunlight outside was flashing through the trees, making shadows that slanted through the windows, flickering and flowing backward as the bus moved and swayed.
“Who knows? Hehe. ” Muhyo wasn’t the type to dispel Roji’s uneasiness, but it would be better not to scare him. “I’m hungry. Did you bring anything to eat?”
“Ah... Yeah, I made some Tsukimi Mochi this morning. I originally planned to eat them while admiring the moon, but I guess I did make a lot so…”
“Ah!?” A familiar tone of disgust. “Is that seriously all you brought with you? We’re gonna survive on just these things for the next three days, idiot!?”
Although getting spooked by his boss after getting on that last bus, the rest of the ride went surprisingly smoothly. As soon as he got off the bus, he could smell the faint smell of sulfur from a distance, which made Roji’s fear fade as his body relaxed and softened. If you turn onto the fork in the road and walk for about ten minutes, over a small slope, you will see the quaint old Japanese-style hotel with a simple wooden sign saying “Secret Hot Spring”.
The hotel is located on the cliff of a mountain, requiring a ride from the hotel’s exclusive cable car to come up or down. The cable car will stop operating after ten o'clock in the evening, and you can only return to the museum via the mountain trail, which takes about thirty minutes. From the lobby, you could overlook the scenery of the U-shaped valley down below. The hot spring is next to the valley at the foot of the mountain. The hotel owner entertained the Magic Lawyers and introduced them to these features and information one by one.
This is really not an ordinary luxury hotel. The first thing Roji noticed when he entered the door was the price list at the counter. If it weren't for his work as a Magic Lawyer, he probably wouldn't be able to afford to stay here in his lifetime.
“So, where's the troublemaker?” Before Roji could recover from his tourist-like excitement, the executor got straight to the point.
“According to customer complaints, the thing appears after the moon rises, probably after eight o'clock.” The hotel owner recounted while taking out a handkerchief to wipe sweat. “Some people say they saw it in the hot springs, and some said they saw it in the main hotel. Usually, they heard wolves howling first, and then a huge black shadow appeared by the window or in front of the door…”
Muhyo nodded. “It's probably an animal spirit. That’s easy to deal with.”
The executor's words made Roji feel more at ease. They usually have a lot of experience in dealing with animal spirits.
The owner smiled, much relieved as well. “Then I'll leave it to you. Please have a good rest. Do you have any further questions?”
“Ah, yes...what are the dinner arrangements? We have been riding for a whole day and haven't eaten much.” Roji asked in a low voice while shuffling his feet.
“Oh, my deepest apologies! I just forgot to explain. The meal for the evening will be delivered to rooms at half past six. I wonder if Kaiseki cuisine suits your taste?”
“The price is a bit…” Roji confirmed shyly while glancing at the price list in front of the counter with his peripheral vision.
“Please don't worry about food and accommodation. Goryo-sama has already taken care of everything on your behalf. Normally, for this type of spiritual issue, we would contact the Goryo Group, but this time they really couldn’t spare the time.”
“Hehe, sure enough.” The executor fell back on a look of expectancy as if he knew of this all along. “The timing was a little too coincidental.”
“Eh? What timing?” His assistant blinked, not reacting.
“You're so stupid. Anyway, just accept this birthday gift and be happy already. Make sure to thank him later too.”
Roji just tilted his head, dumbfounded, but tried to mull it over. The phone call this morning had seemed a bit coincidental, but he didn’t think about it at the time. Was Goryo the type to do something like this for them? Was he being more charitable these days? And wait- since when was he responsible for this part of the country??
After Roji’s brain finally cleared up, his first reaction was to cry and lunge at his boss, but he skillfully blocked him with his hand, cursing as he did so: “Goryo gave you the gift, you idiot, not me!!”
“Thank you Muhyo for remembering my birthday and coming here with me! ~ Uwahhhh wahh ~”
“Get the fuck off me, you’re getting snot all over my shirt-!!”
“It’s ok, I'll wash it for you later…!”
There was still some time before dinner, so the two of them put down their luggage in the room and took the cable car down the mountain to go straight to the hot spring. They had just noticed on the winding road that the mountainous areas in the central part of the country were a little different from Nagano, where the Magic Law Association was located. Along the way, they saw layers of terraced rice fields, cascading up like skillfully crafted stairways to heaven. There were also dense evergreen broadleaf forests mixed with large deciduous forests and warm water vapor rising, like a light twinkling veil curling up and lingering on the mountainside, dyed into a crimson color by the afterglow of the setting sun.
Night in the mountains comes early and the moon rises late. As they soaked in the spring, the setting sun had already begun to put away its last remaining light. Instead, there was a stone lantern beside the bath, its pale-yellow light dizzying in the mist rising from the hot spring.
“ Hwahh this great…it’s a shame there isn’t anyone else here to enjoy the springs…”
Roji stepped out of the shower area and sat right next to Muhyo in the steaming pool. It always did take him longer to wash his unruly blond hair.
“Hey, why are we sitting so close in such a huge pool?”
Roji smiled knowingly. He had long been accustomed to Muhyo’s complaints, no matter how close their relationship became. He really did seem like a grumpy cat who could never truly be tamed.
“Haha, because every time we take a bath in a hot spring, you always end up fainting due to the heat, so I have to keep an eye on you.”
“Say that again and I’ll send you to the hell.”
“Don’t be mean Muhyo, I’m just stating facts.” Roji was used to his boss becoming defensive when he got shy. “Didn’t the same thing happen last year on my birthday? You sank into the water as we were talking…”
“It was because you forced yourself into my single bath jar! It was too crowded! It's your fault, idiot!”
“Hehehe and the time we were at Nanagase Inn...ah, speaking of which, Yontani-sensei just published a new book!”
“Hmph, what? Did he get another vengeful ghost to write for him?”
Roji giggled. “No way. I just started reading the beginning, and the new novel is actually a supernatural novel. The first story is about a terrifying trip to a hot spring hotel. The protagonist, the spirit slayer, and his assistant meet a writer who cannot ascend because-”
“Wait wait isn’t this plagiarism!?”
Just mentioning the keyword “hot spring” , many little things will pop up, like pressing the mechanism of a magic box full of memories. After all, he’s been with Muhyo for so long. He had similar feelings on his birthday last year and the many years before that. Could they still celebrate his birthday together next year? Will the office close down? Every time he worries about these things, he still feels sad once a year. He wonders how many birthdays he can spend with Muhyo like this in the future. Especially in this silent valley, accompanied by the sound of springs and running water, and the howling of wolves in the distance, his emotions became even more overwhelming.
Roji looked at his boss who was sitting a head and a half shorter than him, with half of his face buried under the water and blowing bubbles. A softness and sadness rose from the bottom of his heart at the same time. His nose suddenly became sore and he almost shed tears. Before Muhyo saw it, he just wiped them with his hands quickly.
“Muhyo….”
“Mmm?” His boss’s voice sounded a bit muffled.
“...No, it’s nothing.” The words had been on the tip of his tongue, but he just couldn’t say them. “I um…I wonder if there are really wolves in these mountains.”
“Wouldn’t be surprised to see any wild beasts or ghosts up here in these desolate mountains…”
“Yeah, you’re right. The guests seemed to think it was because it was haunted, but it wouldn’t be so surprising for wolves to be up here. Listen, I can hear their howling coming closer.”
“Ah? What sound?”
“Don’t you hear it, Muhyo? The wolf has been…” He turned his head in surprise and found that his boss had almost sunk under the water.
“Uwah! Ah! Muhyo, get up!!”
As expected, Muhyo fainted. Roji carried the executor, who was as red as a steamed shrimp, out of the bathhouse and put on a yukata for him in the cool locker room. Muhyo was a little more awake now. Although he hadn't fully recovered, he could at least walk. Maybe it was also related to hunger and fatigue, Roji thought, he would be able to resurrect with full blood after seeing the sumptuous dinner soon.
After taking the small cable car back to the hotel, there was only a bright Japanese-style pavilion at the end of the railway track, as if returning from the human world to the sky. The cable car climbed halfway up the mountain, and Roji saw a waxing gibbous moon rising from the end of the stream. There were still two days until the Moon Festival on the 15th night, and the shape was already very close to the full moon. The bright white light illuminated the deep valley.
He kept staring at the bright moon until his vision began to blur. The wolf howled again, echoing throughout the valley. Roji felt that the voice was getting closer and closer as if it was next to his ear….
“Hey, Roji!”
Only then did he come to his senses. Muhyo’s voice was cold, as if he had called him several times but got no response.
“What's wrong, Muhyo?”
“What? Did you also get dizzy from the spring?”
The boss teased.
“Noo…” Roji tried to say as he looked away. They left the cable car and walked across the courtyard to the hotel. Roji felt strange. The cool autumn wind should have made his mind clearer, but the energy from the hot spring water just now seemed to never dissipate. It was like a ball of steam gathering in his brain, and the howling of wolves echoed inside without disappearing.
“Muhyo…I feel like something’s wrong with me…”
Roji stopped abruptly, feeling dizzy as he squatted on the spot. Was he going to faint?
The boss who was walking in front also turned around and looked at him for a while, and then his face darkened. He walked up to him and stretched out his hand towards the top of his head. Roji lowered his head subconsciously.
“Ah-ah…It’s itchy, where are you touching? Muhyo…”
It didn't seem like what was being rubbed was his hair. It felt like someone was rubbing his ears. But his ears weren’t on the top of his head…
“Feel and see for yourself.” The boss said in a meaningful tone.
Roji stretched out his hand nervously, and his fingertips touched the place where Muhyo's hand was and touched a soft mass of fluff. It was not his hair, but something similar to the ears of a Shiba Inu. He screamed in fear and shook his hand away, but he couldn't help but touch the top of his head back and forth to confirm that the thing was indeed growing on his head.
“What...what is this? Ears?”
“You idiot, you got possessed by a low-level animal spirit. Hehe. ”
“Are you seriously laughing at me right now??”
Muhyo’s so mean, is this really the time to taunt him? Roji was so frightened that he burst into tears, but his boss reached out and grabbed his dog ears mercilessly.
“Ack ack!! It hurts——!!!” It hurt as much as having his own human ears pulled.
“That ain’t good. It seems pretty attached to you. Guess we won’t be able to get rid of it for a while.”
Muhyo had said something very daunting but his expression was calm. Roji was so anxious he started crying even more. He couldn't see that the dog ears on his head had drooped down.
“Then what should we do!?”
“Leave it alone. It seems to be a harmless little animal spirit for the time being. It will leave naturally after it has had its fill of food, drink, and fun.”
“Wh-What if we run into staff at the hotel?”
“Tell em’ you’re a god or something. Keh, if they’re with the Goryo Group, they’re gonna understand what’s going on anyway. Now come on, let’s fetch us some food, mutt.”
“So mean, Muhyo~!!”
How careless.
Executor Muhyo knew more or less about this situation, although he couldn't tell Roji directly. It was almost midnight when the spiritual power of the low-level spirits increased. The bigger problem was that his assistant took off his tie when he was taking a bath - the thing that prevented his ren from flowing out. Coupled with the powerful ren overflowing on his body and the powerful night that brought out spiritual beasts from the deep mists, it was like putting a piece of fresh tender meat in front of a wolf and asking it not to bite.
However, if he himself didn't even notice the possession when Roji was next to him, then it probably wasn’t even that powerful of a spirit to begin with.
On the way back to the room, Roji kept covering his head with a towel, and whenever he saw someone, he would hide behind him. (Not like there was much to hide behind)
They returned to the room and waited for dinner to be served before he dared to take off the towel temporarily, but he was still frowning. Roji was much more annoying than usual and looked more like he was possessed by a hare than a wild dog or a wolf.
“What should I do, Muhyo…”
“Stop crying so much. You’re gonna lose your appetite.”
“But...but…”
Roji was so aggrieved by his scolding. Muhyo said it would be okay to leave it alone, but if he didn't recover after two days, he would have to return home with dog ears. How could he see anyone like this?
As he grew increasingly anxious, he unconsciously swung his tail harder.
“Huh...wait? When did you grow a tail??”
Roji turned his head and looked behind him. Sure enough, a half-curled velvet tail was connected to his vertebra, growing directly through the yukata. It didn't seem real, something like this being attached to his body. But it was indeed his tail.
“Hmph. The possession is deepening further. You two are pretty compatible huh…”
As Executor Muhyo spoke, he did not forget to grab the last fried shrimp, ignoring his assistant who was holding his tail and crying. Seeing that tail makes Muhyo surer that it was not a dangerous breed like a wild wolf or fox, but a spirit like a Shiba Inu or an Akita Inu. This could all be solved with one or two small magic techniques.
But he inexplicably wanted to observe for a while, and he couldn't explain why. As for dogs he knew by now, there was already Seven-Faced Dog, and there was nothing new about having seen stupid Magic Lawyers getting possessed now and then. But he still felt that Roji growing dog ears and a dog tail was way more interesting than any new comic serialized on Jabin .
Now, his clear blue bead-like eyes have raised quietly to stare in that idiot’s direction. That stupid dog probably didn’t even notice.
“Alright, let's talk about how to get rid of this spirit inside you.”
After the room service took away the tableware, the executor finally spoke up. Roji hurriedly sat down, his tail wagging obediently on the tatami floor.
His attention was completely diverted to the tail, how could he manage to stay serious? Muhyo stifled the strange urge to grin.
“Can’t we just use a direct scribing technique?” His assistant asked earnestly.
“Can you write on your own back?” Those dog ears drooped again after hearing an equally serious response to his question.
“To remove possession, cleansing techniques are the most effective. After the spirit is separated from your body, I will use Magic Law execution to send it away. Possession is also a serious crime.”
“Do we have to use execution?”
Muhyo raised his eyebrows as if he expected his assistant to raise this objection. The two ears were still drooping, hidden in Roji’s fluffy hair. Seeing that he remained silent, Roji continued.
“I don’t think it's an evil spirit…Even if it makes me look like this, it has no intention of taking over my body." Roji rubbed the tail as if communicating with the small animal inside his body. “And after growing the tail, I can see its memory. It has no way to communicate, so it resorts to possession.”
“Oh? Very interesting. Tell me, what's going on with this little animal of yours?”
Executor Muhyo narrowed his eyes with interest.
“It is a nine-year-old Akita dog. It wants to find its owner…” Roji closed his eyes, which would help him communicate with the spirit in his body. But the memory of the spirit is still very weak, as elusive as a small fire in the night.
“Turn off the lights, it's better to capture its consciousness in the dark.”
His boss seemed to see that he was struggling and softly suggested this advice.
The room was not completely dark when the lights went out. The moonlight that had just risen flowed in like water from the window. Roji sat down again opposite the executor and took a deep breath.
“I saw... the owner let it out of the car…for a walk in these mountains. It was let go in the forest and got lost... It was very thirsty and scared, but it still found the place where the owner parked the car and did not dare to leave, just waiting there whining…all alone…"
“But it wasn’t lost.” Muhyo sneered. “It was abandoned.”
Abandoned. That word was like throwing a stone into a calm pool.
Those words spoken by the executor were like lifting the spell from the dog spirit. Roji suddenly felt short of breath and quickly covered his chest. There seemed to be a flame running through his body along the veins, quickly occupying his consciousness.
“Roji!!” Muhyo saw his assistant suddenly fall in front of him, his whole body transformed into a dog rapidly, and his ears and tail were raised high in a menacing manner. Accompanied by a beast-like growl, the canine teeth gnashed. His hands and feet which originally maintained human form also turned into sharp claws. He predicted that the thing's next move would be to pounce on him, crushing him to the ground like a wolf stalking and capturing its prey.
Muhyo didn't have much strength to resist the beast, except to use his arms to block the mouth that could bite his neck at any time. His assistant's size already had an absolute advantage over him, and the dog spirit only amplified this and made him incredibly strong.
“Tsk. Even their consciousness are starting to merge…”
He had thought it was just the spirit of a wild dog, but he hadn’t expected it to be able to do this. But this also confirmed his suspicion. Ordinary dog spirits don't cast huge black shadows, nor do they have powerful possession abilities that allow Roji to grow ears and tails. This is not the wandering ghost of a wild dog, but a resentful spirit that does not want to accept the fact that it was abandoned and turned into this vicious dog.
“And that idiot said you weren’t an evil spirit…” Muhyo smiled with difficulty while blocking his unconscious assistant who was grinning at him with the gnarled features of an angry dog.
“Human beings are terrible, aren't they? If that's the case, why are you still obsessed with them?”
The claws on his shoulders seemed to loosen a little, and the pressure on his arms gradually disappeared. He knew that his assistant was also resisting. Even if Roji relaxed his vigilance, he would not be completely robbed of his mind by such a low-level animal spirit.
“Obsession, no matter how good your intentions were at the start, will eventually become distorted. You are indeed lost. Even if your master finds you, he will not be able to recognize you now.”
By the moonlight, Muhyo saw that the dark brown eyes were full of tears. Unlike his assistant’s crying eyes that he was used to seeing, those eyes now temporarily belonged to another soul. A soul waiting for redemption.
The most suitable method was clear - spiritual purification.
This was more of Roji’s forte, but with no other options left, he could only rely on himself here.
He reached up to cup Roji’s face and pulled him into his arms. His fingers slowly smoothed the fluffy hair, and the soft floppy ears trembled slightly, like soothing a big dog. A small, low whimper gradually came from its chest. The little animal had suffered so much and could only speak this little.
At this moment, he felt that his assistant was right. It was those who abandoned it, not it, who should be sent to hell.
“This is a special night, so, I need you to give him back…"
“It's rare that I prepare a birthday present for him. If he doesn't receive it, he will cry. You understand that, don’t you?”
“But don’t worry…I will always be with you. We will never be apart again.”
While rubbing his hair, and patting his back, Muhyo felt that the dog spirit in his assistant were calming down. But his assistant's consciousness had not returned for some reason. Do you still have any unfulfilled wishes before going to heaven?
His face was suddenly licked. Muhyo suddenly aroused goosebumps all over his body.
This stinky dog! He managed not to curse out loud.
Roji (or the dog attached to Roji) sometimes buried his head in his neck, and sometimes moved to his cheeks and ears, kissing, licking, and sniffing everywhere. His nose was wet from crying, which was no different from a real dog. Although Roji’s features have returned to normal, and the paws have been retracted, the ears were perked and his tail was still wagging.
Now, Muhyo guessed he could let the dog act coquettishly enough before letting his assistant come back. Muhyo could only bear the humiliation and stroke his fluffy hair from time to time, half-heartedly calling him a good boy and other such praises.
Compared with animals, normal spirits were much easier to deal with. Absolutely.
When the moon rose from the treetops into the sky, Muhyo knew that the little animal had left his assistant's body. The tail and ears had disappeared, but Roji was still lying in his arms, sobbing once or twice from time to time. If he hadn't confirmed that his body had recovered, he wouldn't have been able to tell whether the soul in his body was a human or a dog.
“Hey, damn octopus, how long are you going to stick to me?”
The executor unceremoniously began pinching him in the face and pulling his hair. But Roji refused to let go no matter how hard he grabbed or pushed.
“Muhyo, were you telling the truth? You’ll always be with me? From now into the future…”
“How do you remember!?” The executor's face suddenly turned red like a ripe tomato, and the moonlight could not lower the temperature. “You bastard, you weren't conscious just now, were you? Huh?!”
Roji giggled lightly. “I don’t know either…By the way, what was the birthday gift you were talking about?”
“Don’t act so stupid! Your birthday gift is for me to send you to hell!”
Just with Muhyo’s words, and being in his arms like this, Roji felt he didn’t need any other gifts.
Later that day, the two went to find the place where the Akita Inu was abandoned and paid homage, hoping that it would meet a responsible and good owner in the next life, or be free. This felt like the proper resolution to the incident.
It was late at night when they returned to the hotel, and the cable car was out of service. They could only take a bath in the hot springs under the moonlight and the mountain road covered with autumn dew. At this time, the bright moon had risen to the sky, and it could be seen clearly in the hot spring pool at the bottom of the valley. With the moon only having a bit to go until it was full, it would be just two days until the Moon Festival.
The Moon Festival was also a time for reunion. Wasn’t reunion also a kind of obsession? The full moon always seemed to make these obsessions stronger.
Looking at the sparkling moonlight on the stream, Roji remembered what Muhyo said when he was purifying the dog spirit. At that time, his consciousness was almost taken away and he couldn't hear clearly, so he asked Muhyo again.
“No matter how good your intentions or how beautiful your wishes were at the start, obsessions will eventually become distorted. You know this already. Why, are you worried about it?”
No matter what is on your mind, hiding it from the executor’s penetrating eyes was impossible. The entire night sky swam and sank there, including his soul.
“We'll always be together, so there's nothing to worry about, right, Muhyo?"
Roji lowered his head slightly, his chin resting on the warm water.
The executor seemed to chuckle and respond to him. Whether it was a confirmation or an insult, no one would ever know. The sound was quickly carried away by the gurgling of the stream and carried into the late autumn night.
FIN.