Chapter 3: Stranger Neighbour

The ground shifted again.

Hazel screamed as she scrambled over the sea of human skulls and finally managed to gather enough strength to hurl herself out of the retracting soil. The turbulent floor slammed into her again, knocking the wind out of her.

Everything spun as Hazel rolled over some dried leaves before finally coming to a stop. She adjusted her spectacles and finally took in the sight before her.

Her stomach rebelled as she heaved in disbelief. There was nothing left in her but acid and primal terror.

What stood before her was the same gigantic tree, except that the knots in its barks were human faces, every one of them frozen in an eternal scream. The tree balanced itself on a carpet of skulls supporting its roots, swinging its branches wildly like a certain willow tree from the Harry Potter books.

“Oh my god. It’s a Jubokko, the vampire tree!” Hazel squealed in both fright and excitement. “Can you believe it, Tomoko? An honest-to-god Yokai, here in America! How?”

Tomoko responded with a silent stare, still fixated on the Yokai. Her eyes glazed over as though she were in some kind of shock or trance.

Hazel yelped as vines seized her limbs roughly without warning, pulling her into the air. Her mouth hung open in shock at the wooden face in front of her. It smiled at her.

No, not quite a human smile. Its mouth was a little too small, its eyes a little too blank, and its face was a little misshapen. But even with those differences, its expression was remarkably similar to a human one, in an uncanny valley sort of way.

Tube-like twigs extended from its face, wriggling towards Hazel’s body like a gang of bloodthirsty snakes.

“It’s going to take my blood just like in the stories I’ve read!” The girl’s mind spun with excitement, although her body was struggling against her restraints. “I wonder how that’s going to feel like—”

“Oi, oi! Over here, ya ugly mug!”

Hazel craned her neck at the familiar voice. She couldn’t quite make out the figure in the dark, but there was no mistaking that voice.

Several glowing shurikens burst into view, slicing through the twigs that were holding her up. Her stomach lurched as she plummeted to the ground, but she found herself in the arms of yet another familiar face.

“That was a close one. You alright, Hazel?” Liam Davis landed gracefully and set the girl down.

“Liam?! What— How— Huh?” Hazel sputtered in confusion. “Why are you here? Are you… Is that a cloud you’re standing on?!”

Liam was dressed as though Halloween had come early. A dark mahogany robe draped his body from his shoulders all the way down to his feet, and his fingers were glowing with some sort of yellow smoke.

He drifted gracefully to the ground and stepped off his cloud.

“It’s… complicated.” Liam set Hazel down, putting a hand on his hand in mild embarrassment. “Well, you see… I’m from a society of—”

“Oi! Stop faffing around already. Hurry up and help me!”

Hazel’s eyes widened even further as Chester Watson literally floated into view, dressed in the same outfit as Liam. He flipped over another murderous tree trunk, flinging a handful of glowing shurikens at the Jubokko to distract it.

“Try this on for size!” Purple flames burst to life in his palm, and he hurled it at the lunging monster.

The fire went straight through the Yokai as though it wasn’t there.

“What the—”

A giant branch crashed into Chester’s chest, sending him flying away.

Liam clasped his hands together, muttering under his breath as yellow light glowed fiercely through his body. He stomped hard on the ground and sent a wave of jagged ice towards the monster.

The Jubokko froze briefly before breaking out of the ice easily. It swatted Liam away as well. Runic symbols blinked over the boy’s body as he crashed in front of Hazel.

“Bloody hell, Mum was right.” Chester flew towards his friend as though he was as light as a feather, brushing the soil off his robes. “Our Western magic isn’t very effective on Yokai.”

“At least our protection spells still work.” A ring of glyphs surrounded Liam’s arms like glowing bangles as he raised his fists in a combat stance. “The hell is that thing, anyway?”

“It’s a Jubokko, a vampire tree borne of spilt blood!” Hazel cut in excitedly. “It traps victims in vines and sucks their blood. The skulls at the bottom are supposedly the victims of the Jubokko.”

“Right, forgot we have our resident Weeaboo nerd here.” Chester snapped his fingers as a huge shadow fell on the trio.

A shield materialised over them.

The Jubokko roared like a rabid bear, hammering the shield as though it was auditioning to be the world’s best bongo drummer. Liam raised a finger as well, adding another layer to the magic shield.

“Any weaknesses?” he asked, wincing with each blow to the shield.

Hazel racked her memories. She never found the need to pay attention to Yokai weaknesses when she read about them, but she did recall something—

“Fire!” Hazel exclaimed. “People used to burn down Jubokkos in ancient Japan.”

“Tried that, didn’t work.” Chester gritted his teeth in concentration as glowing bangles flashed around his arms as well. “Dammit, if only I’d learn how to conjure a chainsaw…”

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Loud barking echoed in the distance as the three of them looked up. A group of stray dogs were bounding towards the tree, as though trying to chase it away from its territory. Hazel’s mouth hung open in confusion.

Could this night get any weirder?

A strangled screeching emitted from deep within the Jubokko, sounding almost like a screaming fox. It swung its branches violently and crashed into something invisible. The dogs ran away in fright as the Jubokko vanished with a golden puff of smoke, leaving not even a trace of its existence.

“Shit, no!” Chester ran out of the shield immediately, chasing after four orbs of light fleeing into the darkness.

Hazel rubbed her eyes. No, she wasn’t seeing things. A broken tent had indeed materialised out of nowhere and was now lying on the forest floor, along with a group of people dressed similarly to Chester and Liam.

“What the hell is going on?” Hazel turned to ask Liam, but the boy had already left her side to rush towards Chester.

She looked around her in confusion. It was only then that she realised that Tomoko had somehow managed to run off amidst all the chaos.

“Oh no… No, no, no, no…” Chester whimpered as he clutched his head. “What do I do now?”

A strange breeze prickled the back of Hazel’s neck. She turned around and her mouth dropped at the sight of a middle-aged couple who had quite literally materialised from thin air behind her.

Did they just… teleport here?

“What is this?” the woman barked at Chester. “What the hell did you do this time?”

Hazel glanced at the cowering boy and then back to the couple again. The blonde woman sported a wolf cut, which ended neatly above the helm of her collared robes. She was smaller in stature, but the look on her face could’ve made a gorilla cower before her.

The man, on the other hand, had long dark hair tied into a small bun at the back of his head. He also had a stern look, although he looked more concerned than angry.

“Are you hurt, Chester?” Orange light flickered in the man’s eyes as he scanned Chester’s body.

Hazel narrowed her eyes; the couple both had a distinctly British accent. Could they be…

“No, Dad. I’m not hurt, but…” Chester cast his eyes downwards. “I mucked it up.”

“Bugger me…” The man turned to the other people trying to magically fix their tent. “Did they all escape?”

“Only one cage wasn’t broken, chief.” Another robed man pointed at a large white container. “The Kitsune’s cage.”

The man heaved a small sigh of relief. “Thank goodness our protective charms held up. God help us all if that eight-tailed fox got loose.”

“Thank goodness?! Luca, we just lost four Yokai and we have to return them to the Japanese government in five days!” the woman yelled, before swinging violently to Chester. “You had one job, Chester! How can you be so careless?!”

Hazel’s heart throbbed as she watched Chester flinch at the yelling. He had always been a happy-go-lucky boy; she had never seen him so quiet and meek before.

“Calm down, Ava,” Luca interjected. “I’m sure he had his reasons for using magic—”

“Reasons? He’s playing with magic again; what other reason could he have?” Ava snarled, jabbing a finger at Chester. “When will you grow up—”

“NO!” Chester shouted, his fists clenched. “I really wasn’t screwing around this time, Mum. I was using magic to fight off another Yokai!”

“Don’t lie to me! Where is the Yokai now? Yokai aren’t illusions; they don’t just disappear into thin air like that! We’ve lost four Yokai because of you! Do you know how many times we vouched for you at the HQ? Do you know how much criticism we have to endure for teaching you magic? And this? This is how you repay us?”

“He’s not lying!”

The words blurted out of Hazel’s mouth before she could stop herself. Silence flooded the air as everyone stared at her. She stepped forward with as much aggression as she could muster.

“I was attacked by a vampire tree and he came to my rescue along with Liam.” Her voice was trembling with both fear and indignation, but she kept it under control. “I would’ve lost my life if it weren’t for them, so I’d appreciate it if you stopped scolding Chester!”

Ava creased her eyebrows in considerable anger and Hazel shrank back, losing all her newfound nerve in an instant.

“A Jubokko was never in our records of the Yokai migration project, girl. So that’s either a load of cobblers, or you’ve been scared out of your wits.” The woman had dropped her voice, but it was dripping with a lot more malice now. “You’re not a Magus, aren’t you? Well, I have good news. You won’t remember this night.”

Ava raised a glowing finger aimed right at the middle of Hazel’s head like a mobster about to execute a disloyal member. The girl squeaked in fear as she scrambled backwards.

“Is it a hallucination if I saw it too?”

Liam had finally decided to speak up. “There’s clearly something going on here that’s bigger than our four Eastern monsters. If we wipe Hazel’s memory, we might lose the only lead we have.”

The woman remained still for a moment before putting her finger back down. Hazel breathed hard, still staring at the purple light slowly dissipating from Ava’s hand.

“Leaving a human witness uncleansed goes against basic protocol, Mister Davies; protocol that even someone of your esteemed house has to follow.” Ava folded her arms. “You may be of a higher rank than us by virtue of your family name, but you are a lot less experienced. How will you answer to our superiors if the girl babbles about our society?”

“That will be my problem to deal with, Missus Watson.” Liam stood in front of Chester and Hazel. “As far as I’m concerned, letting four foreign monsters run around unattended only increases the danger posed to everyone else. If it means bending protocol to prevent a bigger problem, I’ll face the consequences myself.”

“Those are bold words, boy. Have care with your promises, lest you find yourself regretting them,” Luca said. “But you’re not wrong. Clear and present are these four Yokai. If you need our help, just ask us.”

Ava glared at her husband. He draped his arm around her shoulder, shaking his head slightly back at her.

“Chester, taking responsibility for your actions will go a long way in life, even if the circumstances are unfair,” Luca continued. “I believe you’re mature enough to decide what to do.”

“Yes, Dad. I’ll find the Yokai and return them to the tent,” Chester muttered, still keeping his gaze on the ground.

The couple walked briskly back into the tent, which had already been repaired during the verbal scuffle earlier. Hazel spotted Liam approach her from the side of her eye, but she was too busy staring at a muscular Japanese man walking towards them.

“Greetings.” The man had the same slurred accent as Tomoko. “I apologise for disturbing you, but was another girl with you?”

Hazel blinked. “Yes, but who are you?”

“I see you do not know where that girl has gone.” The man pursed his lips with a slightly disappointed expression. “Never mind, then. My name is Komyo, by the way. Be seeing you around.”

He walked off as abruptly as he came, leaving the trio to wonder what the hell that was all about.