The Marrow of a Bone

It was church day, otherwise known as show time. The woman stood in her trailer, thoughtfully comparing robes. Usually, she wore a baggy shirt and baggy pants beneath a very much baggy robe, but when it came time to preach, her baggy robe had to be a bit more ceremonial, and above all other things, clean. Usually, if she materialized her clothes they tended to be at the same level of dirtiness that they were before, an unfortunate fact considering that she had to go halfway across town for access to a washer machine.
Other than that, she wore only her undergarments, which held some semblance to something you might see on a very elderly, old fashioned lady, and in one hand she held an apple with several bite marks in it. She was chewing a mouthful when Shou burst in and gave her a start. "Oh, hello," she said quickly, glad to see him and not seeming to notice his lack of knocking or her own lack of clothing as she moved to quickly embrace him and close the door. "It's a pleasure to see you here, but... umm... I meant to ask you something..." She paused for a minute, looking towards a book on her newly refurbished cabinet. "Do you like lollipops?"

*

Atilla thought for a minute, standing on the tips of her toes to plant a kiss on the man's cheek. "So you do not like sweets as I do," she said slowly discerning his avoidance of a direct answer, her eyes furrowed. Last time she'd had her clothes washed, she said she would come back and make use of the oven, but the easiest things to make were sweets, especially the ones to be baked. From what she learned of onikonjou in heaven, they ate humans and other spirits, but she'd never seen Shou do such a thing and it would probably be a little racially insensitive for her to ask him if he did. Nonetheless, his statement of not liking sweets did bother her in that regard. A child placed a smaller lollipop in the offering tray last week, and this lollipop came to her mind as she turned and began digging through the shelves under her cabinet. "What do you like?" she asked simply to avoid feeding the shadow of doubt that came up.

*

The woman finally found her lollipop: one of the small kinds the bank gives out for free. Ripping the plastic off and discarding it like a cast-off skin, she put the sugary treat in her mouth and closed her eyes, enthusiastically enjoying the false orange taste across her tongue.
The low, masculine way he said "meat", however, froze her cold. The part of the trailer she stood in suddenly darkened, and stylized gloom marks etched themselves on the walls before she turned slowly, all of the effects clearing up. Meat was such a disturbingly vague word and brought all manner of amplifications to her initial worries. "Umm! You could say that I am trying to learn to cook..." she continued conversationally, though she felt she might faint. "...and I may be getting a bigger place to reside in... a place with what they call a refrigerator and a warm shower. I will be putting many things in this refrigerator..."
An image entered her head of a woman stuffed in a refrigerator. She shook her head, trying to dismiss such thoughts despite how strange it might look for her to do so, and busily tried to pick out her robe. Deciding on a blue one, she plucked it off of the rack and slipped it over her head.

*

She pulled her arms through her wide sleeves and seemed to be in a big hurry. "Oh yes, I will probably be going to Sister Susanna's house to cook... something. I must still buy it to cook." She put the book from the cabinet in her satchel and turned the knob to the door, stepping out into the sunny day. "Any other time of the week I would be happy to slay demons with you, but I must earn money today. There was something I wanted to buy. I was thinking of perhaps a fundraiser. How are your plant sales coming by the way?" The urgency of today's sermon and how she hadn't had time to study or taken any notes drowned out her worries about his diet. He was well enough behaved. The sermon would come off the top of her head, she wasn't sure how many people believed her about the existence of demons... even then, the ones who were spiritually aware in the crowd would perhaps discern the species of her husband. That was a bridge she would cross when she got to it and only if he chose to follow her there.

*

Atilla's brow furrowed as she stared at the ground she walked on, and she waited a moment to think before she answered. "I... am not sure if it would or not. Some of the people there have had their lives adversely affected by onikonjou. A certain percentage of these have the ability to see the nature of spirits. However, I do not lie to my congregation, nor do I deceive them. I want everyone there to know that I am not ashamed of my husband and that the past does not matter. Such a thing is consistent with my message." She nodded to herself before smiling and looking towards the other, her voice full of excitement. "I am very pleased that you've decided to accompany me. I haven't taken any notes today, so it might be just a little bit... disorganized, kekeke." She looked at him sideways, her sleeve partially covering wide smile on her face. "But the Sisters will be jealous..."

*

The kami nodded slowly. "Yes, many of them have come from abusive domestic situations... some worse than others. We have a couple former what they call 'Ladies of the Evening' and some others who simply have low self esteem or have given up on anybody ever liking them for more than their flesh. They have what they call 'emotional baggage', you see. Most human men do not like to stay around that, or if they do they have the baggage themselves or are unattractive. For some reason -I think it may be my location- my preaching seems to attract the people who have the baggage and the 'issues' and the problems, but I am happy for this. The people with the baggage and the issues and the problems are the ones most in need of my help. As it is written: non necesse habent sani medicum sed qui male habent non enim veni vocare iustos sed peccatores..."*
She looked up, forgetting that Shou probably didn't know what her latter sentence meant and noticing that they were very close now and that she could see the expectant couple dozen people who were the more loyal attendees gathered a short distance off on the street corner. "I am sorry, I was rambling. Maybe I should talk about that today... about how it is okay to be flawed and that the past can be repented of. That has been a theme in my lives, I was worse than any of these gathered here ever were."

*It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.

She looked over in time to only see the smirk, and the expression brought reassurance to her own countenance as she strode boldly up to her old soapbox pulpit and stood atop it. Taking a pocket scripture from her robes, she opened it. "Good afternoon church."
"Good afternoon," they murmured back in unison.
"Today our reading will be taken from..." She repeated the scripture she'd read to her husband earlier, but in the standard language the congregation would understand. As the scripture was read, about five members weren't looking at Atilla at all, but at the oni, their faces expressing a range of feelings from curiosity, confusion, to disgust. A few of them began whispering to their neighbors until half of the group was openly staring at the newcomer. The kami looked up in time to notice the dozen's looks and quickly adjusted her message. "Our second reading will come from an earlier sermon. You might recall that in a more primitive time, in your human history lessons even, justice was an unkind woman. People, villagers would punish offenses such as adultery and theft with barbaric deaths and maimings. You'll recall my story on how a great sage intervened when the people were prepared to kill a woman with stones for the very sin of adultery. They called him subversive for helping her; they accused him of being evil, but do you remember what he said? 'Let he who is without sin cast the first stone'." As she preached, she moved back towards the oni and would offer him a hug. "I know some of you may have had hurt in your life from the onikonjou, but humans hurt people in their lives too. As you are forgiven for your transgressions against your fellow man, you should also forgive others who also come to repentance."
Only about two out of the crowd walked away, still in disgust. The others were more loyal, since Atilla had healed quite a few of them from incurable maladies and injuries.
As the kami went to walk back to her soapbox, however, she happened to look up and see some large, flying object in the zenith of the sky, flapping its massive wings. As it got closer and closer, the color drained from her face. "Umm... I think... service... will be a little short... this time..." The next words came out at chipmunk speed. "Receive now the benediction. May the love of God, may the joy of God, may the peace of God rest, rule, and abide with each of you. May Bleaus guard your footsteps on your way home and bring each of you back safely. Go now... and RUN!"
The crowd began to dissolve in all directions as the massive creature finally landed. It was a red onikonjou ampithere with mantis-like claws where hands and arms were supposed to go. Instead of attacking immediately, it hissed bitterly, shaking it's head as though trying to rid itself of some scalp-borne parasite. A few bystanders in nearby buildings dialed on their cell phones.

*

The creature snarled and batted away the coming projectile as though offended and turned its head towards the soapbox.
Shifting down into her smaller form, the rat scurried over to the fire oni and jumped on his shoulder, her back arched as she chanted a strength enhancing spell without thinking about it. "Maiorem hac dilectionem nemo habet... Ut animam suam quis ponat pro amicis suis,"* she spit, a light mist lending the oni some of her powers before she spoke again. "What manner of foolish beast would attack in the middle of a city? That size too... the authorities are sure to notice..." She lowered her head and hissed nastily. "It is not right. Be careful..."
The beast held its head up, as though choking on something before suddenly belching out some very black water that covered the entire city block in ooze. It gave off skull-shaped vapor and didn't seem like it would be a very fun thing to touch.

*

The beast roared nastily as the fiery drops fell on its snout and eyes, and it shook the burning embers off of its blackened snout. Enraged afresh, it looked towards the airborne duo and took a deep breath, unleashing a roar in their direction that managed to shatter the glass out of all the nearby slummy buildings, even cracking the brick of one and causing the block to shake. Though the creature had large eyes, it somehow seemed to be looking directly at the rat, and she shivered involuntarily in disgust at this evil thing that had chosen to break up her service and attack what had become a slightly better section of the lower commons.
She covered her ears and shouted above the din,"Levavi oculos meos in montes, unde veniet auxilium meum?".*
A familiar stylized raincloud would form, about the area of a house, above their heads and rain down droplets to boost the power of the fire spirit. "I think you've almost got it!" she shouted. "It's big, but it's not that strong!"

*Forgot my translation!
**Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.
***I will lift up my eyes to the hills, where does my help come from?[Enhance]

Atilla clung tightly to Shou's shoulder as he dashed so quickly past the monster and turned to look at the creature.
It stood there for a moment, stunned, it's back arched before it began to shudder like an unstable building, eventually collapsing upon itself in a black jungle of flesh and bones. It groaned as it hit the ground, growling its last before it began to dissolve into black spirit particles that sank into the ground. The vapors went the way of their master, retreating into the corpse like a midnight blighted low tide.
Atilla sighed with relief, her whiskers twitching as she picked up something else in the atmosphere. "Peter?" she would question the winds, looking around. "Peter!" she would shout, jumping off of her husband's shoulder, a spiral stairway of glowing yellow balls allowing her to bounce all the way to the ground and scurry into the alley closest to where she'd been preaching.
A boy stood there, looking perhaps twenty. He wore a polo shirt tucked in to his formal pants and had the innocent look of someone who absorbed sermons from a young age and hadn't traveled far from those words. He had a hat on his head with long, floppy bunny ears that fell past his shoulders. His expression seemed to imply that he'd recently recovered from some great exertion. "You're alive," he said in surprise, blinking.
"Oh, yes, that dragon was quite scary back there, wasn't it?"
"Well, yes, I would know. I was controlling him."
It was Atilla's turn to look confused. "I beg your pardon, Brother?"
"You're surprised about it? The council voted to kick you out of Koutaku-sh... oh! I'm sorry, I was supposed to tell you first." He dug a scroll out of his pocket and handed it to her, allowing her to unroll it and read it as he continued. "Yea, I'm really sorry this had to happen, but... they said you got a bit out of line with the protocols and it'd be just easier to drop you."
All color drained from the kami's face as she read over the list of transgressions. After a moment, she slowly rolled the scroll back up and put it in her robe, her expression dead as she sought to slink off. "Thank you, Peter," she said in a monotone, shuffling away.

*

The kami found her timidly tipping off interrupted by her husband, who she looked at with the same profound disinterest that she'd previously been starting at the ground with. Her irises were a deep red. After a few seconds, she lay her head up against the oni, feeling he was the only thing left he could trust before pulling the folds of his shirt around her face so she could sob into them.
The rabbit kami came out a few seconds later, as though unaware that his words had caused the other kami so much pain. He smiled and waved stiffly, politely to the oni in the frightened manner one might smile and wave to a half wolf pit bull that the owners insisted was nice against all evidence."Hello... Takashou, was it? Heh... Umm... Well, there's been treason and all that but I'm not going to try to kill your... wife... any more... umm... but I have to go, ok?" As he talked, he walked briskly down the street, still apologizing. "Take care Atilla!"
Atilla didn't seem to hear him, instead her sobs merely gained volume and shook her entire frame.

*

The woman stopped sobbing long enough to rub her nose on her sleeve and hold on gently to the oni's arm. Though the events that lead to her being kicked out of heaven seemed to have largely revolved around her adventures and explorations with her husband, she would be the last to blame him. At the same time, she didn't want him to attack the strange kami that she'd trained to take over her area should anything happen to her. She couldn't be a victim in the face of these circumstances, thus, she stopped her crying."He's only a messenger," she said, regaining her ability to speak. "One of my... students. I trained him to resist temptations on this plane. It'll be his job to take over the guardianship I once had since I've been dismissed."
She heaved a great sigh and her newly reddened eyes fell to the ground. "I was enjoying this whole 'being good' thing, I don't want to go back to being a devil. It wouldn't be hard but... I thought I had something going here."
After a few moments, she looked back up, she rested her hand gently on his cheek. "I guess itt's nobody's fault but my own."

*

The kami thought back to her past life of horrible rape and murder and general unpleasantness to her fellow spirits and to mankind in general. It was a purposeless, hedonistic existence, and suddenly she could see the reason in her husband's words. This was her, a sinner herself, the worst of sinners who was serving others and making their lives easier to atone for her past atrocities. Surely Bleaus could see her heart, even if the council couldn't. Even then, it seemed so unlike them to compile such a petty list. Field operatives who'd slipped up worse than her were still welcomed back into heaven to awards, applause, and promotions.
But none of that mattered. She warmly embraced her husband, leaning her head against his chest and murmuring, "You're right. Thanks."

*

She heard the sirens too and looked up and back towards the open road where distant lights flashed. She'd been briefed briefly on Division 12 before leaving, and though she'd never had a run in with them, she certainly didn't care to. She looked towards the oni and gently kissed him on the cheek before breaking away, as though preparing to run, smirking in a manner that showed she knew they wouldn't be there in time to catch them. "I've said the benediction. Last one to the woods gets their tail beat by the police."
And she would run towards her trailer.

*

For some reason, knowing that she would be doing good independent of heaven made her feel a lot more liberated, or perhaps that was the bad side of her talking. No doubt, since she was what they called a "stray" she wouldn't have to be so worried about her conduct and her submissiveness. She could still heal the lame and improve people's lives, but not with the insecurity that came from the skies above constantly scrutinizing her every move.
She shrank down to her second animal form and scampered through the dirty streets leading out of town like any average street rat, running towards the smell of the earth out near the woods, but... she saw how the kami flew and a sly thought went through her head. There were some old battle tricks her old self knew that she hadn't employed lately. "Earth's spirit, heed my call," she would chant subtlety, watching the oni before her. If this trick was as she remembered it, he would be taking a short trip to the ground if he didn't compensate for the extra weight the world would suddenly decide he had.

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The rat squeaked aloud as she found her progress arrested by the flames of her beloved. Quite a shame too, she'd just gotten ahead by a few feet.
But all was not lost! No, not by far. She had one more trick she wanted to try out. This one might hurt him, but he was tough, she knew him and loved him for that. Besides, she was planning on doing some healing when they got home anyways, perhaps a nice massage to go with it.
As the oni passed overhead, she quickly said aloud,"Hey Honey! Welcome to the GROUND!"
The area perhaps about six feet around her suddenly experienced the level of gravity one might experience on Jupiter, compressing the air and the clouds and causing the area around her to suddenly sink and crack. She'd timed it so he would be only a foot or three in front of her when he fell, perhaps around the spot the firewall stood.

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The falling body of the oni conveniently extinguished the firewall, and she giggled a little bit, having had fun with this entire race. They were a few yards away from the trailer, but they were in the meadow at the edge of the city past where Division 12 would bother them. The sirens faded off.
Shifting up to her more human form, her giggle was more like a good natured laugh to counteract his groaning. Somehow, despite the extremely bad news, she was having the time of her life instead of steadily descending into madness, and she had this man to owe for that. She seated herself gently on his lap, her hands coming to his lower back as she chanted softly. " livor vulneris absterget mala et plagae in secretioribus ventris."*
Her hands would glow briefly with healing energy and she would snuzzle her head into his chest. "I think I have a couple of good ideas. Would you like to hear them here or shall we retire indoors?"

*By the wounds of the rod evil is taken away, and blows make the deepest part of the body clean.
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Lewdness no longer seemed something she had to ignore, and she got up from the oni's lap, walking over to her door and pulling it open. She didn't actually ever lock the trailer; there was nothing inside worth stealing.
Hanging her robe up in the closet, she reclined on her bed and waited for her mate to make it in.
"I was thinking... you look good, right? There's probably other people who look good. I think we should have a big beauty pageant and use it as a fund raiser for the women's shelter in the Commons. People will pay the entry fee and the admission, I believe. What do you think?"

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She tilted her head to the side quizzically at his statements about entering. It wouldn't really be fair for the husband of the contest coordinator to enter. Nevertheless, when he mentioned Bleaus, that's all she needed to temporarily forget about the previous ideas, her eyes taking on a dreamy expression as she put her elbows on the bed to prop up her chin. "Ah, Bleaus. Yes, I have met him, but if you wish to know more about him, I'll have to ask you this first: What do you know of the creation of the world and the three planes?"

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She seemed to expect that answer and took a deep breath, "Bleaus is a very powerful kami who can create matter from nothing, but only the humans truly answer to him, as he's the gatekeeper, the Hogosha of my home who determines if a soul gets to be a kami or an oni. Us resident kami answer to much more powerful beings. They are called the Watchers. They aren't spirits really, and they created all of the spirits long before there were ever humans. They created two kinds: good and evil... but back then, Yochi was a mere barrier. Nothing lived on it. However, the gatekeeper of onitoshi and the gatekeeper of heaven would always end up fighting at some point during their rule. Epion was the Hogosha before Bleaus, and he defeated two gatekeepers. He fell to the third, but not due to weakness..." She paused dramatically. "The third was a female who seduced him. They loved each other so much that they disobeyed the watchers and fled their responsibilities. Death was the punishment for their sin, death and a hard life. Their descendants are mankind. Now, Bleaus had no such weakness in his heart, at least not yet, so they appointed him the next Hogosha. He has a lot of responsibility on his shoulders. I didn't get to talk to him for long, but he's the one who decided that I would make a good kami if I were only reborn and he let me through to paradise. If humans live good lives, he judges their spirits pure and let them through too. The alternative is death and misery in Onitoshi, and I don't think these hardworking, struggling people deserve that."
The woman's eyes focused on a far off spot on the wall. "I should take you there one day, it's really beautiful. There is no pain or sorrow, no poverty and starvation, and everyone's so gentle..."
She closed her eyes and began to brux her teeth without really thinking about it, her mind on the far off heaven she'd abandoned. "I was a mere temple maiden, though. I didn't get out much."

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The woman seemed saddened by the statement. She looked up at her husband and sighed. "You're right, there's only two ways to get in. Either you have to beat the Hogosha or you have to be allowed to pass by him. I guess they can't just let anybody in, even for a visit." She rolled her eyes a little bit, her more demonic thoughts coming to the surface. "What harm could one demon do in a day to the entrenched goodness of the people up there? I guess they think if you let you in everyone will just start having orgies on the spot and then BOOM! kids." Her eyes returned to the male, traveling down his body. "That being said, I can see why they wouldn't let you in. You have to be a human capable of suppressing your baser instincts: sex, violence, chaos, general deviltry..."

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The kami shifted from her spot, taking up a new one with her chin resting on his chest and her body parallel to his on the bed. "Someday, maybe..." she said distantly, not really believing that they would ever attain a strength stronger than this gatekeeper who could control and destroy the very matter of the universe on a mere whim. "Careful, though. If you could beat Bleaus you might just qualify as the next Hogosha of Onitoshi... not that it would be so bad. You'd be protecting humans from the wicked spirits that seek to stay on Earth and enact vengeance for their deaths."
She thought for a minute on his words on seeking a higher purpose. For now, that was the only thing keeping her good as well. "Purpose is important. You are now willing to protect the city you wanted to see burn. I'm glad you picked a more positive purpose in life before you lost your mind like that oni we saw back there..." A pause. "To be fair I suppose he wasn't acting on his own will at first. It's a little scary how Peter can just mind control creatures like that. Could you have imagined what would've happened if he wanted to really fight us and got into one of our heads?"

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The kami hugged the oni around the waist, pleased by the statement of loyalty from him, her cheek flat against his belly. That's very kind of you, but I would follow you to the ends of the worlds. We're married, aren't we? I'd give up Koutaku-shi forever for you." It bothered her a little to think that she just may have. "Historically, the Hogashas of Koutaku-shi have always been stronger than the Hogashas of Onitoshi but Dem, he is different..." her brow furrowed, recollecting what she knew of the mysterious spirit. "He is very different. He flies in the face of the edicts of the Watchers and he hasn't been punished at all. Surely it's not the Watchers' will for him to go about causing all of this chaos in the natural order of things... at least I think. Nobody really understands them."

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"Ssssh..." A single finger went up to cover the oni's mouth. "I would be a bit more careful if I were you..." Whereas she'd been lax, even irreverent concerning the Hogashas, she seemed a little tense when they got into calling the Watchers names. "They call them 'Watchers' for a reason you know..."

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"Heh... heh..." she said, the emotion of fear very much registering in her mind. "They're a collective... one of them is all of them, but you're right, we should probably change the subject."
For the moment, she was on top and she slid up a little to kiss his neck. "I'm really glad you've never been to Onitoshi, though. Might've changed you for the worse..."

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