Namahage
A Sensorama Smart Home Drama (E03) – Flash Fiction [#13]
They sat on the bench in the Sergeant’s office, waiting for their parents to pick them up. Mason dreaded his father’s lecture. He wished he could disappear—like Jamie. None of them knew what to say.
The door opened. A lithe figure wearing a long grey coat and fedora hat entered, followed by a girl in grey fatigues and a matching beret with a silver insignia of a sword and two scales. The man moved swiftly, the folds of his coat rustling like autumn leaves, at his side, a hint of something long, something deadly. The girl, half his size, marched up next to him.
“Namomi ko hagetaka yo?” said the girl, her wide emerald eyes glinting with fury.
“Seresuto!” The man raised his hand.
The girl frowned but kept quiet.
“Forgive my daughter,” the man spoke with a deep, calm voice, yet his eyes were a raging sea of grey. He threw back the flap of his coat, rested his scarred, wrinkled hand on the hilt of the samurai sword at his hip and looked at the children from under his wiry white eyebrows. “There were five.”
The four gaped at the strange samurai and his pesky sidekick in their perfectly tailored, field-grey outfit.
“You’re not allowed in here, Mister.” Christine found herself saying far louder than expected.
“The Sergeant will be back any minute!” Angie added and continued biting her nails.
“Urusai!” Seresuto silenced them. “You are in the presence of The Great Hatori Yokomatsu and his mighty Gōsutokirā, Vanquisher of Evil, Destroyer of Demons, Eater of—”
“Enough, Seresuto,” the old man leaned on his sword, looking at each of them in turn. “Where do you think you are?”
“What do you mean?” Paul stared at the intricate symbols etched along the polished black saya, shifting in a ghoulish grey glow.
Seresuto slapped Paul. “Answer the question!”
“Ow!”
The lights flickered, time slowed down, and the air grew cold. Hatori drew Gōsutokirā. The sword shimmered. He slashed the air, carving runes of light, and the room returned to normal, or a version of normal tainted with a touch of something amiss, something not quite right, a slight, sickly tint of colour, something that is there then isn’t, a taste in your mouth you can’t get rid of no matter how hard you try.
“I want to go home.” Mason no longer cared about parental punishment.
Hatori sheathed his sword. “This is no police station. You’re trapped in the Between. You, all of you, are in grave danger.”
Fear washed over them as the words fell from his lips, the bench their life raft, floating in an ocean of dread.
“It’s that…thing from the house?” Angie stammered, her wraith makeup contorted into wet streaks.
“What did you see?” Hatori’s steel eyes bore into hers.
“There was a man. He…he attacked us. He grabbed Chrissie. I tried to pull her back. Then I fell, I kept falling, I don’t know for how long, I couldn’t see, I couldn’t feel, I couldn’t breathe, it was as if I didn’t exist anymore, and then the light came back, and I was in that house again…and…and…Jamie was gone.” Angie shivered, biting her nails, eyes distant.
Paul hung his head, looking at the floor. “I passed out. I didn’t see anything.”
Mason had enough. He wanted to get out. Seresuto pushed him back down on the bench with ease.
“Sit,” she commanded.
“I…felt him…he was in my head, I…I could hear his thoughts, I could see what he did to all those…I—” Christine paused. “I ate them.” She met Hatori’s gaze. “Mother insisted,” her voice not her own.
“Now, Seresuto!” Hatori shouted.
Seresuto poured fine, glittering, white powder from a small brown leather pouch onto her hand and blew it over Christine’s face, covering her skin. Christine choked, swallowed, inhaled, and winced. She screamed, her breathing rapid, her muscles tense. She tried to break loose, but Hatori held her down. She kicked and growled, foam at her mouth, red tears on her marbled cheeks.
The temperature dropped, the room changed, and the police station turned into a basement, lined with shelves and on the shelves, jars, hundreds of canopic jars.
“Release her! I, Hatori Yokomatsu, command you!” Hatori shouted.
The wailing ended, and Christine laughed.
“You have no power here, puny human,” she spat in his face.
“More!” Hatori signalled Seresuto, but she shook her head. The pouch was empty.
“Aw, out of Angel Ash already? What a pity. This one is MINE!”
Steel sang. Christine’s grin froze. Her head fell to the ground with a dull thump. Seresuto stood, blade high, in a perfect stance.
“How rude,” said the head.
Angie screamed. Paul passed out, and Mason stood up and went to pick up the head, cradling it in his arms.
“My poor, little baby, look what they have done to you.” Mason went to Christine’s body and put the head back on. “You need to be more careful, son.”
“Yes, mother,” a warbled voice replied.
“Namahage.” Hatori drew Gōsutokirā, the steel aglow with burning hunger. He raised his weapon. Mason’s eyes, two blue pits of icy flames, reflected in the blade.
Seresuto threw a mochi at the towering Oni.
“Fools, this isn’t some silly children’s rhyme,” Mason cackled, his face a jagged bark of red, grabbing Angie and Paul.
The light flickered. Hatori charged, but his blade hissed through empty air as everything around them vanished.
Moonlight fell through a round window under the roof onto Jamie’s face. He sat up, numb from lying on the hard planks. Familiar voices came from outside. Peering down, he saw five teenagers at the gate. One of them pointed up, looking at him. The hair on his neck stood up. He jumped backwards, turned and bumped into Hatori. Seresuto stepped out from behind the man and covered Jackie’s mouth with her hand, finger on her lips.
“Your friends need your help, Jamie,” rasped the old man.
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Author’s Note
Here’s another Halloween Special, adding a bit of demonic influence to the mix in this continuation of the Sensorama Smart Home Drama.
While there are many names for the Boogeyman or similar folklore, I had this idea of a Samurai Demon Hunter, which is how I ended up with Oni1 and Namahage2. This is no traditional Namahage story, though. Some creative liberties were taken with the lore. Does it work with the previous episodes? Who knows what’s real and what isn’t while stuck in the Between? And demons possess people all the time, right?
Happy Halloween! 👹
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Well this is great! Another unexpected continuation of the story. Did you have plans to keep it going like this, or was it something that just needed to be written? Either way, excellent stuff bringing in the Samurai and their apparent ability to hunt across worlds between. The *Between* gives me Stranger Things Upside Down vibes.
So will this continue on again for another piece??
Really enjoyed this, Alexander. The swing for the fences with the samurai demon hunters was great. It’s genuinely a story that I have no idea where it’ll go next which is a wonderful thing
I’ll also be rambling about demonic possession in my next post as it is that time of year 😁