crashed down from above. Chairs, lamps, rugs and more came from what was a very elegant bedroom with nice furnishings—simple, but definitely the same style as the house with the old lady.
Focusing on where the fox had been trapped, I saw with Hidden eyes that it was alive and unharmed, just held fast by the rubble. I had a few seconds so did what I always like to do during such situations—I ran away.
I didn't even make it to the top of the stairs before pieces of timber and half a very heavy lamp smacked into me as I turned at the eruption of noise. Something clobbered me right in the head and I stumbled back, dazed, missed a grab for the handrail and went tumbling backward down the steep stairs.
Some days I just can't seem to catch a break.
Landing hard at the bottom against the closed door, the fox howled at me from the top step, angry fur bristling, tails ready to blast me into the next life.
Ignoring the bruising to my body and ego, I pulled open the door from an awkward position on the floor, only to be greeted with the two trolls. They didn't look happy.
At that precise moment the fox let rip with all nine tails, even the damaged one, and I crawled between a troll's legs as the full force of its frustration smacked straight into the two lumps of immortal rock. Large chunks of stone exploded in all directions; tiny pieces of shrapnel pinged off the buildings opposite. The trolls roared their annoyance but remained where they were as the missing pieces of their bodies slowly moved back across the alley toward them, making them whole again.
I scrambled to my feet, amazed nothing was broken, and saw the fox move down the stairs with easy bounds to the threshold. It couldn't come after me, though, it was tied to the building to protect it. A reluctant guardian that would probably be in trouble, but maybe not as much as the trolls for their rather lax security.
While the two stoic doormen got themselves back together—literally—I nodded at the fox, who nodded in return, and I got the hell out of there.
Back through the alleys, ignoring the evil vibes of the lurkers and the murderers, I made it to the sanctuary of wider streets where the hustle and bustle was in full swing, where store owners stood at their doorways shouting and chatting with familiar faces. Everywhere I looked, people ate at food stalls and the streetlights bathed them in a warm glow of ignorance. If only they knew the truth. So many monsters, humans always at the heart of it.
More streets, then the subway, confusion and pain my world as I navigated the bowels of the city, ignored by everyone, the everyman in a dusty, wrinkled, and torn suit. A crazy foreigner who didn't understand the ways of their world or anything else for that matter.
One thing was for sure—I definitely needed that drink now. Then I blacked out for a while.
On the Town
Downtown Tokyo. Neon almost blinding as I spun in circles, getting dizzy as the crowds rushed past the disheveled everyman, covered in dust and blood, face haggard, hair in disarray. I was wild, hyped-up on violence and increasingly confused.
Lack of sleep, the ups and downs of magic use, and the tidal waves of adrenaline were playing havoc with my system. I could neither think straight nor act sensibly, a crazy foreigner overwhelmed by an ancient culture, unable to understand the ways of an alien people. I was alone in a crowd of eighteen million people, seemingly all of them out for some action at the same time.
The city teemed with revelers and those out to take in the spectacle that is downtown Tokyo at night. I staggered across the road, unable to recall how I even got here. I must have taken the subway but I had no memory of it, snippets of the journey only coming back to me later. In my confusion and utter weariness I was displaced, a man out of his own time and country, slapped down in a strange land, no bearings to center me and all landmarks unfamiliar.
A tiny sign caught my
Focusing on where the fox had been trapped, I saw with Hidden eyes that it was alive and unharmed, just held fast by the rubble. I had a few seconds so did what I always like to do during such situations—I ran away.
I didn't even make it to the top of the stairs before pieces of timber and half a very heavy lamp smacked into me as I turned at the eruption of noise. Something clobbered me right in the head and I stumbled back, dazed, missed a grab for the handrail and went tumbling backward down the steep stairs.
Some days I just can't seem to catch a break.
Landing hard at the bottom against the closed door, the fox howled at me from the top step, angry fur bristling, tails ready to blast me into the next life.
Ignoring the bruising to my body and ego, I pulled open the door from an awkward position on the floor, only to be greeted with the two trolls. They didn't look happy.
At that precise moment the fox let rip with all nine tails, even the damaged one, and I crawled between a troll's legs as the full force of its frustration smacked straight into the two lumps of immortal rock. Large chunks of stone exploded in all directions; tiny pieces of shrapnel pinged off the buildings opposite. The trolls roared their annoyance but remained where they were as the missing pieces of their bodies slowly moved back across the alley toward them, making them whole again.
I scrambled to my feet, amazed nothing was broken, and saw the fox move down the stairs with easy bounds to the threshold. It couldn't come after me, though, it was tied to the building to protect it. A reluctant guardian that would probably be in trouble, but maybe not as much as the trolls for their rather lax security.
While the two stoic doormen got themselves back together—literally—I nodded at the fox, who nodded in return, and I got the hell out of there.
Back through the alleys, ignoring the evil vibes of the lurkers and the murderers, I made it to the sanctuary of wider streets where the hustle and bustle was in full swing, where store owners stood at their doorways shouting and chatting with familiar faces. Everywhere I looked, people ate at food stalls and the streetlights bathed them in a warm glow of ignorance. If only they knew the truth. So many monsters, humans always at the heart of it.
More streets, then the subway, confusion and pain my world as I navigated the bowels of the city, ignored by everyone, the everyman in a dusty, wrinkled, and torn suit. A crazy foreigner who didn't understand the ways of their world or anything else for that matter.
One thing was for sure—I definitely needed that drink now. Then I blacked out for a while.
On the Town
Downtown Tokyo. Neon almost blinding as I spun in circles, getting dizzy as the crowds rushed past the disheveled everyman, covered in dust and blood, face haggard, hair in disarray. I was wild, hyped-up on violence and increasingly confused.
Lack of sleep, the ups and downs of magic use, and the tidal waves of adrenaline were playing havoc with my system. I could neither think straight nor act sensibly, a crazy foreigner overwhelmed by an ancient culture, unable to understand the ways of an alien people. I was alone in a crowd of eighteen million people, seemingly all of them out for some action at the same time.
The city teemed with revelers and those out to take in the spectacle that is downtown Tokyo at night. I staggered across the road, unable to recall how I even got here. I must have taken the subway but I had no memory of it, snippets of the journey only coming back to me later. In my confusion and utter weariness I was displaced, a man out of his own time and country, slapped down in a strange land, no bearings to center me and all landmarks unfamiliar.
A tiny sign caught my
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