A Curse Upon Thee 3-2A

Lunch had stretched late, nearing something closer to early dinner by the time the Kurose family finally sat down to eat. The television was still talking to itself from the next room, some host shouting over a laughing studio as Mother made one last trip from the kitchen and back over to the table.

“Move that.”

Father caught the soy sauce, sliding it further down the table at his wife’s request, as two bowls came down in the open space left behind. Miso steam fogged Mother’s glasses even as she used her now-free hands to push them higher up her nose. 

“Finally.” Kotaro leaned forward with a relieved sigh. “We can eat.”

His younger sister gave him a look from across the table. “You’ve been eating this whole time.”

“I’ve been waiting this whole time.”

The sixteen-year-old rolled her eyes. “With rice in your mouth.”

“What’s wrong with how I wait?”

An elbow nudged the man before he could complain further, not hard but enough to make him blink and laugh her way.

“Ayumi.” Father ignored all of it, Kurose Masahiro pulling a strip of grilled fish apart as he gave his daughter a long stare. “How’s the club?”

“...uhhh.” Kurose Ayumi stopped halfway through a bite, chopsticks held up to her mouth as she blinked up at Father. “Fine.”

Kotaro let out a laugh, one that Father didn’t join in on.

“Fine?”

“It’s fine.”

“You’ve been getting home late, Ayumi.” Mother’s words were a clear question, even when the words weren’t phrased that way; an eyebrow raised at the teenager. 

“Well…” The schoolgirl’s shoulders rose higher. “One of the third-years keeps making everyone stay.”

“For practice?” 

“Sometimes.”

Mother hummed low. “And the rest?”

“Cleaning.” Chopsticks clicked together as Ayumi hovered over her food. “Meetings. Whatever she wants.”

“She?” Kotaro picked a fish bone free with his own chopsticks. “That’s senpai for you.”

A frown was aimed his way, the girl a decade his junior as impertinent as ever. “You didn’t even join a club.”

“Exactly.”

Naoko glanced over, his wife wearing a question on her face before she even spoke. “Exactly what?”

He chuckled under his breath. “I avoided the problem.”

“Kotaro, you were my senpai.” Naoko’s question slid into a frown. “You avoided doing anything after school.”

“That too.”

Across from them, Grandmother lowered her bowl. “Did anyone buy tea?”

Nobody answered, Father looking down as Ayumi turned away. Grandmother’s eyes moved around the table, clearly expecting anyone to respond to her question.

“I asked yesterday.”

“Well…” Kotaro simply shrugged with an unabashed smile worn proudly, the man clearly happy to live on his own with Naoko. “Well, I wasn’t here yesterday.”

Mother’s sigh made the steam slide across the table. “I’ll get some later.”

Grandmother’s own heavy sigh sent it back to her, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law battling with breath. “You said that yesterday.”

“I know.”

“You also said it the day before.”

Father’s mouth twitched. “...I think I asked Yutaro last week.”

“No, you didn’t.” Mother clearly noticed, one eyebrow raised high. “And for that, you can go buy it.”

Father’s smile disappeared, fish vanishing into his mouth. “...Keiko.”

“Don’t Keiko me.”

A faint tremor worked through the table as something thumped loud outside, barely enough to make the spoon beside Mother’s bowl chatter but still…

“Huh…” Father let his complaints fade as he glanced toward the wide glass window. “There it is again.”

Kotaro cast his own eyes over. “Construction?”

“It seems so.” Father’s hum was low as he kept his eyes out. “They’re working farther down the road now.”

“You know what?” Mother finally took her own seat. “Yutaro would know.”

Kotaro clicked his tongue, eyes already rolling as soon as the words left his mother’s lips.

Naoko turned to him almost immediately. “Don’t.”

“I said nothing, dear.”

Naoko’s eyes narrowed, an entire sentence all in one look. “You made a sound.”

“A sound?” Kotaro laughed it off, waving a hand over his face past his wife’s judging look. “A sound without words doesn’t mean a thing.”

Mother’s eyes narrowed. “What are you on about now, Ko-kun?”

“Nothing, nothing, kaa-san.” Kotaro leaned back with a sigh, ignoring Naoko’s look. “I just find it a little convenient.”

“Convenient?” Father turned around, the window no longer holding his attention. “What’s convenient now?”

“The way Yutaro’s never here anymore.”

“Yu-kun is working.” Mother nodded slowly. “You know that.”

“Your little brother’s a hard worker.” Father backed her up with a nod of his own. “You should stop putting him down.”

“I’m not putting Yutaro down.” Kotaro clicked his tongue, lowering his chopsticks. “He just always seemed to be working.”

“At Public Safety.” Mother appended, as if that settled the argument. “Public Safety, Ko-kun.”

“I know where my brother works, kaa-san.”

“Then you know why.”

“Do I?”

“Anata…” Naoko huffed into his ear. “Not today.”

“It seems like everyone thinks I have a problem with my brother but me.” Kotaro shook his head with a sigh. “I don’t see it, but you know what else I don’t see?”

“This conversation…” Father looked up again with Kirin Lager in hand; condensation from the brown bottle running down his arm. “Are we having it again? And with Yutaro not here to have it with you?”

“I’m serious.” Kotaro kept going anyway even as his father took a gulp from his beer. “When was the last time there was even a Devil worth the trouble around here?”

Naoko’s expression flattened, his wife wearing her worry in her eyes more than her face properly. “Maybe don’t say that.”

“What?” Kotaro rolled his eyes. “Devils exist whether I say it or not.”

“You know what I mean.”

“I’m simply saying that it’s always the same thing. Weekday or weekend. Whether I’m even here or not, so it’s not like he’s avoiding me.” The young man stabbed another piece of fish with his chopsticks. “Emergency. Overtime. Someone called out. A Devil’s attacking a temple and by the time I go over to look, the Devil’s gone and it’s cleaned up. It starts sounding like excuses after a while.”

“Kotaro…” The proper name from Mother said enough as her chopsticks stopped. “Your brother’s job is dangerous.”

“Apparently.”

Another thump hit outside, close enough and hard enough to rattle the glass.

Several eyes blinked even as nobody moved, the television seeming louder for all of a second as canned applause washed through the whole of the room. 

Something passed outside.

Kotaro’s chopsticks stopped halfway to his mouth, his attention turning over to the window.

“Wha—”

The glass exploded inward.

A swollen mass of wet meat and hide the color of congealed blood tore straight through the dining room without slowing, iron hooks jutting from its body all over at crooked angles. Chains whipped behind it, each link thick as a wrist. One tore partly through the ceiling, the Devil striking the opposite wall as the entire house seemed to bend around it.

Plaster and timber tore clean outward into the neighboring yard as the creature charged through the other end of the house. One last chain screamed through the ruined dining room after it, the tail of the Devil long and thicker than all the others.

“AAAAAAAAAAA-!”

Something was attached to the end.

A boy.

A foreign boy.

His features Western and his hair as red as freshly spilled blood, coming through the shattered window sideways; his red dress shoes never once touching the floor.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH—!”

Before anyone in the Kurose family could even understand what they had seen, the screaming redhead was ripped through the hole in the opposite wall tight after the monster.

Silence lasted perhaps half a second.

Then Grandmother looked down at the remains of the teapot in her lap, ceramic falling to the floor.

“…we still need tea.”