We reconvened in a dingy, loud ramen shop, the five of us squeezed into a booth in the back. The smell of pork broth and chili oil hung heavy in the air, a stark contrast to the foul demonic stench we were all trying to forget. Hachiro was excitedly sketching the command-center layout on a napkin, while Yogawa looked like he wanted to purify the entire restaurant with holy fire.
"So, that office building is the hornet's nest," Kizawa summarized, slurping his noodles. "And that big guy on the fourth floor is the queen bee."
"More like a lieutenant," Erima corrected, sipping her tea calmly. "The energy felt strong, advance-level, maybe even elite. But it didn't feel like the source. It felt like a regional manager. It was taking orders, not giving them."
"She's right," Yogawa grumbled, pushing his untouched ramen away. "The main concentration of power, the nexus of this entire infestation, is somewhere else. Deeper. That building is just a forward operating base."
"So a frontal assault is stupid," I concluded. "They'd see us coming a mile away and just call for reinforcements. The entire demonic population of Shibuya would descend on us."
"Not to mention the possessed humans," Hachiro added, suddenly serious. "They're using them as a shield! We can't just fight our way through a crowd of innocent people!"
He was right. We were outnumbered and outgunned, and our enemy was hiding behind a wall of human shields. We couldn't win with brute force. We had to be smarter. We needed to cut the head off the snake-or at least, the snake's local branch manager. We had to take out that lieutenant.
"If we can't go to him," I said, an idea beginning to form, "then we need to make him come to us."
"Lure him out?" Kizawa asked, catching on.
"Exactly. Into the open. Away from his reinforcements," I continued. "We need to create a massive, undeniable disruption. Something that will force him to leave his cozy little office to investigate personally."
All eyes in our group turned to the window, toward the pulsing, chaotic heart of Shibuya just outside.
"The Scramble Crossing," Erima breathed, a slow, cunning smile spreading across her face. "The single busiest, most chaotic intersection in the world. A disruption there would be impossible to ignore."
The plan was audacious, reckless, and probably insane. Which meant it was perfect. Yogawa would be our main weapon. He was the only one who could create a large-scale, non-lethal magical event. Hachiro would be his bodyguard. Erima would take up a sniper's nest on a nearby rooftop, providing ranged support and taking out any demonic stragglers. Kizawa and I would be the bait and the vanguard, ready to engage the lieutenant the second he showed his ugly face.
An hour later, we were in position. The sun was setting, and the neon lights of Shibuya began to bleed across the sky, turning the evening into a hyper-saturated dreamscape. I stood with Kizawa on the edge of the crossing, just one of thousands of people waiting for the lights to change. My heart hammered against my ribs, a mixture of adrenaline and dread. Across the street, I could just make out Yogawa, sulking in the entrance to the subway station, with Hachiro bouncing on his toes next to him. I got a single, crisp nod from Erima through my phone-she was in position.
The pedestrian light turned green. The human tsunami began. Thousands of people surged into the intersection from all directions, a perfectly ordered, chaotic ballet.
"Now, Yogawa!" I whispered into my phone's comm link.
Across the street, Yogawa raised his hands. He muttered a string of complex-sounding words, a purple glyph glowing on the pavement at his feet. "Tempest of Illusions, rise! Chaos of the Mind, take hold!"
A massive wave of magical energy, visible only to those of us attuned to it, pulsed outward from the station. It wasn't harmful. It was pure, concentrated confusion. To the thousands of people in the crossing, it was as if reality flickered for a second. A flock of spectral koi fish seemed to swim through the air. The neon signs briefly displayed nonsense ancient runes. The ground felt like it tilted for a moment. It was a sensory overload designed to cause one thing: panic.
It worked. The orderly flow of the crossing dissolved into a confused, shouting mob. People bumped into each other, looking around wildly, unsure of what was happening. The disruption was massive. The flow of both human and demonic energy had been thrown into utter chaos. It was the magical equivalent of setting off a giant fire alarm in the demon's barracks.
We didn't have to wait long. A roar of fury, not entirely audible to human ears but deafening to ours, erupted from the office building. A window on the fourth floor shattered, and a large, winged demon burst out. It was a Tengu, but corrupted, its traditional monk-like robes tattered and its face twisted into a demonic snarl, with a long, sharp beak and glowing red eyes. The lieutenant. It soared into the air, circling the chaos at the crossing below, trying to locate the source of the disturbance.
"That's him!" I yelled to Kizawa over the din.
"Heads up! Bogies incoming!" Erima's voice crackled over the comms. "He brought friends!"
A dozen smaller, Imp-like demons swarmed out of the broken window after him, diving toward the panicked crowd.
"Hachiro! Yogawa! Perimeter!" I commanded.
"With pleasure!" Hachiro's joyful war cry echoed back. He and Yogawa went to work, intercepting the smaller demons before they could reach the civilians, Hachiro's fists a blur of motion and Yogawa's purple energy blasts providing cover fire.
The Tengu lieutenant finally spotted us. It saw two individuals standing calmly amidst the panic, staring right at it. It knew we were the cause. With another enraged shriek, it dove, a long spear materializing in its clawed hands.
"Showtime," Kizawa grinned, drawing his dual blades.
"Try to keep up," I shot back, my hands pulling Gin and Kin from their sheaths.
The demon landed with a ground-shaking thud in a small, clear space created by the fleeing crowds. It was even bigger up close, easily nine feet tall, its wings casting a dark shadow over us.
"Insolent worms!" it screeched, its voice like grinding stone. "You dare disrupt the Master's harvest!?"
It lunged, its spear a blur aimed right at my heart. Kizawa was there in an instant, his twin blades catching the spear in a shower of sparks. The force of the blow was incredible, but he held his ground.
"My turn!" I shouted, darting around the demon's side. It was fast, spinning to block my dagger strike with the shaft of its spear. We fell into a deadly rhythm. Kizawa was the shield, his swordsmanship a perfect defense, parrying the demon's powerful attacks. I was the rapier, constantly moving, looking for an opening, my daggers flashing as I made quick, shallow cuts on its arms and legs.
A black-fletched arrow whistled past my ear and embedded itself in the Tengu's wing joint, causing it to roar in pain and falter. Erima's cover fire. That was the opening I needed. While the demon was distracted, I slid low, sweeping my dagger across the back of its knee, severing a tendon. It stumbled, dropping to one knee.
"Now, Kizawa!"
He didn't need to be told. He leaped forward, his swords glowing with a faint blue energy. He brought both blades down in a powerful X-shaped slash across the demon's chest. The Tengu gurgled, its red eyes wide with disbelief, before it dissolved into black dust and feathers.
We stood panting in the suddenly quiet intersection. The illusion spell had faded, and the crowd was beginning to disperse, confused but unharmed. On the ground where the Tengu had vanished, a small, obsidian shard lay glowing with a faint, malevolent light. It was a piece of its essence, and a magical sigil was carved into it. Hachiro would know what it was. We had cut off the head of the local snake. Now it was time to find its lair.