Chapter 14: 13. Tenuki, Kitsune and Oni … Oh My!

“Idiot! Idiot! Id-i-ot!! Let me pass!!”

Paul tried to prise his eyes open, but they seemed to be attached to lead weights, wondering who was yelling. Had he fallen asleep in class again? His head seemed to be lying on a wooden desk so.. maybe..

“Little foxes shouldn’t yell so loudly or they’ll get spanked.”

Was that the teacher? It didn’t sound like Miss Alansby.

“Just you try you big dumb ox!! Paul-sama! Wake up!”

Paul sat bolt upright as memory flooded back. He’d been working on… Glancing around wildly he saw the culmination of his fevered construction, the copper coil gleaming in the sunlight, humming gently to itself with artfully channelled power, the crystals glowing.

Suddenly the room shook, not a great deal, but as if something heavy had been thrown against the side of the building. Paul was off the stool he’d been sitting on, and at the door before the stool even clattered to the floor. Throwing the door wide open he growled out.

“Just what the HELL is going on out here!!”

He blinked as he took in the tableau frozen on the broad path outside the workshop. One of the Oni twins was down, flat on her face, the other was hunched over, with Shoko-san on her back like a jockey.

In a flash Shoko-san jumped down and Yuri straightened up, doing her best to look like they hadn’t been fighting, although she was doing a singularly bad job of hiding the huge double-headed battle axe behind her back.

“Paul-sama you’re awake!”

“As if I could sleep with all the ruckus going on. Yuri, Yuko, what are you two doing here?”

“Ahhh… Lord Tatsuo felt bad, after you left. He told us to guard you, to make sure you were not disturbed and were ok.”

“Huh?”

“I, umm... think he thought you might do something… reckless, maybe?”

“Oh. So why were you trying to stop Shoko-san from coming in?”

“We were told your work was important, and you shouldn’t be disturbed, ah.. unless, you know…”

“Unless it looked like I was about to blow myself up?”

“Ah, yes. Just so.”

Paul sighed and leaned against the door post. He thought Tatsuo had been mad at him after he’d gotten carried away investigating the crystals. Apparently at some point he’d cooled down and had second thoughts. Also apparently Tatsuo thought he was more of s danger to himself now.

“Alright, your orders were to make sure no harm comes to me, or something like that, right?”

Yuri nodded. Paul pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Did it not occur to you that I might also need food and drink? Let me make this clear. Shoko-san is my assistant, my right-hand kitsune, she has access when she wants.”

Yuri opened her mouth, and stopped as Paul took two long strides forward, reached up and grabbed the tall Oni by the twin horns that curled like a sheep or goats horns either side of her head. He pulled until her face was level with his and staring into her eyes ground out.

“Also… if I do not get some coffee inside me ASAP I will personally make every nightmare you’ve ever had about humans seem like a summer’s daydream. Understand?!”

“Y.y.yes.. Holmes-dono!”

“Good. Now, go pick up your sister and help Shoko-san out.”

“Yes Lord!”

Yuri looked like she was about to fall to her knees she was trembling so hard, but she stood up as Paul let go of her, and hurried with comply to his order. Paul sighed. Perhaps he’d been too harsh? But he needed to establish order. He’d make it up to them later, somehow. But for now he had far more important concerns.

He went back into the workshop, and checked on the device he’d been working on. It was a lashed together jury-rigged prototype, and Paul was pretty sure it had nowhere near enough safety built in.. but it seemed to be ok, despite being left running overnight and the floor shaking just now. He breathed a sigh of relief, then rubbed his chin. He needed a shave and a wash, food and a change of clothes, not necessarily in that order.

He should probably also go make sure Shoko, Yuri and Yuko didn’t cause any more trouble.

Turning off the power and making sure everything was safe to leave alone, he locked up the workshop and headed up to the temple.

Yuko was sitting, propped up against the wall outside the kitchen door. She looked groggy but her eyes were open and tracking.

“Hey Yuko, you ok now?”

She nodded, carefully.

“For someone so little, that kitsune hits hard!”

“She may be small but she is mighty.”

“Yes. Not going to underestimate her again.”

“Good. You going to be ok with her around?”

Yuko slowly nodded.

“If she is, yes. It was a good fight. No hard feelings, she won fairly.”

Paul eyed Yuko thoughtfully. He wouldn’t have put money on Shoko-san winning. Shaking his head he headed into the kitchen.

“Good morning, Paul-sama!”

Paul blinked. Shoko had found a pair of aprons from somewhere, one small for her, and one extra-large for a very self-conscious looking Yuri, who bowed and handed him a large mug of strongly-brewed, aromatically fragrant coffee.

“Good morning Paul-sama, your coffee.”

“Thank you Yuri. Ah, about earlier...”

“There is no need to apologise. Lord Tatsuo also does not like being roused early. I personally have been ordered to be executed three times in the past month. He usually pardons us by the end of breakfast. Not that anyone takes it seriously.”

Paul eyed her dubiously, but inwardly shrugged, deciding if that’s how she wanted to play it, he wasn’t going to argue.

“Oh... I see. Still, I apologise. I wouldn’t harm you, honestly.”

“I know that Paul-sama. Your right-hand however...”

Yuri glanced towards Shoko significantly. Paul frowned.. he was really going to have to see them spar at some point, if only because it somewhat staggered the imagination that the four foot nothing of slender kitsune could best a darn-near seven foot tall Oni who had muscles like a sack of boulders, and a battle-axe... which said slender kitsune was currently using like a kitchen knife, one-handed, to slice something. Paul blinked, then sniffed dubiously at the cooking smells filling the air.

“Shoko-san, is that black pudding?”

“Yes Paul-sama! I’m making you a full-English breakfast.”

It took all of Paul’s sangfroid to stop himself from shuddering.

“Ah… right. Where did you…?”

“It’s not real black pudding but I talked to a butcher I know and he made it. He says it’s sort of like a delicacy called blood sausage they have in the province he’s from.”

Yuri sniffed the air, and loomed over Shoko’s shoulder.

“It smells good.”

Paul bit his lip, and silently thanked whatever god or goddess was listening.

“Shoko-san, we should really feed our guests as well. I think they’d like the blood sausage. Maybe some extra eggs and bacon too. They’re big girls after all.”

Shoko looked over her shoulder at Paul, a doubtful expression on her face.

“Are you sure Paul-sama?”

“I’ll have a slice, a small one, since you went to all the effort.. but it’s only right they get the best bit, kind of the warriors portion, sort of. Since they are not only my guests but are here to keep me safe, I’m willing to sacrifice it for them.”

“Ok! You’re the best, Paul-sama!”

“Thank you Lord Paul-sama!”

Having averted that disaster, Paul sat down at the breakfast table and drank his coffee, and a few minutes later, started tucking into the over-flowing plate of food put in front of him. Yuri took a tray with two equally piled high large serving dishes, since there weren’t any plates big enough, and went to eat outside with her sister, excusing herself by muttering something about keeping watch.

Paul surprised himself by cleaning the plate, and going back for seconds of fried bread to mop up the remains of the beans.

Replete he leaned back in his chair.

“Thank you for the feast, Shoko-san.”

“It was my pleasure!”

Paul grinned slightly.

“Can I ask you a favour? Could you run some messages for me? Since I am currently far too full to move!”

Shoko giggled and nodded.

“Of course Paul-sama. Shoko is your right-hand kitsune and your assistant. I am yours to command!”

Paul pulled a face.

“Yeahhh… I rather thought you weren’t going to let that slide. Ok, I need you to tell Inari that I have made an important discovery, well several ones actually, but since it involves everyone I think it would be best if we got everyone together. All of the bosses, clan heads, heads of families and so on of the Others. So then I can tell them what I’ve figured out, and how it will affect everyone. Then we can discuss what to do in the future.”

Shoko clasped her hands together, skipping on the spot.

“Ooooo! Does that mean what I think it means!”

“Yup, I figured out what the source of magic is, and knowing that, what’s going wrong and sort of how to fix it. Among other things, that I’m still working out the implications of.”

“No wonder you worked all night and all day yesterday!”

“Wait, what?!”

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“Oh! Yes, it’s been almost two days!”

Paul blinked in surprise. He had a faint recollection of it being daylight when he’d gone in search of his laptop and the archived notes he’d kept on Tesla’s work. It was a point that he never threw any knowledge away, not knowing when something might prove useful. So whenever he did research, he archived his notes and copies of source material. So far he had four, two terabyte-sized external drives full of miscellaneous information on a huge range of subjects. Including complete copies of Nicola Tesla’s files, as they had been eventually released by the FBI.

At some point yesterday, apparently, he’d realised that what he was trying to figure out looked familiar, and with that he’d seen the parallels between the equations he was trying to come up with, and Tesla’s work on Scalar fields. From that had flowed a font of ideas, culminating in what Paul now suspected Tesla had been working on all along, and using wireless electricity as a cover excuse to hide his true intentions from Edison’s spies.

With a start he realised Shoko had been staring at him while he’d been mentally meandering.

“Sorry, got lost in my own thoughts. Ok, ask Inari if she can call a sort of ‘heads of families/clans and so on’ meeting. Possibly for tomorrow if that’s not too soon. Also, I need to talk to Boss Hirohido. There’s some work I need doing, and he’d know which contractors are ‘in the know’ about Others and magic. I need to talk to him first though. So tell him there’s a beer in it and something very interesting I want to show him.”

Shoko nodded firmly once, bobbing her head in acknowledgement.

“Ok. I go now!”

And with a clatter of her geta on the floor, she was gone. Paul shook his head slowly, perhaps it shouldn’t have come as a surprise she’d managed to get the drop on an Oni. You couldn’t hit what you couldn’t see after all, and when she really hustled she was a blur.

When Boss Hirohido found Paul in the workshop an hour and a half later, the Tenuki was in his human disguise looking like a forty-something ‘just a regular guy’ with maybe a few too many pounds around his middle. Paul handed him a cold can of beer as Hirohido stared in open mouthed surprise at the equipment dominating the centre of the workshop.

“Well… that’s damnedest thing I’ve ever seen! What is it?”

Paul grinned.

“Believe it or not, most of it’s not my design. I borrowed heavily from Tesla. I found parts of the design hidden among the diagrams for several of his inventions.”

“You don’t say? What does it do?”

“You want the technical explanation, or the short answer?”

The short, heavy set Tenuki chuckled and took a pull on his beer. Wiping the foam off his lip he grinned.

“Tell you what, start with the simple answer, and then go on to the complex one and let’s see how quickly I get lost.”

“Well, the simple answer is.. it does this.”

Paul threw a switch, sending power from the waterwheel powered generator into the device, which burst into snarling, crackling life. A fierce electrical buzz filled the air, but unlike any other tesla coil, this one didn’t produce bolts of lightning. Instead the power was channelled into a goldfish bowl like, fluid-filled globe. Inside, an array of delicate coils hummed with power, and at the heart of it a cluster of crystals started to glow a brilliant blue/green, filling the fluid filled sphere with an eldritch un-light.

Boss Hirohido’s hair stood on end and he was suddenly no longer human.

“What the..?! What is that?”

“Simple answer, it mimics the natural process that produces magic, except it acts like a transformer to convert standard mains power into raw, unshaped magic.”

“Wow… you... HOW did you figure that out?”

“Short answer.. I found the natural spring of magic, and worked out what the process is. Then, as I was trying to think how to recreate it artificially, I realised I’d seen some of those diagrams before. It would appear that sometime around 1899 or 1900 Nicola Tesla found a natural source of magic in Colorado Springs, which he tried to use to transmit wireless power. He built an electricity to magic transformer, or rather a pair of transformers to act as receiver and transmitter. But he must have had access to a natural source at first, to figure out how it worked.”

“I don’t get it, why?”

“I would guess for one simple reason. Electromagnetic fields obey the inverse square law; i.e double the distance from the source, and the field strength falls by four-fold. But a magical field is scalar, double the distance, and you only halve the power. Plus, if you use the right frequencies, you actually get more power out than you put in.”

“Ehh?! That’s impossible, even I know that!”

“I’m at loss to explain it too, and it only seems to happen at a prime number of multiples of the base frequency, but you can’t argue with experimental results. I think it has something to do with higher dimensional geometry or something, but that’s just a guess.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Then that makes two of us. I’m making this up as I go along here. But anyway... I have a copy of Tesla’s notes, which very carefully do not mention magic but if you know what it is and read them, you can see where he’s left gaps and hints at what he’s really getting at.”

“Huh.. so.. Tesla?”

“Yeahhh… kinda blew my mind too. No wonder nobody could ever make his stuff work later, or how he could do things that ought to be impossible. He had a cheat. Like I said, there had to be a magic spring under his mountain too. I think there’s probably others around the world, or at least, there were.”

“Huh? So, you figured out what was wrong with ours?”

“Yeah, that too. That’s why I started looking at recreating the process instead of fixing it. But, I’ll talk about that part later. It’s less important.”

Boss Hirohido chugged the last of his beer and sighed.

“Ok then. Shoko-chan said you had a job. I hope it’s not building another one of those things…?”

Paul shook his head.

“It’s not that complicated to build actually, but no that’s not it. I’ll be doing that later. No, I have something else in mind for you to do, if you wouldn’t mind. Ok, a question for you. The protective boundary shield around the mountain stops radio signals, right?”

“Yeah, magic and technology don’t mix, and that’s one powerful spell.”

“Ok.. so how did the old priest watch TV ?”

“Er.. VHS tapes?”

“Nope, no signs of a VCR, not even betamax. No, I looked into it. He had cable tv, and made himself a magically shielded cable.”

“Huh! Clever, but what’s this got to do with me?”

“Got any cousins or other family in the telecoms business? Because it occurred to me, if you could shield a standard coaxial cable, then why not optical fibres? Which ought to be less sensitive to magical interference for a start anyway.”

Boss Hirohido smiled, and scratched his furry belly.

“Yeah, I think we could arrange for you to get a fibre hook up. Day after tomorrow ok with you?”

“I’ll say. Ok, good, then we can move on to the next part of my plan.”

“Next part?”

Paul nodded.

“Yeah, now that I know I can produce as much magical power as we need, then the idea of a sanctuary is viable. So the next step is getting word out to those that need to know.”

Boss Hirohido rubbed one of his round furry ears.

“I thought you needed to make sure it’s safe, legally, first?”

Paul shook his head.

“Nope. The plan is to get as many rare Others as possible here. I need to do some legal research for which I’ll also need the internet, but I’ve an idea how to use the endangered species act to protect the mountain. The only problem is, does the Japanese government know Others exist, or not?”

Hirohido shrugged.

“Must do, I think, at least some of them maybe. Hard to see how they wouldn’t… but officially, publicly, nope. They pretend ignorance.”

Paul nodded.

“That’s about what I thought. We had a guy turn up the other day, by the name of Itaskai. One phrase he said stuck in my mind. ‘The government doesn’t interfere in religion nor recognises the existence of supernatural entities.’”

“I don’t get it?”

“It was the way he worded it, I’m an author so I’m sensitive to the way things are said. He didn’t say they don’t exist, he said the government doesn’t recognise their existence.”

Hirohido nodded slowly.

“Okayy… I see it. He admitted that they know they exist, but are pretending they don’t.”

“Exactly. Which gives us leverage, but, I’m getting ahead of myself. I asked Inari to gather everyone, all the ‘bosses’ together tomorrow, so I can explain what’s what and discuss my plan all together at the same time. But I need you, and as many of your family as care to volunteer, to do something before then.”

Boss Hirohido scratched the back of his head, looking dubious.

“Depends on what. All this looks very doubtful to me.”

Paul shook his head.

“No, nothing to do with the generator, not directly anyway. I need a map of the surrounding area, one of all the magical hot spots, springs and so on. I have a theory, but I need more data, and you Tenuki can go just about anywhere, or so I’m told.”

“That’s true, but how are we supposed to map magic?”

Paul grinned, and took a device out of a drawer. It was a small box shaped gizmo, with an on/off switch, a pair of LED’s, one red, one green, and a dial-type meter. Boss Hirohido craned forward to look at it, a tenuki’s curiosity being second only to a cat’s.

“What’s that thing?”

“Ah well you see, I had a thought. If I can convert electricity into magic, what if I could do the reverse? Inside here is a carefully tuned set of crystals, hooked up to a miniature version of the bigger generator, running off a 9 volt battery. When the weak magical field it makes interacts with an external one, it changes the electrical properties of the crystal. Voltage and amperage dip or ramp up depending on polarity. Put simply, it’s a unidirectional magical field detector.”

“Huh! That’s clever, how many of those do you have?”

“Four, but I’ve the parts for another six. I was hoping I could borrow someone to help assemble them too. Most of it’s not hard, but getting the tuning right on the crystals is fiddly, and I was thinking I could concentrate on doing that if someone else built the easy bits.”

Boss Hirohido nodded slowly.

“Sure. I know someone. He builds radios and stuff like that. So, when you’ve got the detectors built, you want some of my family to drive around and search out magical ‘hot spots’ you said?”

“Actually, I was thinking of mapping a 10 by 10 kilometre grid, with the mountain in the centre, and they could map it a row at a time. The detectors are directional, so if they started at corners of their assigned square kilometre, and went diagonally corner to corner, then went back and did the other diagonal… they could map field strength and direction pretty easily and triangulate any sources of magic, without searching the entire square.”

Boss Hirohido blinked, and then nodded.

“That’s pretty smart!”

“Agreed, although it’s not my idea. I borrowed it from how they used to search for radio transmissions during the war..”

“Ha! Why reinvent the wheel, huh?! Like getting your ideas from Tesla.”

“Exactly. And like Edison, I only steal ideas from the best!”

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