Dark Entries

Mirai raised her hand in the middle of her bedroom, in the dead of night. Her eyes closed in concentration as her partner, Veil, curled up silently in the form of a sphinx from the armrest of her bed.

"CALL!"

Her arm thrusted straight through the floor. A golden pentagram inside a circle formed around the space her hand was in. After a few grunts, Mirai’s hand, arm, and body popped straight up with a hooded form in hand.

“AHHHHHHH!!!” said the lump, displeased with this entry.

“Hey, shut it!” demanded Mirai with a smile and a wink, fangs clearly visible. “You’d be better off with a little less gambling.”

“But I had a Royal Flush! The table was at my mercy, not one angel in the building knew how to count cards.” Nacht Kobold, formerly known as lump, was most displeased by this sudden entry. “Couldn’t it wait until morning?”

“This is important!” Mirai’s nose was tilted up with some indignation. “SOMEthing took my Devil Riser!”

“That silly kid toy?” Nacht Kobold was disappointed, thinking of all the macca he left sitting on that table to be summoned for a misplaced heirloom.

“Hey, I can’t summon reliably without that pop gun!” Mirai returned with an icy glare, tongue stuck out.

“She’s right!” concurred Veil. “Before she summoned you, she summoned Dagon!”

“Yeah, Dagon’s pretty big. And, um, an elder god of terrifying capabilities beyond all human understanding.”

“But you COULD summon Dagon, which is pretty impressive!” exclaimed Veil.

“Yeah!” Mirai beamed. “And she had no trouble accepting our offerings of golden apple pie and abstaining from eating fish for the next century to return to the Time of Legends.”

Nacht Kobold was at least relieved that Mirai hadn’t changed much after all these years. Though the implications of Mirai having magical power that could accidentally bring down the entire universe was somewhat less comforting.

“Are you sure that you didn’t misplace it like your Vinecomp?” inquired Nacht Kobold, recalling that time he found the portable between the cushions of Youki’s invisible sofa.

“Positive! Would I write a ransom note for something I lost?”

Nacht Kobold stared back, arms crossed, legs crossed, hovering over the carpet in contemplative stillness. With one hand outstretched with an open palm, he spoke in stern tones, “Hand it over.”

The “note” was on a piece of woven wood, with hiragana glyphs forming a simple phrase:

“If you ever want to see your Devil Riser again, come to the Bizarre Gallery in Harajuku!”

Beneath that was an unusual scrawl. Nacht Kobold rubbed his chin, bearded as many goats happen to be, as he pulled out a reference on Balanese script. Flipping through a few pages, the answer came with a heavy grumble.

“With Love, The Grand Bandit Rangda.”

“…She signed her own ransom letter?” spat out Mirai, already tired of this shit.

“Maybe she really wanted to lean into the bit?” added Veil.

“Well, my night’s already ruined.” opined Nacht Kobold. “What do you want to do, Mirai?”

The Bizarre Gallery was a small jewelry shop set up in 1997, with a focus on costume-quality jewelry with snakes, demons, and simple gemstones. It was somewhat against the poppy “moe” aesthetic that Harajuku fashion often leaned into, but they had reasonably solid business from a different clientele that had a fascination with demons and occult-leaning things.

Mirai, with large house cat-like griffon Veil and goat man Nacht Kobold, didn’t really cause much of a stir on first sight. For one, Harajuku had already had its fill of demon invasions for one century. For another, Mirai was for all intents and purposes, a spunky girl with a big forehead and a giant scarf with a preference for pink and leather that wasn’t at all out of sorts with what was for sale in the store.

Retail stores within Harajuku generally closed up at 8:00 pm, while Mirai was intensely focused on the range of items within the store.

Nothing that looked like a Rangda, that is, a tiny shaggy dog demon with big eyes and a goofy mouth, happened to be standing around.

“What did you say that you were looking for, again?” raised the humble shopkeep.

“A Devil Riser, custom made!” explained Mirai. “It’s a digital summoning gun with bullets, each one has a demon’s true name so they can be summoned on call.”

“Well, we absolutely can’t sell real guns here, but we have a few reproductions of summoning devices over there.” The shopkeep motioned to a case with imitations of the Keys of Norn.

Nacht Kobold found himself more fascinated with something in the back. A set of blueprint cases, perhaps for designs in progress, or…?

THUNK THUNK THUNK.

The shopkeep zoomed over quicker than a speeding bullet to seize the cases, which Nacht Kobold had been giving a light shake. “Be careful with that!”

Nacht Kobold, undeterred, gave a sharp hmm. “Those don’t sound like blueprints to me…”

The shopkeep scoffed, “If you must know, they happen to be…”

Bang! A cloud of blue with shimmering gold hues ignited, when the smoke cleared the shopkeep and cases were nowhere to be found.

In their place, donning a colorful cardigan, was an otherwise very lightly dressed pink woman with giant blue hoop bracelets, big curly toed shoes, and what looked to be the entire head of a Barong acting as a helmet to keep her extremely long, red hair in check.

“Rangdaaaaaa’s all new Devil Riser!” enthused the woman.

Veil’s eyes narrowed. “You’re not Rangda.”

“What? No. I AM Rangda, the Grand Lady-Bandit, the Great Darkness, Balanese Enchantress!”

“No, you are absolutely not Rangda.” confirmed Nacht Kobold.

“Since when were you a Rangda expert? Nobody is a greater expert on Rangdas than Rangda herself!” The lady’s arms were crossed over her belly, indeed showing that she was a woman with a significantly pronounced woman’s figure.

“You are Ratna Manggali.”

“Rangda”‘s head tilted upon hearing this. “Excuse me?”

“You are the daughter of Calon Arang, one of several women to have been given the name of the demon queen Rangda by her foes. A society that refused to let a woman best them in battle.”

“Well, that’s…” “Rangda” lept to the rafters of the ceiling as Mirai lunged from the side, trying to catch the bandit off guard.

“Dammit!” exclaimed Mirai, punching at the floor with force.

“Guess we have to fight then!” Rangda aimed the gun in front of Mirai, one wink and a smirk later, “CALL!”

“That’s MY line!” Mirai threw a spinning wind kick in “Rangda’s” direction, but not before she jumped out of harm’s way.

Within the summoning circle that “Rangda”, who was possibly Ratna, had made, a muscular frame crawled out with a cold stare and unwavering confidence.

“Fellas, meet my mother!” Rangda stuck out her tongue, still casually dodging gusts of wind from Veil’s Zanma invocations.

Nobody in this room, save Ratna, had seen Calon Arang before. Bearing an imposing headdress, stone expression on her lips, and a painted face. Ratna lept on the shoulders of the towering mass of might that was the great witch-mother, the ruthless plague master, Calon Arang.

Ratna holstered the Devil Riser 2000-A at her side and pumped her fists. “Let the ceremony begin!”

To be continued...