The kettle clicked on with a loud whine, piercing my quite sensitive ears.
Mina didn't look at the TV. She was used to it misbehaving.
Static crawled across the screen in thick bands, black and white tearing at each other. The sound wasn't loud, but it filled the room anyways, seeping into the corners, reaching my head.
"That thing's been acting up more than usual."
Mina poured water into two chipped cups. "It's been acting up exactly the same amount as always."
"That's not reassuring."
She slid one cup across the counter tome, steam curling between us. The smell of cheap green tea cut through the incense for a moment, its earthy smell grounding me.
"Drink," she said. "You look oddly stressed."
I wrapped my hands around the cup, feeling its warmth for a moment.
For just a moment the static's noise dipped, thinning out like fog burned away by sunlight.
Something darker pressed against the inside of the screen, a vague shape that made my ears ring.
Mina finally sighed and glanced at the TV, her eyes narrowing just slightly. She reached out and tapped the side of it with her knuckle.
The static flared, then settled back into its usual hiss.
"There we go," She gave another tap, "I should get a new one, but money's tight."
I took a sip of yea. It was bitter and whatered down, but the pure warm, hot enough to scald my tongue was just what I needed to wake up.
Mine leaned her elbows on the counter and finally looked at me properly.
Not the casual glance she usually gives me or her customers.
"So," she said. "How's it been living with a legendary mountain wolf inside your soul?"
I nearly choked.
"Just jumping straight into it? Not even gonna ask if I have a girlfriend?"
"Do you?"
"No."
"Well that does it," she went over to her sink and began washing her own cup of tea, "you came here instead of going home. That means you're either scared, about to explode or just hungry."
I set the cup down carefully. My fingers felt steadier wrapped around the ceramic.
"It's been a week," I said.
"I know."
"A very long week at that."
Mina hummed as she scrubbed along the edges of the cup. "Any biting incidents?"
"Not unless you count my own tongue."
Kuro shifted inside me. ''I have not bitten anything."
I felt my mouth begin to salivate.
MMGH- I gagged, placing my hand to cover my mouth.
My eyes widened and I began sweating, I felt something crawling up my throat, almost clawing at its interior.
"Let it out." Mina coldly said, not even staring back at me.
I pushed my hand aside and allowed my mouth to hang open.
EEURGH
What had I thrown up? It didn't feel like anything when it finally passed through my mouth, just like my muscles flexing and contorting on their own.
I glanced at my side.
A man. A ghostly one. His body was almost transparent, looking like a vague suggestion to existance, like a combination of small warps in the fabric of reality.
I could notice his long ponytail and kimono, as well as his sharp gaze.
"Kuro...?" I asked, coughing some saliva as my vision began focusing.
"Talking through you is unrealiable." Mina said, as she finally looked back, unamused at the sight.
"Did you spike my drink or something?"
"When you put it like that it sounds worse than what I did," She stepped in closer, standing in front of Kuro, "I simply added some powder to make the Kamigahara wolf come out for a moment, without your knowledge."
"That's a textbook example of spiking a drink..."
"Tchk. These new generations are only getting softer."
I wiped my mouth with the back of my sleeve, breathing hard. My throat still felt scraped raw, like I'd coughed up something that had claws.
"That," I said hoarsely, "is going to take years off my life."
"You're sixteen," Mina replied. "You can spare them."
The figure beside me straightened.
Up close, Kuro looked like when you try to remember something, but the memory is quite fuzzy yet it won't fade away. His form wavered constantly, his edges blurring, then resharpening. Not quite solid or... existing.
The kimono hung loose on his frame, patterns barely visible unless I focused.
His long hair was tied back neatly, not a strand out of place.
His eyes though, they were really sharp.
"So," Kuro said, voice echoing faintly, like it was coming from the bottom of a well. "This is the woman."
"Lady," Mina remarked as she crossed her arms. "So this is the wolf."
He inclined his head slightly. "Kamigahara Wolf," he corrected. "Guardian of-"
"Yeah, yeah," she waved him off. "Mountains, borders, shrines. I know the drill."
Kuro's gaze flicked to her, unimpressed. "You are irreverent."
"And you're not physical," she shot back. "We're even."
Mina waved her hand through Kuro's body, despite being visible, he couldn't interact with the physical world, her hand simply phased through him.
I sat there between them, watching two people who absolutely should not have been in the same room together size each other up.
Huh. So this is what it's like when you're not hogging all the space.
Something inside me felt lighter. Like a pressure had been released.
Kuro glanced at me. "Do not get used to it."
So, despite being right in front of me, he could still listen to my thoughts.
"I am nothing but a mere projection."
Mina leaned closer to inspect him, eyes flicking over the edges of his form. "You're thinner than I expected... I thought gods were all buff and mighty, y'know, like Zeus or Hades."
"I am not thin. I am incomplete."
"That's worse."
He ignored her and turned to me instead. "Your control is improving. You did not resist as much."
"I threw up a ghost, how is that improvement!?"
"It is," Mina said. "You didn't black out."
"That was an option?"
"Yes."
"Why is that always an option with you people!?"
Mina finally stepped back, grabbing a cloth to wipe the counter where... I had splashed.
I refused to look at her way.
"This is why I wanted to see him directly," she said. "A week isn't much time. It takes some time before the spirit stops trying to eat its host. Months usually."
"I was never trying to eat him," Kuro said coolly.
"You licked his soul."
"Wolves have refined tastebuds."
I stared at the floor. "I don't want to hear anything beyond that."
The TV hissed again, a little louder this time.
Kuro's ears, actual, pointy wolf ears twitched. His gaze slid toward the screen, his posture shifting.
"Something is pressing against the boundary."
Mina followed his stare. "I would not expect a milennia year old entity to know about the intricacies of modern technology."
"My eyes are sharp for a reason."
"Wait..." her eyes widened, she scrambled over to her toolbox on the shelf beside her.
She took out some glasses, the lenses thick, as if made out of the bottoms of glass bottles.
"Oh. Yeah, something is definitely there."
"There is?" I asked.
Both Kuro and Mina nodded in sync. The latter narrowing his eyes.
"Human-made treshholds are sloppy. Mirrors, phones, televisions." His voice hardened. "This one has a nest, somewhere."