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twilightdetectiveagency · 7 months ago

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TWILIGHT HOUR 03:00 - KAPPA

The upper level of the Twilight Detective Agency is quiet and still when Vivienne wakes; not an unusual occurrence, but not a particularly normal one either.

Content warnings:

None. (Rare...)

She rubs her eyes as she pulls herself out of the large bed Cornelia had prepared for her before her arrival, her tastes noted like the back of Charon’s hand, the canopy draping brushes against her as she stands in front of the mirror on the wall across her bed.

She approaches it. The mirror reflects her room, but not Vivienne herself. She huffs and touches it with her fingers, “I guess it’ll be this way forever.” Despite being unable to see herself, she adjusts her hair and white lace nightgown as if she can, twirling in front of the mirror with a giggle as she peeks her head out of her bedroom.

No Cornelia.

She steps out of her room and floats towards the kitchen; there’s a note on the table written in Cornelia’s signature ink, deep black with freckles of silver shimmer, like the expanse of a night sky. It reads, I’m out getting supplies for a new client’s case. I’ll be back shortly, so don’t run off because you got bored.

Vivienne rolls her eyes and sets the note back down on the table, “Workaholic,” She hums at the sight of the door to Cornelia’s room being cracked open just enough to peer inside. Looking left and looking right, she peeks in, and slowly takes a step past the threshold to the detective’s room.

It smelled like her, and felt like her. The bed was the same size as Vivienne’s, although it wasn’t a canopy, and just had black sheets. The whole room was monochrome, the only colors the vast expanse of books on the shelves and an envelope sitting on her desk.

Vivienne picks it up; she recognizes the seal.

And she recognizes the sender’s name.

Just as she’s about to consider opening the letter, a loud crash from downstairs makes her yelp and quickly flee Cornelia’s room, quietly closing the door behind her. Vivienne’s heart thunders in her chest as she strains her ears for the source of the noise; silence acts as barbed wire around her anxiety. After debating with herself, she makes up her mind and unties the choker’s bow around her neck.

She wraps her hand around her own neck and squeezes, just enough pressure to detach her head from her body. Her body steps back. She keeps it hovering by the top of the stairs as she floats her head down, peering all around the not-so-empty first floor. She doesn’t see anyone yet, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t there.

Ectoplasm trails behind her as she stills in front of the bathroom door left ajar. She holds her breath as she stares in, and what she sees is horrifying enough to leave her biting down on her tongue to stifle a scream.

Moss green, scaled flesh; webbed hands and feet, flesh emanating the scent of a flowing river with streaks of blood from dead fish and hungry bears. It was humanoid, but clearly not, with the large shell on its back bearing quite a few scars, revealing shamelessly its history—but what frightened Vivienne the most was the creature’s beak, like a turtle’s, sharp and pointed at the tip of it.

The creature’s wide eyes look up from the flowing sink water rushing atop its hands, the presence behind it almost tangible on its reptilian skin. It turns its head, and through the doorway sees Vivienne’s decapitated head floating in place, the look of fear on both of their faces identical as the two of them scream in sync at the sight of the other.

“Why don’t you have a head?!” The creature screams, frantic as it pulls its dripping hands close to the shell of its chest.

“What’s a kappa doing in our bathroom?!” Vivienne replies.

“Washing my hands! What’s a nukekubi doing in a place like this?!”

“I live here!!”

The door opens and shuts as Cornelia says, interrupting them both, as she steps beside Vivienne’s head. “What the hell are you even doing?”

Vivienne’s body steps down the stairs, holding the choker in her hand. Cornelia sighs and motions her body closer, helping her assistant put her head back on. Vivienne pouts, “It’s good to ward off intruders.”

Cornelia latches the choker and ties the ribbon into a bow as she sighs, “And clients. Speaking of,” She gestures to the kappa still in the bathroom. “This is our new client.”

“Huh,” Vivienne says, examining it with interest now that their fear had in tandem subsided. “I’ve never met a kappa before.”

The kappa studies her with equal interest, “And I’ve never met a nukekubi before, either.”

They stare into each other’s eyes as Cornelia stands between them and stares up at the ceiling while she muses to herself; she thinks of the odd friendship blooming in front of her eyes. It made very little sense, but she supposes that it doesn’t matter. “In any case, you might’ve noticed, but our client does have a very urgent problem.”

“I haven’t noticed anyth—” Vivienne stops short, her eyes going wide as she steps closer to their client, examining its water basin with a growing worried expression. “It’s cracked. That’s really bad, isn’t it?”

“The detective here said she could fix it,” The kappa explains, motioning towards Cornelia, who nods.

“And soon!” Vivienne says, gingerly examining the wound. “Can’t you die from that? Are you in any pain? It certainly doesn’t look good…”

Cornelia shoots her a look, “Vivienne…”

“No, it’s alright,” The kappa says, “She’s right. If this doesn’t get fixed soon, I might die. It’s not like denial will get me anywhere.”

“That’s the spirit!” Vivienne replies, enthusiastically punching her fist up in the air.

“It’s a spirit, alright,” Cornelia mutters to herself as she shakes her head. “I was doing some research to figure out what the best method for repairing the basin might be. Since it’s comparable to a human skull, I think our best chances would be to use something called bone cement; polymethylmethacrylate. It’s used in cranioplasties and other types of surgical fixes.”

“What, like brain surgery?” Vivienne asks, not hiding her surprise. Cornelia can’t help but feel a little proud of her vast amount of knowledge.

“The very same.”

Vivienne tries not to look doubtful and fails, “Don’t you need, um, you know… like, a medical license to do something like that?”

“Oh, do you plan to report me to the yokai health department?” Cornelia asks, fiendishly as Vivienne fills her cheeks with air and sticks her tongue out. “Charon left a lot of medical and research textbooks behind for me, just in case.”

“Were they a doctor?” The kappa asks, making the grave mistake of being hopeful.

Cornelia coughs, “They… changed paths and decided to become an exorcist, instead.”

“They quit because it was too hard, didn’t they.” Vivienne asks, deadpan.

“No,” Cornelia insists, quick to jump to their defense, “That’s not why. They said that in terms of serving humanity, healing has a much lower tolerance for failure, so they… decided to… pursue…” She trails off.

“So…” The kappa starts, ��They quit because it was too hard…”

“In any case,” Cornelia says, “While I get the polymethylmethacrylate ready, Vivienne, will you…” She trails off, eyebrows furrowing as if she hadn’t decided the end of her sentence when she’d started it.

Vivienne salutes, “Kill time until then? Got it!” She turns back to their client, “Not to brag, or anything, but I’m really good at doing that.”

Although Cornelia isn’t entirely sure how she’s meant to respond to that, she simply nods, and says, “Thank you, Vivienne.”

Vivienne doesn’t budge, a smile still resting on her lips. She extends her hand. Cornelia sighs, stares at the ceiling, reaches into her pocket and plucks a few bills from her wallet to hand to Vivienne. “Please be careful.”

She looks excitedly over at their client, “We’re going to hit the town.”

As they walk down the streets, the kappa leans over to look at Vivienne, walking with a pep in her step. It asks, voice quiet as it looks around at all of the people around them, “Is this really okay?”

“Unless you aren’t feeling well and want to go back,” Vivienne says, “It’s long before Twilight Hour, so they won’t be able to notice you. They’d fall over if you pushed them, so don’t do that.” Her eyes whisper uncertainty, "Will you be okay with your water basin cracked?”

“As long as it doesn’t break and spill more than this.”

“So no roller coasters. Got it.” She taps her finger against her chin, “There’s a bathtub upstairs, but Cornelia doesn’t let any clients upstairs. She’s got a lot of opinions on ‘work life balance’ for someone who insists we stay open twenty-four hours a day,” Vivienne waves her hand, “But that doesn’t mean we can’t get creative. It’s no river, but a miniature swimming pool has got to be worth something, right?”

“Oh…!” The kappa says, fervently nodding its head, careful to not spill anymore in its basin than it had already lost, “That’s a good idea. I’ve never thought of that,”

Vivienne clenches her fists, enthusiastic as she bounces down the street. As they pass shops and storefronts, food trucks and stalls, Vivienne pauses in the center of the sidewalk they’re headed down and looks all around her. “Something smells good.”

The two of them follow the scent, and eventually stop in front of a small food truck, with a few people behind the window a man was sitting in. He waves at Vivienne when she approaches. “The menu’s right above you there. Let me know if you need help with anything, or have any questions.”

“Thank you!” Vivienne chirps, as she peruses the menu from a distance far enough they can quietly speak to one another without being heard. “What kind of things can you eat, anyways? I can really only eat human food during the day, but I can manage at night sometimes if I force it, or if I’m really hungry.”

“Well, as far as human foods,” It counts on its webbed fingers, bending them at the first joint, “Cucumber, eggplant, soba, pumpkin…” It shrugs. “A lot of the folks from these rivers like natto, but I can’t stand it.”

“Me either!” Vivienne says, with a gasp. “Neil likes it, but I really think she’s lying; every single time she eats it, she insists it’s good for you, whatever, but I’ve never once heard her say she’s eating it because it tastes good.”

“It tastes like some other things I eat,” the kappa jokes. It turns to see Vivienne’s expression; she isn’t making one. She turns her face away with a laugh.

“Well, that happens, but this stand does have something you can eat, so let’s get some. I don’t know what I want to eat, though… meat sounds pretty nice. Well, it’s all on Cornelia, anyways.”

The kappa watches as she casually orders. It steps by her side and speaks when the man at the window steps away for a moment, “How can they see you?”

Vivienne replies in a low voice only it can hear, “I never died in the typical way. My body’s still that of a human’s.” She adds, as an afterthought, “For the most part.”

“You don’t hate humans?” It asks.

Vivienne steps up to the window again to take their order. The yokai can’t see the face she’s making from this angle, but listens carefully for when she says, “A manageable amount. Thank you, it looks delicious!” She passes the take out container to it and opens her own. They eat as they walk. “What about you? Actually, this seems like a good time to ask. What happened to your basin to make it break?”

“I don’t hate humans,” The kappa starts, “But I don’t particularly like them, either. I know other kappa who do, or at least who feel inclined to hassle humans at every possible opportunity. And, of course, I know some others who found ones to pledge their loyalty too. It seems like a dime a dozen, if you ask me, when it comes to humans.” It punctates its words with a loud crunch of the cucumber salad Vivienne had ordered for it. “As for what happened…

“A cat came out from the dark, near where the river I’m from. It attacked me.”

“It attacked you?” Vivienne asks, her voice colored with disbelief, she frowns, “Are you sure it wasn’t just scared?”

“I’m starting to think that has to be the case. It might’ve heard my splashing and had no idea what it was. I’ve always had trouble with animals that were on the spiritually sensitive side…”

“I know what you mean,” Vivienne sympathizes as she bites off a chunk of the barely cooked steak skewer she’s gnawing at, “Most dogs can’t stand being around me, or even worse, they try and use my limbs as some sort of battery powered chew toy! And it’s such a pain getting my limbs back afterwards, because then I have to wait for them to heal…”

“They probably like it more because it’s organic.”

Vivienne nods, “But they cower in fear when Cornelia’s around, so I haven’t had that problem in a while.”

“I wish I could talk to animals. It feels like this whole thing could’ve been avoided otherwise.” It polishes off the rest of the cucumbers. Vivienne claps a loose wrist onto its shoulder.

“It can’t be helped, right? Let’s get going and try to find the pool. Cornelia’s probably going to yell at us if we show up after she’s finished with her preparations.”

“She’s quite the interesting character,” The kappa says as they continue to walk, “Although less strange than the other person I met last night.”

“Who?” Vivienne asks.

“I think Detective Mori called it the Undertaker. It found me while on a walk. It was far from my understanding to riddle out what it might be. For a moment, I almost thought it was human.”

She shrugs, “I don’t know. The last time I asked Cornelia about it, she dodged the question. Maybe she didn’t know either?”

The odd pair continue on their merry way, unfettered by the many eyes on Vivienne, a certainly not short woman in seasonally inappropriate heels and a white gown walking proudly through the streets. They stop in front of a pet store, and the kappa stills in the entryway, eyes going wide with shock and betrayal as it looks at Vivienne.

“What?” She asks, “It’s not like we’re going to sell you to the pet store. I remember, last time we came here to look at the hamsters, there was one of those inflatable dog pools in the corner somewhere. And it’s out of season, so maybe we’ll get it on sale!” She rubs her hands together, nefarious.

The kappa enters the automatic doors, wordlessly threatening to leave Vivienne outside. With a yelp, she follows it in. The pair glance around and then back at each other. They both shrug, and Vivienne squints with her hand over her forehead like a visor, “Well, let’s keep an eye out on it. It’s one of those things that’s just shoved in a corner somewhere.”

“How common is that?” It asks.

“Excitedly more than you’re expecting.” Vivienne leads them both through the store, curiously wandering down aisles to peer in at the cages and badly kept-fish; the kappa clicks its beak, a sharp clink that rattled the glass. “That bad, huh?”

“Bad doesn’t even begin to explain it,” The kappa says with a sigh as they step out of the fish semi-rectangle and down an aisle they’ve gone through four times. It looks over at Vivienne, wide obsidian eyes like marbles staring owlishly at her, “Should we check again?”

“Maybe we should dig through the clearance aisle again. They could’ve put it in there by now,” Vivienne mumbles, peering at the shelves again. A blonde woman with equally tanned as sunburned skin passes down their aisle. She picks through a row of refrigerated dog food when Vivienne catches her eye, “Oh! Um, hi.” She giggles.

“Are you looking for something?” The woman asks. Her voice is as sweet as her face is; it has a distinct domestic corner to it, the kind of kindness that feels like freshly baked cookies. She smiles.

“Oh, um… do you know where to find those dog pools? Like the inflatable ones you can keep in your backyard?” Vivienne asks. The woman hums and leads them down to the dog beds and bends down to rifle through them with a thoughtful expression on her head. After a few moments and the crinkle of cardboard, she pulls out an inflatable pool with a damaged cardboard box, and a sale tag atop it. Vivienne beams, “This is perfect! Thank you!”

“Of course,” The woman nods, “Ah…” She glances towards another aisle and motions at them to stay where they are, and quickly returns with a reptile skin oil. “This might do you some good, too.”

Try as they might, Vivienne and the kappa miss the incredibly obvious, Vivienne chirping a thank you as they make their way to the register to pay for their things, and then with haste back to the Twilight Detective Agency.

“The chemical reaction starts as the two components meet, you know,” Cornelia says, as they walk in the door. “It’s good I figured you’d take a while, or else I would’ve just wasted—Vivienne, what is that?”

“A dog pool,” She answers. “I figured, it isn’t going to use our bath, and I’m sure it’ll be easier to do the cranioplastic like this!”

“Cranioplasty,” Cornelia corrects, unable to help herself. She glances at what their client’s holding in its webbed hands, “And what’s that?”

“Oh, it was a recommendation from a woman at the pet store!”

Cornelia face twitches. She sets down the spatula in her hand, and says, voice measured and slow, “And she suggested it because…?” She lets them finish the sentence, arms crossed over her chest as she waits for them to catch up.

“I suppose because it’d feel nice?” The kappa guesses. It seems to look forward to it, a small smile lurking on its beak. Cornelia sighs.

“A passerby in the pet store said to you,” She gestures at Vivienne, “Said that you,” she motions towards the client, “Might need oil for your skin. Please tell me you see the problem there.”

The two of them stare at Cornelia, back to each other, and then Cornelia again. Vivienne tilts her head as she asks, “What’s the matter, detec—” she trails off, her hand rising to her mouth as she gasps, and then giggles; an attempt at faux innocence. “Um… oops?”

Cornelia buries her head in her hands. “You said you met this woman in the pet store? Was there anything noteworthy about her?”

“Is it something we should be worrying about?” Vivienne asks. Cornelia shakes her head.

“Probably not. But it would be a good idea to keep track of who can and can’t see spirits, so I’d like more details on her whenever you remember them.”

“Roger that!” Vivienne says, as she artfully changes the subject. “In any case, we shouldn’t delay the treatment any longer! Our client here is so haggard, and it couldn’t possibly wait another second!”

Cornelia shakes her head, “You’re full of it…”

They set the pool outside, and Vivienne inflates it and fills it with water while Cornelia prepares the polymethylmethacrylate. She empties the contents of a tube-shaped liquid into a bowl, and quickly empties a packet of powder into it. She mixes it in quick, firm strokes as she draws the spatula in and out of it, scraping the remnants of powder into the liquid as they merge together, closely examining it before huffing out a sigh. She tests it with the tip of her gloved hand.

When the green cement doesn’t adhere to her glove, she nods and presses the tip of her finger in it again, to check. Vivienne helps their client get steady in the pool as Cornelia kneads the cement, folding a circle in half, kneading, and folding it again until it no longer sticks to itself, the cement instead pulling open.

She furrows her eyebrows as she begins to scrape it into the gap between the cracks of the kappa’s basin. She fills in each splinter and gently runs the side of her spatula against it to smooth it out, level it to the rest of the basin atop its head. “I’m going to shape it now. It only takes ten minutes to harden after it’s applied, so you won’t need to wait too long. How are you feeling right now?”

“I’m not sure, but I feel relaxed. It’s not the same sense of fear I felt before, the lingering knowledge that I was going to die.” Its eyes close, relaxed as Cornelia continues to work the cement into the cracks.

“That sounds like good news to me,” Cornelia says, with a smile. She finishes quickly, scraping the remains of the cement against the paint palette she was pulling it from. She taps it against the palette, and a metallic clink makes both the kappa and Vivienne gasp with glee at the sound. “I think we’re done. Why don’t you try standing and carefully—carefully—see if it’ll spill. If it doesn’t, we can consider the procedure a success. Don’t go doing anything reckless, though. I’ll fix it if it happens again, but if it’s just a few days from now I’ll—”

“Wow,” The kappa breathes out as it stands, tilting its head to the side as a smile blooms on its beak. “Thank you,” It says, turning towards Cornelia as tears well in its eyes. “You saved my life. Thank you.” It bows, as low as it can, without disturbing the newly repaired basin on its head.

Their client’s goodbye is tearful as it walks out into the sentence, waving frantically at a sniffling Vivienne. The kappa calls out, “I’ll see you again someday! Thank you for saving my life!”

“Come on, Vi,” Cornelia says, taking Vivienne by the arm, “Let’s go back inside.”

Cornelia stirs to the sound of commotion outside. She sits up with her eyes closed and wanders to the kitchen window, curious as to what might be making such noise. She finds her answer when she finally opens her eyes to see Vivienne and their client from yesterday playing in the inflatable pool. It’s full of water and sliced cucumbers.

Vivienne detaches her arm to gain advantage in their apparent water gun fight; she raises it well above the kappa’s reach and squirts it with water while giggling devilishly. Their once-client protests, clumsily clutching the water gun between its webbed fingers, “Mistress! That’s cheating!”

She throws her head back in laughter, “It’s my biological advantage!” As she’s about to fire another round of water at the kappa, her head turns and catches Cornelia’s eye. “Hi, Cornelia! Good morning.”

The kappa gives her an enthusiastic wave, water splashing a spluttering Vivienne as it does, “Good morning, master!”

Cornelia snorts, and although it can’t hear her, says, “Master, huh? I don’t think I deserve that loyalty just yet.” But she gives them a small, sleepy wave and shortly thereafter joins them outside, insisting that she’s just checking on how the bone cement settled.

And if they don’t believe her, well, they don’t say a word about it.

A blonde haired woman motions a stray cat closer as she softly clicks her tongue, shaking a bag of treats in her left hand, “Here, kitty-kitty… are you hungry? I’ve got some treaties for you—ah!” She flinches back when the cat kisses and lunges at her, just barely grazing her cheek. The front door swings open, and a man strides out to stand by the woman’s side.

“Are you alright, love? What happened?”

“I don’t know,” She says, looking back in the direction the cat fled in. She sadly shakes her head. “It must’ve been frightened. No cats should be outdoors,and especially not in this season. It’s only getting colder and colder, isn’t it… poor things.”

Although she doesn’t see it, the man narrows his eyes as he scrutinizes her. The color of her eyes, the shape of her ears; her pink lips and white teeth. Her hair was soft, and her eyes were warm, but…

“Come on. Let’s get back inside. It is getting cold.” He gently entwines their hands together and pulls her back inside to their warm home.

A cat pitters down the street, tail perked all the way up as it scales the side of a fence to walk atop. The setting sun cast the orange cat’s rays scattering across the expanse of trees nearby them; when the moon swallows the daylight, the cat slinks into the shadows and emerges no longer ochre but obsidian, a tremendously poofy tail flicking triumphantly behind it as it disappears into the night like any other cat.

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