How fat Po lost his shoes.

Loa Ki crept along the dark alleyway, his bare feet coming down toe first to make each step in silence, his eyes half closed as he focused for the sound of the creature that had been on a killing spree in the Etraku district.

The stench of the tanneries had made tracking down the creature by scent impossible forcing Ki out into the night to haunt the alleys like a common thief in hopes of running into it by mere happenstance.

Hours of frustrated searching later he had finally came to a stop squatting down and leaning back against the side of a hovel, the rough surface of the woven reed wall easily piercing the thin faded gray cloth of his robe to dig into his skin.

“Greeting dog.” Ki nearly leap out of his skin, the deep guttural voice as well as the heavy hand clamping down on his shoulder were both as equally unexpected as they were unwelcome.

With a twist of his bony shoulder Ki freed himself from the oversized grip, even as his assailant tried to seize hold of the smaller man’s robe. Ki turned his twist into a roll across the alley coming to his feet facing the all too familiar grin of the all too pleased with himself fat man standing across the alleyway.

“Po…” Ki growled out as his eyes darted to each end of the alley as well as the roofs above, the Bailiff seldom traveled alone, his type never did.

The fat man tilted his shaved head to the side with a false look of concern, “Are you lost little doggie, you are so very far from your kennel. Shall I take you back home to your mistress, I’m sure she would be ever so grateful.” Po smiled as he ran the tip of his tongue over his lips.

Ki choked back another growl, “I have no time for your games.”

The fat man brought the tarnished iron fork of his sasumata to guard in reply, the fat man’s smile now stretching out wide enough to show all of his unnaturally sharp teeth, Oni never could manifest perfectly human forms.

As both men faced each other down waiting to see who would make the first move, they where interrupted by the sudden appearance of a warty skinned little man, the ugly little obake stumbled forward so out of breath it was only until it had stopped in between the two men poised to leap upon each other that it looked up and squealed in fright, abandoning it’s human form even as it fell to the ground to curl up in a ball of black greasy hair, only it’s pale hairless tail visible in the dim light.

Po sighed “Another time dog, I have official work to do.” The fat man stepped forward on his extra tall wooded geta to gently nudge the little obake. “Get up number five, report.”

Ki stepped back as the little creature slowly began to uncurl and look around fearfully. Ki’s eyes widening first in surprise then amusement at the fat man’s vain attempt to twist his face into look of reassurance for the little obake. “Rat kamike Po, really?”

For a moment the fat man looked slightly ashamed, “They’re everywhere, and they see everything. They don’t understand most of it, but even they know when something doesn’t belong.” Po looked down almost fondly at the gave the obake another harder nudge with his geta, this time almost a kick. “A few kind words and a promise not to eat them and their entire tribe agreed to scour the entire slum for me.”
With a frown the fat man brought his foot back and kicked the still cowering obake hard enough to send it tumbling across the alley. “I said report number five.”

The obake leapt to it feet, so eager to please it danced in place . “We has seen it master, this one can lead to it.”

“Lead on then number five.” As the fat man began to follow the skittering creature, Ki darted forward to keep pace, a amused grin on his face. “Master?”

“Shut up”

The two men soon came to the entry gate of a abandoned partially burned down apothecary, a cluster of the Rat kamike in their ugly little human forms gathered awaiting the oni. “Just what are we up against bailiff?”

Po turned to look down at the smaller man for a moment in silence, “Something that came in from the west, a gaki from the realm of the hungry dead. It has caused seven deaths in seven days, once each night.” The fat turned to raised his hand palm up to the assembled obaki, giving a slight nod of his head in return to their full bows, only after the last of them had disappeared into the night did he turn his attention back to the waiting Ki.

“Hunting down Gaki is the duty of a bailiff of the outer halls, I will not ask for you help.”

Ki tilted his head and returned the fat man expressionless look with some effort, “You have it, never the less.”

The fat man nodded in reply. “We hunt.” between one step and the next the fat man faded away as the oni assumed his true form, bright red skin and burning yellow eyes, a single blunt white horn with the kanji meaning bad carved into it centered in his wide brow.

Ki smiled to himself as he stepped trough the gate, leaving his human shape behind as he dropped to all fours and shook out his thick black mane, even in his true form Po was still fat.

Across the courtyard the western gaki stepped out to meet them, his pale skin turning ghostly white as it changed to it’s spirit form. It was almost human in appearance aside from the blood red eyes and the needle like fangs.

“Intruders, this is my home.”

“What?” asked the bewildered Oni, his look of confusion quickly turning to anger. “Don’t tell me this honorless filth has come to our land, killed our mortals and hasn’t even bothered to learn the language.” The Oni snorted and slammed the bunt of his now solid brass sasumata of office down on the paved stone of the courtyard, cracking the weathered stone in half in his anger. “I am so going to rip his soul apart.”

“He said something bout living here I think.” Growled the Fu Lion, Ki had learned some of the western tongue as he listened to his temple’s attendant priestess teaching the neighborhood children. “Does it matter.”

Po snorted again “No”

The oni’s abrupt charge across the court yard seemed to catch the creature by surprise even as it managed to spring toward the roof of the old shop, falling short as the oni’s sasumata came up to catch the creatures leg, trapping the it’s foot between the prongs as Po twisted the weapon. “Got you”

“I think not.” with a wave of his finger the foreign gaki form blurred as it turned to fog even as Po attempted to pull the creature down to earth, his sasumata passing through it’s now vaporous foot to slam into the ground. The Oni shook it fist at the hovering cloud of mist nearly foaming at the mouth in it rage “Curse you to a thousand years in the festering dung pit of hell.”

Ki leap upward to the top of the courtyard’s wall, settling his feet on the thin wall for only a moment before leaping higher to the remains of the apothecary’s roof up above the western’s gaki’s misty form before drawing a full lung full of breath. The roar of a Fu Lion had protected the temple and palaces of the empire for a thousands years, weakening the will and power of invading spirits of both the hells and heavens, a mere gaki never stood a chance.

The creature slammed to the ground as it abruptly found itself solid once more, before it could recover it found it’s neck pinned to the ground by the black iron tongs of Po’s sasumata and it gaze trapped returning the oni’s enrage glare. “Got you, this time for sure.”

With a yell of joy the oni leaped into the air, letting his full weight drop down onto the gaki’s chest with a crack of snapping bone, the creature screamed and flung all four limb into the air as the oni leap and crashed down again, all the time keeping the creature secured to the ground by it’s neck until at last with a crack of snapping wood it finally when silent.

The fat oni nearly lost his balance as it stepped off the rapidly decaying form of the western gaki. Ki landed softly beside him “What happened?”. The oni lifted his foot to stare down at the bottom of one of his wooded geta, “One of the supports snapped off, right in his heart.” The oni glared down at the collapsing skeleton, “Stupid gaki, they were almost brand new. “

The oni kicked off both of his geta, “See if you can find some sort of jar inside to put this dust in, I have no idea if he is going to stay dead or not, but we can’t leave it remains behind.” Ki nodded as resumed his human form, he would need hands for this, and abruptly smiled until Po looked up at him, going even reddened in the fact as he realized that without his extra tall geta, the Fu Lion stood taller then him in it’s human form.

“Oh very amusing.” Po rapped his sasumata against the ground again, “Now go find that jar.”

As the softly laughing Fu lion walked away Po called out a demand for a broom and a dust pan as well before looking down at the human shaped pile of dust below him, “It was worth a pair of geta to take you down gaki. No more biting people’s necks and sucking out their blood.” The oni snorted “Seriously, how barbaric can you get.”