The Ghostly Unit

High above central Japan.

Above the heavy cloud layers, a massive passenger plane streaked through the sky. The fuselage was steady and the flight path straight; from the outside, nothing appeared amiss. Yet, beneath this tranquil exterior, a sharp crisis was brewing. Inside the cabin, several men in black carrying handguns stood guard at various points. Sentries watched the front and rear, while others patrolled the aisles. The more than one hundred and fifty passengers were kept under strict watch, none daring to resist in the face of the dark muzzles of the guns. At the front of the cabin, leaning against the cockpit door, was a tall, burly man in black wearing sunglasses. He toyed with a coin as he watched the co-pilot sitting in the cockpit. The co-pilot's expression was vacant; he had just taken off his headset and was staring at the man in black with eyes that shimmered with an eerie, ethereal light.

"What did they say?" the burly man asked, looking at the possessed co-pilot.

The co-pilot responded in a halting, detached voice. "They... said they can... grant the demands. They asked us... not to harm... land the plane safely... at the designated location."

The man in black chuckled upon hearing this.

"Hmph, trying to throw a smokescreen at us, are they? Don't believe them. Keep flying straight. Head for Kyoto and give them a show they won't forget." The man spoke slowly. The demands they had issued were merely a ruse to distract their opponents. Therefore, even if the other side agreed, they wouldn't care. Hidden beneath the ruse was their true objective.

"Continue forward. Fly to Kyoto, to Fushimi, to Mount Inari, and then dive! Crash right into the divine realm! Slam into the Inari Honsha! I want to see if those guys dare to shoot this plane down! See if they'll ignore these hundred and fifty people and blast us out of the sky! Hahaha!" Staring at the churning clouds ahead, the man in black laughed loudly, his voice filled with arrogance and triumph. He could already imagine the high-ranking members of the Inari agonized and indecisive.

Indeed, their target from the beginning had been the Inari, not money or anything else. The conditions they set were a smokescreen; their real goal was to use this plane full of hostages to strike the Inari Honsha. If the Inari used missiles or fighter jets to intercept, not one of these hundred and fifty people would survive. If they didn't intercept, they would lose their head shrine along with all those lives.

Shooting down a plane full of hostages would ruin the Inari's reputation, but leaving it alone would mean a direct hit on their sacred home. These hundred and fifty hostages had now become a shield for these yokai hijackers—a shield against any direct assault from the Inari.

'Hmph, so choose, you foxes of Mount Inari. Will you discard your mask of false benevolence? Or will you let your head shrine be destroyed on the eve of the Inari Festival? Either way, your reputation will be dragged through the mud, and all of Kyoto will fall into chaos, hehehe,' the man in black giggled, his eyes fixed on the distance as if he could already see the Kyoto city skyline.

'Lady Hagoromo Gitsune will be satisfied with such a result!'

Meanwhile, in the cabin where the hostages were gathered, an atmosphere of anxiety and terror permeated the air. Under the threat of the men in black, all the passengers kept their heads bowed. Families and couples clutched each other tightly, while those traveling alone could only hug themselves and huddle low. Among them was Hayakawa Rin.

'How... how did I suddenly end up in a hijacking? Isn't this the kind of thing you only see in movies? Why is this happening to me? Why did this happen on my first trip away from home?!'

Sitting in her seat, Hayakawa Rin hugged her knees and stared at the floor, her body trembling uncontrollably. She screamed in terror and confusion in her heart. She couldn't understand how a plot she had only seen on television was now playing out with her as a character. 'Is it because I did too well on my exams and used up all my luck at once? Please, no! I did well so I could go play in Kyoto, but if I'm dead, how am I supposed to play?! Lord Deity! I don't want to go to Kyoto anymore! I'll give you back my score, just let me go home safely, okay?!' Rin prayed desperately in her heart. Just then, something unexpected happened.

"The emblem on the chest~ is a shooting star~ confidently piloting a fighter jet~ striking the enemy~"

Suddenly, a burst of music erupted from Rin's person. The noisy, tinny sound of a children's song echoed through the oppressive, silent space. It gave Rin a massive fright, making her entire body jump.

She knew what that sound was. It was her phone's ringtone! But they were on a plane—how could there be a call coming through?!

"From the Land of Light~ here for everyone~"

Rin began to scramble frantically to find her phone. However, the ringtone continued to blare loudly. Because the cabin was so unnervingly quiet, the sound easily reached everyone's ears. Rin felt countless gazes turn toward her. In the distance, a patrolling man in black frowned and began walking slowly toward her.

"S-sorry! Please let me find it, I'll find it right away!" Rin apologized as she finally pulled out her phone. When she saw the caller ID, she froze. The name displayed on the screen was "Inaba-chan."

Rin's heart skipped a beat. However, just as she composed herself to hang up, a large hand reached over and violently snatched the phone away. Rin looked up blankly, only to see the stern, vicious face of the man in black. She stared at him, paralyzed.

The massive airliner continued to soar above the clouds. By now, the plane was quite close to the Kyoto metropolitan area. In a short while, it would begin to descend and pierce through the clouds. Then, the people in the cockpit would be able to see the city, and the mastermind would be able to see his target.

However, at that moment, a shadow rapidly streaked out from beneath the clouds behind the airliner. It was a fighter jet, its wings emblazoned with the military crest of the Inari!

The Inari jet had surfaced from beneath the clouds, positioning itself directly behind and below the passenger plane, staying out of sight of the cockpit and any side windows. No one on board discovered its presence.

Unlike military aircraft, commercial airliners usually only have a weather radar to monitor general atmospheric conditions nearby. Navigation for commercial planes is typically provided by ground air traffic control using large-scale ground-based radar. They are the "traffic police" of the skies.

Therefore, the airliner could not rely on its own radar to detect another plane approaching. The hijackers could only rely on their eyes to judge the situation around the plane. The Inari jet that had quietly sneaked in had avoided the cockpit and windows, staying perfectly in everyone's blind spot. No one noticed its approach.

From the lower rear of the airliner, the Inari jet slowly drew closer to the upper front. Soon, this jet—tiny compared to the airliner—flew beneath the plane's belly and began maintaining the same speed. The two aircraft, one large and one small, remained in a state of relative stillness high in the sky. The fox pilot in the front seat used exquisite skill to keep the jet stable at the extreme limit where it wouldn't be affected by the airliner's turbulence.

"Lady Kagura! It is ready!"

Inside the jet, the fox pilot wearing a flight helmet called out. Kagura, sitting in the back seat and still wearing the casual clothes she hadn't had time to change out of, nodded.

"Good. Open the cockpit now."

"Yes, please be careful to control the airflow, Lady Kagura!" As he spoke, the pilot opened the glass canopy. Instantly, problems like decompression and turbulence surged in. However, with a flick of her folding fan, Kagura quickly stabilized the surrounding airflow, suppressing all those issues.

Kagura stood up directly in the back seat of the open-canopy jet. The controlled wind brushed against the new clothes she had just bought that morning. She looked up at the belly of the massive aircraft above her.

"Hmph, these thieves really are moving with the times, hijacking things all the way up into the sky," she said while pulling a bundle of scrolls from her clothing. She flicked them into the air, where they unfurled and hovered before her, supported by the wind. These scrolls were covered in drawings of human figures surrounded by countless incantations.

"Ghostly Death Dance!" Kagura whispered, waving her fan. A faint green light immediately emanated from the scrolls. Countless humanoid, glowing green spirits erupted from the paper, floating upward. They passed through the steel barrier of the airliner's belly and entered the interior of the plane.

Inside the cabin, almost everyone's attention was now focused on the center. There, Rin watched in terror as her phone was taken by the armed man in black. The man was now glaring at her with a look of pure malice.

"Kid... what do you think you're doing?! You have a death wish, don't you?!" the man roared at Rin.

Panic surged in Rin's heart, and she quickly responded, "N-no, I'm sorry! I didn't do it on purpose! I couldn't help it if a call suddenly came in!" She spoke in a complete fluster, but the man clearly didn't believe her.

"A phone call? You can get a call on a plane? Are you mocking me, kid?! Tell me, are you plotting something?!" the man continued to roar. Rin looked like she was about to cry. She thought to herself, 'Inaba, you're really going to be the death of me!'

"I... I... I really don't know..." Rin said with a sob. Her attitude clearly made the man lose his patience. He clenched his other fist tightly. Seeing this, Rin's terror shifted to a whole new level.

"I see you need a little lesson."

Muttering this, the man threw his clenched fist forward with all his might. At that exact moment, Rin instinctively bowed in an apology.

"Ah! I am so sorry!"

As Rin bowed, the man's fist struck empty air, smashing directly into the hard components between the seats. The assembly shattered, and a quarter of the neighboring seat was obliterated. Shards of metal components happened to pierce into the man's hand, causing him to cry out in pain.

"Ah!"

In the pain of his fist, the man stepped back. Rin was so startled by the sight that she stood up from her seat.

"Ah, are you—are you okay?"

"Curse you, kid, you did that on purpose!" Clutching his bleeding fist, the man spoke viciously. He finally reached the end of his tether and pointed his gun directly at Rin. "I'm going to kill you!!"

And then, Rin apologized once again.

"I am truly, truly sorry!!"

At the very moment the gun was pointed at her, Rin lunged forward in a deep bow of apology. This time, her head slammed directly into the abdomen of the man, who was also moving forward to shoot. The man's face twisted as his soft belly took the heavy impact. The handgun and the phone slipped from his grasp, and both he and Rin fell in opposite directions, landing hard on the floor.

"Ow ow ow! It hurts, it hurts!!" Clutching her head, Rin cried out as she sat in the aisle. On the other side, the man in black was also clutching his stomach, struggling to stand. The other men in black, seeing this scene, couldn't help but burst into laughter, and even some of the passengers couldn't hide their amusement.

Feeling humiliated, the man in black snatched up his handgun again. Consumed by rage and shame, he stood up, ready to put a bullet in Rin.

"Die, you little—"

But then, the man froze in place. A bone-chilling coldness was radiating from his neck. He looked down in shock and saw an ethereal, glowing green blade protruding from his throat.

The man collapsed heavily. In his fading vision, he saw a semi-transparent, ghostly green figure floating behind him, wearing a helmet and tattered tactical gear. Beneath the helmet, which was marked with several bullet holes, was a grim skeletal face.

Suddenly, countless green, chilling military spirits surged up through the floor of the cabin. Each one emerged directly behind a man in black. Silently, the other terrified hijackers were pierced through their bodies by ghostly blades from behind.

They were the "Ghost" Unit of the Inari. They were not some special forces unit codenamed "Ghost" like those of other nations—they were a unit truly composed of ghosts.