Calamity Rising (Deathwalker Book 1)

by Z. V. Hunter

  I sucked in a deep breath. So, he wasn't exactly like me. The only way to get the full brunt of the powers I possess is to die and climb out of Yomi-no-kuni. Whatever happened to Kuro wasn't as serious, but it gave him a pinch of Calamity sight.

  I leaned across the table and grasped his chin. He gave a start but didn't tug away.

  We were too close, uncomfortably so, but I didn't know a better way to do this. I stared into his eyes and looked to see if anything about them was different.

  Mine were purple—not normal—and the irises are also ragged. Not a smooth circle. It's hard to notice unless you look closely. My mother was the first person to spot it.

  Kuro's were mostly smooth, but I noticed a small irregularity in his right eye. The green jutted out into jagged points along the far edge and were lined with pale violet. Even stranger, it seemed to reflect itself back on me.

  "I take it you're not gonna kiss me?" Kuro breathed against my lips.

  I scoffed and dropped his chin. Frowned at the cuts on my hands. "You wish."

  "And if I do?" he asked and smirked.

  I didn't blush as deeply as I had before, but my cheeks heated. Maybe Lux was right, and I hadn't been laid in too long. Well, I could find someone better than Kuro for that.

  "So, why'd you get so close?"

  "The edge of your right eye is jagged. That's why you can see Calamities out of the corner of it. You might want to have a Monk or a Priestess take a closer look. Especially the ones that know something about Calamity Mirrors. But, that's really all the help I can offer. Thanks for the Vessel. And your weapon," I said and suppressed a shudder at the memory of that thing.

  He leaned back in his chair. Crossed his arms. "You're investigating kidnapping victims? Isn't that a job for the police?"

  "Does 'confidential' not mean the same thing to you as it does to everyone else? And who says I wasn't hired by the police?"

  He smiled that same easy smile and shrugged. "Maybe you were. But you can't deny that we made a good team last night."

  Only Kuro would say that after being kidnapped by a Calamity and me doing most of the work. Still, I had better things to do than argue with him. "If that makes you feel better. Like I said, gotta go. My clothes?"

  "Having them cleaned. Shall I deliver them to your place later today?"

  "No. Return them to the Shrine. I'll pick them up from Aki," I said and strode purposely back to the couch. I grabbed my wallet and keys from the end table.

  "Good luck," he called as I moved out the door. Something in the tone of his voice sounded ominous, but I had no reason to think that. No reason to suspect anything. He'd been nothing but helpful.

  And yet he was a Conjuror.

  A chill raced down my spine, and I gripped Lux's necklace as the door swung shut behind me.

  15

  KEN DIDN'T SAY anything when I told him about the bodies in the house. Maybe I didn't let him say anything. I gave him a quick call to tell him about the Calamity and the new lead— the one that involved the Longneck Women, though if they were connected, it was all tangential.

  I needed to find those kids, dead or alive.

  Solve this case and keep all of them from becoming ghosts or Calamities themselves.

  I heard him take a breath, but I told him I had to go and hung up.

  He wasn't the type of person to hold a grudge. And I'd make it up to him later.

  A few rays of pale spring sunshine broke through the clouds as I made my way to the San'en-zan Zōjō-ji Temple. It warmed my cheeks pleasantly after the endless chill the night before.

  And that morning with Kuro.

  I pushed all that from my head and ascended the steps.

  Lux still hadn't said a word, even after I went home and changed into a more fitting outfit. Gray leggings, a black thigh length dress, and my black boots. I need to have them resoled soon. I wore a different coat than my usual trench. This one was red wool. It reminded me of the color of a Torii Gate.

  However, I didn't skimp on the weapons. I might not have a new iron sword, but I brought all the shuriken and Spirit Seals from my apartment and tucked them into various places on my person.

  This Temple was on a small hill at the edge of Neo-Tokyo, and the steps were so steep and narrow my thighs burned. When I was small, my mother told me they put Temples on hills so it was like climbing to heaven—though I'm not sure if she believed in heaven or not. Buddhists believe in nirvana, but religion here is a strange thing. Most people don't believe in one set system, it's more like they choose the parts that suit them.

  Is there something a Buddhist Temple can do for you—cure a curse or whatnot? Visit one. Need a blessing from a certain type of Kami—a God—or your fortune read? Go to a Shrine. And they only seemed to believe in the Kami that help them or the Kami they fear. A significant number of obscure Kami no one called on anymore hid around the country or withered away in the Spirit World.

  Temples are somber places and this one was no exception. It didn't have a Torii Gate to the Spirit World the way Shrines do, but the veil here was thin. I'm not altogether convinced that Bodhisattva and Calamities are different creatures.

  According to Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is someone who could reach nirvana but holds off to save others. They usually come in fearsome forms, twisted demon-like faces with hundreds of arms—stuff like that—and while they aren't evil, they can punish the wicked.

  I've seen them in the Spirit World.

  Maybe just different names for the same sorts of things, but I'd never tell a Monk that.

  Deep blue clay tiles, with rounded edges to let the rain wash off, covered the great curved roofs . The wood was dark with it, and the golden Spirit bells hung on invisible wire, imperceptible to all but those with the power to see them.

  They were exactly like the ones at Meiji Shrine.

  Paper wards stuck haphazardly to the pillars and walls of the Temple buildings as if thrown. Some had faded and others were fresh. Even if Monks followed a different philosophy, they couldn't deny the existence of Calamities.

  I hadn't called Aki that morning to thank her for the night before, mostly because I didn't want to hear about Kuro or get into a fight. I should be able to use that as an example of why I didn't need help. Though, I couldn't deny that I needed his weapon in the end—no matter how unpleasant it was to handle.

  Thankfully, the Monks weren't in the middle of prayer, and since it was midweek in early spring no tourists or locals were around. Only a few Monks wandered the grounds. I approached one that looked the most important.

  "Excuse me, sorry for intruding, but Yamamoto Akatsuki the Head Priestess from Meiji Shrine, told me you have a Calamity mirror? She said you dealt with a Longneck Woman a few weeks ago. I have a few questions about that case, if you don't mind."

  See, I can be polite when I need to be. It's just that I often don't need to be.

  The Monk looked like most of his kind, middle-aged and bald, and he squinted at me. "Are you a Shrine Maiden?" he asked and looked over my attire.

  Well, it wasn't unheard of for Shrine Maidens to wear normal clothes outside of working hours. Though, when they were on official business they would be dressed in the red and white hakama, the traditional wide legged pants with the short wrap top. I obviously wasn't.

  So, I went with the truth. "I'm working on a private investigation about a series of connected Longneck Women incidences. I heard about the one your Temple dealt with and was wondering why you think she became a Longneck Woman?"

  The Monk squinted at me again, and I blamed the rising anger in my gut on Kuro and not my own impatience. "If you say so. I wasn't there, but I can take you to someone who was."

  Good. Just what I was hoping for.

  "You must see plenty of trouble in your line of work," the Monk said as his eyes wandered from the cut on my cheek to the bandages on my hands.

  I shrugged and shoved them in my pockets. "Tough Calamity last night. Had to seal it so it couldn't hurt anyone e
lse."

  The Monk smiled, and his eyes squinted further. "Rough line of work for someone so young." He didn't sound like he was judging me. Unlike typical magic users, Monks are more accepting. Just part of who they are.

  Still I didn't like the slightly squishy feeling in my stomach. I didn't need approval from other people to do what I did. I knew it was right. Like Kuro said, I had the ability, and it would be a waste not to use it.

  He didn't take me into the Temple proper. That's used for morning rituals like chanting and meditating and all the other stuff they get up to. Just like Shrines have special rooms for the Priestess and her Shrine Maidens, only Monks are allowed in those places, usually.

  Though I've been in a few of them. Monk's ghosts are tough to handle, and they can turn into Calamities just like anyone else.

  The room he took me to was in the most modern building on the Temple grounds, and it looked like a normal sitting room. The floor was tatami mat, the thin woven rice mats that are so prevalent in older buildings. Like usual, we removed our shoes as not to break it. Cushions littered the floor, and I knelt on one, folded my hands in my lap, and waited.

  A few moments later the door to the left slid open, and a young boy walked in. He couldn't have been more than fifteen, if that, and he looked small for his age. Though, with the shaved head and the somber black robes, he might've been immortal. His eyes were an inky black and perfectly calm. He knelt in front of me. "You needed to speak with me about the Longneck Woman incident? I was the one who handled that case."

  I cleared my throat. Sure, I'd been young when my mother taught me to fight Calamities. She didn't have a choice since I could see them. But working cases at that age? That was out of the question. It wasn't until after she died that I became independent. Not that I blame her. She was trying to protect me. And yet this kid—

  "Yeah. Any history you have. Why did she become a Longneck Woman?"

  The Monk tapped his finger against his lips, and his eyes wandered from my face to the stone around my neck. He stared at it, and I had the sudden urge to wrap my hand around it protectively. It looked like a normal smooth rock to people who couldn't sense Spiritual Power. As a Monk, he could.

  "Well, we assume she became a Longneck Woman because she committed suicide by hanging. Her husband left her before the incident and took their young son with him. He's the one who contacted us about a presence in the house. He was trying to sell it," the young Monk said and shook his head sadly.

  I bit my bottom lip and let out a long breath. So, that Longneck Woman hadn't lost a kid. Great. I only had one other lead, and it was foggy at best.

  "Thanks for your time," I said and moved to stand.

  "That stone. It's powerful. Dangerous. Also, familiar. May I see it?" He kept his face completely impassive. Did he take poker lessons from Ken?

  I froze, halfway between standing and sitting, and my fingers snapped around the stone. It pulsed and heated my hand, moved in sync with every breath I took. It had always done that since I found it. "I'm sorry. I can't do that."

  The Monk didn't move. The room grew heavy and still. "Do you know what it is?"

  I gritted my teeth. On the surface, I knew it was a Calamity trapped in a Spirit Stone. What Lux was, I had no clue. Still, I wasn't going to tell a Monk straight out of kindergarten that. "Do you?"

  The Monk smiled with the corner of his mouth. "If it likes you so much that it will not let go, consider yourself lucky. But also, be wary. I hope I gave you the information you were seeking."

  I nodded and rushed to stand. My fingers shook as I pulled on my boots and fumbled with the zipper. As I strode off the Temple's grounds, I felt eyes watching from every window. It wasn't until I was several blocks away, and the sweat dried on my flesh, that I breathed properly.

  Lux was the one who wouldn't let go? I knew he was dangerous, but he liked me enough to hold on?

  What did that mean?

  What did I have to be wary of?

  When Lux decided to wake up, I'd have to ask him.

  16

  I THOUGHT ABOUT double-checking the Monk's story, but that included getting Ken involved. He was busy enough with the bodies I told him about that morning.

  I had one final lead to work on. The only lead left: the train tunnel. And, after the two days I'd had, I decided to put it off to the next. For one, the light failed as I left the Temple. I'd woken up late at Kuro's, and the back of my eyes stung with weariness.

  Not to mention Lux had yet to say anything since the night before, and despite myself, a gnawing persistent fear took root in my gut. I'd lived with him for so long. His voice had been there for the last seven years. Ever since I tried and failed to make a Calamity Weapon. Since I got lost in that mossy tangled forest and stumbled across a Spirit Stone instead.

  Maybe he was mad I hadn't killed Kuro. He'd talk when he wanted to. He was always like that. Back in America, he'd hardly spoken at all, and it never bothered me. In fact, going to the USA had been a relief since our bond was so new back then.

  I hadn't really gotten used to his constant presence until I returned. Then it was more of an annoyance than anything. Yeah, that's right. He was annoying, and if he didn't want to talk, that was his deal.

  Plus, I had a case to work on. And the only thing that connected any of the missing girls was an abandoned train tunnel, and even that was tangential. I didn't even know for certain why Tomoko's mom thought her daughter disappeared there.

  The other problem was Neo-Tokyo was full of train and subway lines, both active and abandoned due to various natural disasters and the War. They burrowed beneath the entire country making it like Swiss cheese. Finding one wasn't going to be easy.

  Sitting alone in my office didn't suit my mood—not after my run-in with the cryptic Monk—so I went to an izakaya instead. I chose one in Ueno, mostly so Kuro didn't wander in with that smirk of his and pretend like he found me there an accident. I couldn't really handle any more of him that day.

  Izakaya don't have the same depressing atmosphere American bars do. Don't get me wrong, American bars are fine if you're trying to hook up with someone or want to get shit-faced drunk. But izakaya aren't about that. You can sit at the standard bar and drink to your heart's content and no one will bother you. Or you can go with friends to one of the low-slung tables and drink and eat and laugh, just like a group was doing when I arrived. Their sharp voices grated on my ears, and I knew Lux would have something nasty to say about them.

  However, it wasn't their fault. They were young and smiling and, from the look of it, completely human. They didn't see the Calamity that lurked in the corner. This one looked like a giant Capybara who'd learned to walk on two legs. They couldn't sense the heaviness that hung over the bartender, like a Calamity locked itself to her. Maybe a Amanojaku. I'd have to keep an eye on that. Or talk the woman into going to a Shrine herself.

  They also aren't as poorly lit as American bars, the light in this one was warm and golden though not overly bright. I settled in the middle of the bar, ordered my favorite drink, a vodka tonic, and pulled out my phone to scroll through the pictures I found in the house. There had to be a clue in there somewhere.

  The first picture was of a darkened tunnel. A broken track ran inside. I knew it was abandoned from the overabundance of growth and the way she'd taken the time to put in the specific detail of cracked stones. One thing can be said about the care put into train tunnels: they never let the bushes get that close to the cars or let the stone crack. It'd tumble and crush a car in the event of an earthquake, and those are an ever-present threat.

  The rest of the pictures were much the same. Abandoned tracks and woods around the tunnel. The gaping darkness held something sinister even though it was only a child's drawing.

  It could be a dead-end, like the other Longneck Woman, but I hoped it wasn't. For the sake of those missing girls.

  This was one of those moments when Lux would come in handy. He would've said something snarky about the
photos, but given me a hint about the abandoned line even if it wasn't straightforward.

  Now, I was at a loss.

  The only thing I could think of was going to the missing kid's schools and asking around, but that would cause all kinds of problems for Ken. Not to mention the parents would wonder who the hell I was. Teachers too.

  It's not that I'm above scaring children, but getting Ken in trouble was a shitty thing to do.

  Ha! This is a time when Lux would tell me to suck it up and ask for help. And I could.

  Ken asked for my help when he needed it.

  It's not that it was a weakness, and I knew that. But my powers could hurt people. It happened before to someone I loved, and if I did that again, I wasn't sure I could live with it.

  What if I lost control of the power and became a Calamity?

  What then?

  It was too risky.

  I finished my second vodka tonic and was ready to hit the road when the bartender slid a third toward me. She smiled, wide and with too many teeth.

  Her face was oddly indistinct, and I knew I hadn't had too much to drink. Even if I focused on one feature over the other, it slipped from my mind into nothing but a blur. The only thing that really stood out were white teeth that shone in the golden light.

  "No thanks," I said and tossed some money next to the drink.

  "It's on the house."

  That presence that hung around her strengthened. Whatever Calamity possessed her was taking a stronger hold, and it was familiar.

  The slug from the night before?

  No. I sealed that. And unless Kuro set it free, which I doubted, it was sitting in a Meiji Shrine storehouse.

  Or in Kuro's collection, I thought bitterly.

  This presence was different. My heart throbbed. Hairs stood up on the back of my neck.

  Ice clinked in the glass, and I started.

  Tried to focus on her face.

  Her eyes.

  Her nose.