by Z. V. Hunter
Kuro balled his hands into fists and shook his head. "No. It got worse. The story goes that they did connect it to the main line. They sent a train through with passengers on it. We're not sure how many, but when it came out on the other side, everyone was gone."
I stared at him. Then I looked at Taro, who watched me. "Gone? Did they walk back through the tunnel?"
Even as the words left my mouth, I knew there was another explanation. But I'd never seen a Gate to the Spirit World that large before. One that could take in every person on a train and spit the train back out.
What kind of Calamity could do something like that?
"You know where they went. Or at least you have an idea," Kuro said and finally looked at me, his gaze hard and unyielding.
A lump of ash clogged my throat. "And they were never seen again?"
Kuro shook his head.
I knew Conjurers were power-hungry, but to keep something that dangerous lying around? Even that seemed beyond reason.
"Then why does your family still own it? Why not close whatever door is open and permanently block it off?"
Taro laughed.
Kuro's shoulders stiffened.
"Our family hasn't always owned it. We acquired it recently. Or should I say, Kuro did. What was it now? Last year or so?" Taro said.
Kuro frowned at him. "Father said to increase my investments in railroads and gave me a list of places to purchase. I didn't know that one was cursed until after I bought the damn thing," he grumbled.
Looking at Kuro's penthouse, he didn't seem like the type of person who made random purchases. It hardly had anything in it. And he'd always been so methodical when he was younger.
So careful.
"So why not seal it now?"
"I'm not sure it can be sealed," Taro said. "Which is why it's so heavily guarded. If you went inside, you probably wouldn't have come out again."
That felt more like a threat than a warning, and if Kuro's whole family was in on it—in on whatever this was—it wouldn’t surprise me.
"Then it's a good thing I didn't go inside, right?" I said through gritted teeth.
Taro smiled.
Suddenly, Kuro grabbed my hand. They were damp. His fingers trembled as they wrapped around mine. "We're leaving. No reason to question her any further since you got what you wanted." Kuro grumbled.
In any other case, I'd have yanked my hand back. Now, it seemed like a bad move. I couldn't let them know I was on to them. Or maybe it was just Kuro alone. Now he knew I was on the missing person's case. Knew I was close to catching them.
My blood went cold.
Like I said, I can deal with Calamities and ghosts just fine, but people—yeah.
They're more difficult.
Taro stood and smoothed out his suit, though there wasn't a wrinkle to be seen. His eyes landed on the Spirit Stone around my neck. The warmth from it radiated into my skin. "Nonsense. We must thank her for the other night, Kuro. Come. Let me offer you a gift for saving my little brother. I think you'll find it most illuminating.”
23
I DIDN'T HAVE a choice but to follow him.
The room I'd woken up in seemed like a typical living area for the super-rich. Dark leather chairs and a matching couch. Western art, most of it over the top in color and style, adorned the walls. It looked like the set of a movie that took place at an English manor.
As we tromped down the hall—I tromped, the others walked carefully—I realized where I was for certain.
The Abe family estate.
The wards on the walls were one of the giveaways. I remembered them from Kuro's place, and from when I was a child. They felt worse now. The control they exerted to contain all the Calamities on the premises pressed on my shoulders and weighed me down. It reminded me of when I first woke from Yomi-no-kuni, and my access to Ame was gone. Cut off.
Ice crept through my veins. Going to the police would've been safer. Sure, I may have gotten a fine for trespassing, but now I sat in enemy territory, and my coat's pockets were empty. No weapons. Fun. Even my access to Makai didn't work here.
I didn't bother to check for Yomi since I wouldn't use it anyway. Unless I had no other choice.
Night had fallen. The windows were dark and the twinkling lights on the grounds shone outside.
So, I couldn't run for it. For one, the estate was located just outside of Neo-Tokyo on a huge swathe of land. From my time there as a kid, I remembered the koi ponds and a huge garden with pagodas and finely sculpted trees. They also had their own private Shrine and Temple.
I didn't even know where the exit was. From what I remembered, the road to the house was about a mile long. No way I'd make it that far. None of the defenses were out in the open, but I felt them tingling under my skin. Even if I couldn't see them, the power radiated throughout the whole estate. Not even their Shades could form under the weight of those wards. No wonder Lux was quiet.
Kuro squeezed my hand as we passed portraits and expensive vases set on tiny tables along the hallway. Part of me wanted to knock the vases over, to prove I could. To prove I wasn't part of whatever game they were playing.
I held the impulse back.
Fought the urge to hold Lux's Spirit Stone and wished for him to say something again.
They'd taken my weapons. I better get them back because Aki wasn't going to be too happy if I lost them so soon.
"Where are we going?" I finally asked after it felt like we'd walked through half the damn house.
"You'll see." Taro stopped in front of a door, pulled out a key and turned it in the lock. His eyes wandered over my face and down to the hand gripping Kuro's.
I pried mine away and wiped the palm on my thigh.
"Father won't be too pleased with that development. He had a nice girl picked out for you. A suitable healer from the Tanaka family."
Kuro didn't say anything.
"I'm not marrying him, so your dad doesn't need to worry about anything," I said and gave him a quick smile. "Now, what is this about? I need to get home."
Without a word, Kuro's brother pushed open the door, and my heart stood still.
Every shelf in the room, about fifty of them, held a different weapon. Spears and pistols and swords of all sorts, and they all hummed and pulsed with a familiar sickening energy that sounded like a singular cry.
"Come in. We took your weapons, if you can call them that, when you were brought in. And we'll be more than happy to return them to you, but after the kindness you showed my brother the other night, I thought it fitting to give you something a little more suitable for your line of work. Don't you think, Kuro?"
Kuro's eyes widened, and he set his jaw. "Father would agree to this?"
That old annoyance stirred in my gut. "I'm sure he wouldn't. Giving a Calamity Weapon to someone like me—that's poor form, isn't it?" I said and crossed my arms. Defensive or not, I knew what they thought of me.
"That's not how I meant it," Kuro said and reached for me, but I stepped further into the room. Pretended the weapons didn't claw at my senses.
My skin crawled. The sensation of Kuro's blade against my flesh sent a chill up my spine, and I repressed a shudder. His circular blade sat next to an oversized Tachi sword—one I swore I'd seen somewhere before. I stared at it and tried to remember, but the memory flitted away, snatched by the urgency of the present.
"I thought this was yours," I said and pointed at the blade I'd used to subdue that slug Calamity.
"It is, but–"
"But considering he failed to use it properly, he's on probation."
I snorted and raised my eyebrows. "Probation? Does he work for you?"
For the first time since I arrived, Taro's eyes narrowed and his expression darkened. "Unlike some people, family is important to us. We all work together for the greater good. And when a member of the family messes up, we come together to punish them. Isn't that right, Kuro?"
Kuro shoulders hunched, and he nodded stiffly. He didn't look like h
e agreed, but he wouldn't say. Probably didn't want to lose his trust fund.
My weapons sat on a sad little table in the corner. The iron short swords Aki gave me just the day before, minus the one I dropped on the tracks. They were rusty and uninspired compared to the shiny, more powerful weapons in the room. But it didn't make my skin quiver or my stomach recoil to think about using them either.
Taro lifted one. He poked his finger into the dull tip of the sword and smirked. "Kuro here said you had your own Calamity Weapon, and yet you were found with these. Don't lie. I heard what happened when you tried to forge your own. Is that why you're stuck using iron instead of something fitting a real Exorcist?"
My eyes burned and fire clawed its way up my gut and across my bones. I'd spent the last eight years trying to make up for Mimi's death. No way in hell would I let an emotion like sadness or regret show in front of him. In front of either of them. I snatched the sword from his hand and gathered the rest of my weapons, slipping them in place quickly.
"Maybe I don't need one of your handouts in order to subdue dangerous Calamities. Remember, there are a lot of things that I can see and do that you can't."
"All Calamities are dangerous, Ms. Nox. Your mother should've taught you that."
I thought of the malevolence Lux blasted. It was too dangerous to set it loose on the world. Same with the Mukade I'd set free in my youth. And that slug from the house. Those Calamities needed to be contained. Sealed. But what about that capybara Calamity in the izakaya? It hadn't hurt anyone. It might even be a creature like that trapped in one of these weapons.
Like that Karasu-Tengu I dreamt of—the one with the clipped wings. As far as I knew, it hadn't done a thing to be contained by a Conjuror. I couldn't believe it myself, but I'd choose Calamities over that kind of magic any day. At least they didn't lie about what they were.
"That's what a Conjuror would think," I spat and marched toward the exit.
"You don't want what I'm offering you? Not even this?" he asked and touched the Tachi sword next to Kuro's circular blade.
I stopped.
Turned.
A dim voice rang in my years, but I couldn't make out the words.
Yes. that sword was familiar.
It tugged on my heart and I swear I felt the weight of it in my hands. Not possible, since I'd never picked up a sword like that in my life. But the boy in my visions carried one very like it on his back. Still, I didn't know who he was, or why the Abe family had that sword.
"You'd really give that away? To me?"
Taro smiled. "Of course. I always pay my debts."
That old stubbornness rose inside me, and I shook my head. If I took anything from his family, I'd have to pay for it later. And after Kuro's weapon made me so sick, I couldn't imagine that thing being any better. "I don't need it. I'm fine on my own."
I made it to the door this time before he said anything.
"Let's hope one of us doesn't have to defeat you someday, Ms. Nox, with a weapon very much like this. That would be quite the shame."
I didn't stop. Blood rushed to my face, heated my cheeks, and I managed to find my way to the exit after making three wrong turns. It probably helped the Kuro followed me the entire way. I heard his footfalls trailing me, and he called my name every few minutes and told me which way to turn.
He didn't try to stop me.
When I finally stepped outside into the cold night air, he was there. "I'll drive you home."
I shook my head and balled my fists to keep from punching him hard enough that his brother felt it. "I don't need your help," I said and started walking down the long drive in the direction I hoped was the exit.
"It's thirty miles back to Neo-Tokyo. It's the middle of the night, and we're surrounded by rice fields that are full of Chōchinbi, and you don't want to tangle with them. I'm driving you home whether you want me to or not."
Thirty miles? Yeah. I could do thirty miles. I walked thirty miles in the middle of the desert back when I lived in L.A. Long story. It involved Palm Springs and a Voodoo Doctor. But it's not important now. Just that I could manage.
However, the Spirit Stone burned hotter, and Lux's voice came to me as if from underwater. Pained and weak.
"What the hell are you thinking? First, you didn't run. And now you turned down the Tachi? Are you a dumbass naturally, or do you have to try at it?"
I smiled, despite my mood, and was about to speak back when Kuro climbed into a car. Someone must've pulled it around and I hadn't even noticed.
"Get in."
I grumbled as I yanked open the car door. Lux was back. That eased the worry that clogged my chest. If Kuro was plotting my death, I'd try my damnedest to crawl out again.
Plus, I had a few things I needed to ask him.
24
BY 'ASK' I meant 'beat out of.'
Mostly.
It's not like he had a weapon to defend himself besides his own magic. No matter how powerful, without his wards, I still had the upper hand. If I chose to use it. Yomi cancels out Ame, after all.
I bit my lip to keep from muttering to Lux. Of course, he thought I should take the Tachi sword, but that didn't mean I would have. Even if he'd been around to make a comment about it. He'd kept quiet since I got into the car, and the feeling was contagious.
Kuro gripped the wheel. His knuckles blanched, and he let out a long sigh.
I glared at him and fingered the hilt of one of my swords. Like I said before, it's not meant for human enemies, but it could knock someone out.
Speaking of which, my neck was sore from where I'd been hit. I rubbed it gingerly, and Kuro let out another stupid sigh. If he did that again, I would hit him.
"Where should I take you? Home or—"
I half expected him to say 'his place' to which I would've punched him. Only in the stomach and with my fist. But instead he let the sentence trail off into nothing, leaving the rest up to me.
"Where do you think?"
"The Meiji Shrine would be safest. And if you have anything to argue about, take it up with Akatsuki," he said and gripped the wheel even tighter. If he were physically strong and not just spiritually, he would've bent the damn thing.
I didn't argue with that assessment. I needed to speak with Aki anyway.
Here I thought he would take me in the opposite direction of Neo-Tokyo. Maybe back to the tunnel. Toss me inside. Yet, that's not what happened.
He turned to me after he pulled the car to a stop in the small cramped parking lot closest to Meiji. It was well after midnight, and a plethora of ghosts and Calamities roamed the streets.
A glowing bright red umbrella held by a Calamity in an elaborate floral kimono sauntered past us, long black hair wrapped up elegantly. We both watched her pass, though I knew I could see her much more clearly than Kuro could.
"The tunnel has something in it. Something terrible. You felt it, didn't you?" he said, his voice low and conspiratorial.
"Yeah. What is it?" I asked and cleared my throat. Maybe he didn't realize I was onto him. Or he was playing me. I couldn't be sure.
How could I trust him?
"I don't know. I haven't—I only surveyed the place from a distance after I bought it. My father thought it was a great purchase and my brother—" He shook his head. "Anyway, I think it might have something to do with those missing girls, and I think you figured the same thing."
Even in the shadows of the car his eyes burned bright and sharp.
I gripped the hilt of one of my swords and swallowed the misshapen lump in my throat. "Another one just went missing. And if what you say is true, and everyone who goes in there ends up in the Spirit World or as some Calamity's dinner, then the tunnel has something to do with it. The question is: what?"
Why was I opening up to him about my suspicions if I thought he was involved? To throw him off the trail, of course. At least, that's what I told myself. It seemed like a good idea. It's not like I had much experience double crossing people.
Th
at was more a Conjurer's prerogative than my own.
Even as the words left my mouth, bile turned in my stomach. That poor girl. Did she have any chance to be rescued now? She'd been in the Spirit World for at least twenty-four hours.
I'd tried to hurry, and I'd failed.
"We don't have any time to lose. You're right. That Calamity needs to be sealed, and I think—I think you're the only one who can do it," Kuro said. His bright green eyes locked on mine.
I blinked.
Gaped.
This had to be a trick or even a trap. He wanted to use me to feed that Calamity or something, but his eyes looked nothing but sincere. And the urgency in his tone was real enough.
If he was lying, he was a master.
Still, I wasn't a dumbass, like Lux said.
And no way in hell did I buy it.
But he wasn't wrong either.
That thing needed to be sealed ASAP, and it was the key to finding those missing girls. Plus, if I went with whatever he wanted, he'd give himself away at some point. Slip up. And when he did, I'd be there to catch him. Make him pay for everything he'd done.
The fear that filled me inside the Abe estate turned into something new—a burning purpose. My chest flared with it.
"You want me to go into that tunnel with a few iron swords and seals? That thing felt huge."
Kuro shook his head. "No. Not alone. I'd never send you into someplace like that by yourself. Where are we, Yuki? Who's the most powerful Shinto Priestess in Neo-Tokyo?"
The flame inside me flickered out. "Aki," I breathed. "But—"
"Do we have time to argue about this? We need to get over there before it gets bigger. Once that happens. . ."
I snagged the front of his shirt and yanked him close. The material strained in my grip, and his eyes widened. Didn't look like he expected that. "What the hell do you know about this thing that I don't? Talk or I'll throw you to Aki and let her deal with you in her purification pool."
He didn't struggle away. "What's the matter with you? I know as much as you do! That Calamity in the tunnel needs to be sealed before it's powerful enough to get free—that's why it's feeding. If that happens, I'm not sure how anyone, even you, could stop it."