by Z. V. Hunter
My brows furrowed.
"He's both right and wrong all at once. Right about it needing to be stopped, but wrong about who should do it. Not us. Not us at all. Remember the last time I told you to run? Do that now. Get as far away from Neo-Tokyo as you can. I hear Timbuktu is nice this time of year. Let's see."
I started at the sound of Lux's voice. It was still faint but louder than it'd been at the estate. My heart warmed. He told me to run again. But why?
What did Lux know that I didn't?
"How do you know it's feeding?" I growled at Kuro. "Or that I can stop it?"
"You can't on your own, but with Aki's help we can. That's what I know. And it's pretty obvious it's feeding on anything that gets close enough. It's been feeding for years, whatever it is. Do you want it to get free?"
"How about Rio? Or we could go live as hermits in the mountains of Patagonia. That's a good place to hide."
Him.
That Calamity that chased me through the streets said it was after 'him.'
"It wants you," I muttered.
"What?" Kuro said, and yanked out of my hold.
Lux laughed. It sounded thin and brittle. "Me? What would it want with me?"
"Like I fucking know! But it's not gonna get you, because I'm gonna stop it."
"What did I tell you about that being the worst idea in the world?"
"And you can either run and hide or help me," I said. I wasn't sure whom I was talking to: Lux or Kuro.
But I knew what I needed to do.
What my mother would've done in my place, and I couldn't run away from that now.
I'd done enough running to last a lifetime. Now, I needed to fight.
25
I KNEW AKI would agree to help before we asked her. The fierceness with which she set to gathering the supplies we needed didn't surprise me either. Kuro said he needed to do something and that he'd meet us at the tunnel. He cast a long look at Lux's stone before he left.
Suspicious?
Yeah, not at all.
Still, it gave me time to tell Aki what I'd learned.
"Kuro? You think he's leading us into a trap and you want to walk into it willingly?" she asked as she tied the red hakama around her waist. She couldn't walk into any fight with a Calamity without her armor on—and while it might've looked like normal thick cotton, I knew it was stitched with powerful wards and other sorts of weapons, mostly small iron things and Spirit Beads. Her largest weapon was her own energy that came right from Takama-ga-hara.
I shrugged. "How else are we supposed to catch them in the act? If you don't want to do this, I understand."
She shook her head and grabbed my hands, squeezing them. "Of course I'm going to help you. And I'm glad you asked. Well, Kuro texted me too. He said if you said 'no' he'd still want my help. So, you really think he would do something like this. Why?"
"He's a Conjurer. Why do they do anything?" I said and knew the argument sounded weak. Knew I hated it when I was judged because of my powers alone, and yet I did the same thing to him. "That possessed bartender—did you find out anything about that mark on her neck?"
Aki dropped my hands and frowned. "It's the kanji for 'doll' and 'dominate,' but they were the archaic versions. Seal-style. Whoever branded her meant business. It's usually not used by anyone but magic users now."
"Like Conjurers?" I asked and bared my teeth.
She nodded and swallowed heavily. "Well, if he's involved, we'll have to stop him. And this thing. It's probably the one that's been bothering my dreams," she said and gave a shudder.
Lux complained on and off, offering several different places I could go instead of back to the tunnel, and I ignored every one. Either he'd tell me why this Calamity wanted him before I got there, or he'd tell me after I sealed it. Those were the choices. None of them involved me hightailing it out of the country again.
Once we had everything we needed, Aki left a note for the Shrine Maidens on the kitchen table, and I called Ken out of courtesy. He didn't answer, so I left a brief message and told him where I'd be. I hoped that the next time I saw him I'd have better news. Maybe even a few of those recovered girls. I had the same hope when I jumped into the Spirit World to save Mimi, and—yeah—that didn't go as planned.
A normal human had no chance of surviving a run in with something that powerful.
Or maybe I underestimated them the same way Kuro underestimated me.
I hoped so.
月
The tunnel felt worse at night, and we weren't even that close to it yet. The pulse of purely malicious power throbbed under my feet and thrummed the blood in my veins. The thing's need to feed curled my intestines into something resembling an obscene balloon animal.
Aki stood next to me, stock still, and stared into the darkness.
"This is vile. How did you manage to approach?"
I shrugged. "A little girl might be alive in there."
"You're right. Let's go."
I almost told her to stay behind. I'd finish it on my own. But the stench of rotting and the gut-coiling wrongness the tunnel gave off made the words catch in my throat. Waltzing in there alone was about as welcoming as marrying into Kuro's family.
I stepped with more certainty than I felt.
Lux didn't help matters. "Oh, this is great. Wonderful. It smells me. Didn't even have to send one of those possessed things to get me."
"Are you gonna let me know why it wants you? And where the hell you've been?"
Aki didn't ask who I was talking to. She was probably trying to focus on taking each breath and step, much like I was.
"I've been suppressed. Those Abe family wards affect more than Calamities, as you should be able to tell. And you're wrong about me. What do all the current disappearances have in common?"
I shone my penlight on the fence and looked for the hole I'd climbed through earlier. No need. The metal had rusted and dissolved in the last few hours. I turned to look at Aki.
She nodded. "It's spreading its influence. We were right to hurry."
Kuro hadn't arrived yet. He'd sent a text about twenty minutes before that he was on his way, and if he'd gone back to the estate it would take some time to get here. But we couldn't afford to wait.
"They were all girls. Female children."
Lux laughed, and the stone warmed my chest. "Yeah, that was probably the choice of whoever fed it. The fact that they're all female is inconsequential."
"Wait. What do you mean 'whoever fed it?'"
"What does it sound like that means? It can't move on its own—not yet. It never could do anything but wallow in the deep dark. Without someone to feed it, it'd wither up and fade from memory. Pop out of existence like it should. But someone found it and thought it might be useful. And that someone chose the meals for this thing."
"Those girls and you. But what do you both have in common?" I asked and jumped into the ditch. My feet crunched on the gravel, and I helped Aki down. Pulled out an iron sword.
"Charms. Good-looks. A certain spark."
"So nothing?"
Lux grumbled, and I would've smiled if I weren't headed into a pool of pitch blackness to face an unknown foe.
Splotches of rust bloomed across the surface of my sword, and the extra set of Spirit beads that Aki had draped around my neck felt about as comforting as the dread in my bones. Thick curls of Spirit fog wrapped around our ankles and mingled with a dank miasma.
It filled our lungs, and Aki's fingers snagged against mine. She clutched the Spirit Vessel to her chest. It was larger than the one I'd used—plain white pottery with the kanji for 'power' and 'containment' scrawled in black ink across it. I recognized the writing, neater than Aki's own. That was one of my mother's Vessels—the most powerful ones.
Great. That meant this tunnel wasn't only home to a dangerous Calamity—there were ghosts inside with it.
"Nothing I say is going to change your mind, is it?" Lux asked, sounding equal parts frightened and resigned.
&nbs
p; "Nothing. You know what I have to do," I said and gripped Aki's hand.
We stepped into the darkness together.
26
THE FOG WRAPPED around us like a cloak, thick and heavy as velvet. We stumbled over the uneven ground and the track that led to the center of the tunnel.
That's where the Calamity waited.
The pulse beat in my chest.
Lux's stone shone weakly, the light no more than a pale golden glow.
"It was created by all the people who died here, wasn't it? All the pain and death and misery compacted into this thing," I whispered, more to myself than to anyone else. I'd told Aki about the tunnel's history earlier.
Lux chuckled nervously. "You'd think that, and you'd be wrong. It's the other way around, as a matter of fact."
"What does that mean?"
"This one-sided conversation doesn't make me feel any better, just so you know," Aki said. Her breath puffed out as a mist of frozen air.
Lux's stone was so warm I hadn't noticed the icy chill. It clawed up my spine and over my exposed flesh.
"Sorry. I'm trying to find out what we're about to face. Does that mean when they opened the tunnel they found something that had been here all along?" I aimed the second part at Lux.
"Not all along. But it had been sleeping for a long time. Hidden under a mountain of solid rock. We never thought humans could be stupid enough to unearth it, and yet, here we are."
"Who's we? And how do you know it was hidden here unless—"
A cry broke the air. A child's wail and whimper.
Aki and I exchanged a glance and charged down the tunnel. Not the best idea in the dark, but we didn't have a choice.
Another voice joined the cry, a man's voice that was all too familiar. Aki let out a huff and her hand slipped from mine.
"I tripped. Go on!" she said.
She was strong.
She could take care of herself.
That little girl couldn't.
I ran faster.
The tunnel curved, and I'd have run smack into the wall if not for the faint light that glittered across its surface. As I rounded the corner, I came to a sudden halt. My boots slid across the gravel tossing it up.
The Spirit fog and miasma came to my waist like walking through a river of the stuff. The light came from a torch that flickered on the wall and next to it stood two men.
Taro and Kuro.
He'd left me a message that he was running late, and yet here he was.
I held my iron sword ready, gritted my teeth, and ignored the distinct ache in my chest. The hope that maybe, just maybe, I'd been wrong about him this time. "So, you were in on this together?" I growled, ready to attack.
He'd sent that text to buy himself and his brother some time. And I fell for it!
"What are you going to fight them with? Your fists or your smart mouth?"
Lux had a point. The rust that bloomed on the sword as I entered the tunnel worsened. It flicked away at the iron surface, and it was substantially smaller and weaker than it had been before.
Why did I think this was a good idea?
Well, I couldn't go back now.
Kuro opened his mouth, but I cut him off. I didn't need to hear what that traitor had to say. "Where's the girl?"
Taro laughed and pointed at something in the corner.
The torchlight hardly reached it, but I saw the outline of a huge roughly humanoid being. The head would've filled the entrance to the tunnel, and the rest of the body, larger still, merged with the rock and shadow around it. It sat in an alcove carved into solid stone. The Spirit Rope, heavy and thick, bound it in place. However, it was snapped and hung by a thread now.
So, Lux was right. The humans who blasted through this tunnel unearthed it, but they couldn't see it. They had no clue the damage it caused.
The monster beneath it stirred, and its mouth hung open at an unnatural angle. Nothing but darkness crouched in that maw. From inside came the crying child I'd heard before.
My stomach dropped to my toes, and I swallowed the bile that rose in my throat.
Too late.
I was too late.
Tears pricked the back of my eyes, and I blinked them away. No time for that now. I may have failed them, but I could still stop this thing.
Stop Kuro and his brother.
"You can't save them. He's absorbed their life, and you've brought the final piece of the puzzle—a Kami Stone—right to me. Kuro played his part well. Now, be a good girl and hand it over."
Kami stone?
A Kami is a God, which didn't make any sense. Lux wasn't a Kami; he was a Calamity. And even if some Calamities are obscure, weak Kami, they're still not able to use Ame or access Takama-ga-hara. My mother made that clear.
And there was no way to trap a real Kami. Not a powerful one anyway. Not in a Spirit Stone.
"Don't!"
"I wouldn't, even if I could," I said and listened for Aki's footsteps. She might be able to subdue one Conjurer. That meant I had to take out the other one. My fingers twitched, and the iron sword flaked away piece by piece. I could give them both a face full of Makai power, only where would that leave me?
Kuro shook his head and barreled into Taro. "He can't see it! You can finish this. Seal it!"
A sudden blast of light filled the cramped tunnel.
The blast struck Kuro in the chest. For a moment, he stood suspended in that light—his expression shocked. Then his clothes smoked, and he crumpled onto the ground. The miasma and Spirit fog dissipated around his still form. A line of blood ran from his nose.
My stomach collapsed in on itself. He was dead. Just like Mimi. It was all happening again.
"Foolish. He thought he could put a stop to this with you. I'm not sure what an Exorcist without a weapon can do. Care to show me?" Taro asked and snapped his fingers.
A Calamity appeared at his shoulder. It stood several heads taller than him, so much so it had to bend forward with the curve of the ceiling. The shape was vaguely human with a head and arms and a sinuous torso, but it was too large and indistinct. Nothing solid about it, only wisps of shadow.
The Shade.
It didn't surprise me that Taro had one. Or that it was so familiar.
I spared one more glance at Kuro, but the fog ate him up. Consumed him in a moment.
I had to keep the Shade away from Aki. She wouldn't be able to see it. Taro couldn't either, even if he called on it for his bidding.
"Iron won't work this time. Not when it's so badly decayed."
"And I suppose you can't help me out either?" I asked under my breath.
"This stone is a vice on my powers, and I'm still recovering from the last time I helped you. I told you to free me, but you didn't. Now, you'll have to do this on your own. You know how, but I don't think you want to go back there."
Back there?
The Spirit World or—
"You mean. . ."
"Help! It's dark in here. Where's my mommy?" a little girl cried from inside the Calamity.
Taro didn't act like he'd heard, and the Shade loomed closer.
"You know what I mean," Lux whispered. "You have to do what I told you before—what you've been afraid to do for years. The only way to seal this thing is to drain its power."
My stomach filled with lead. I set my feet and slashed what was left of my sword as the Shade swung toward me. It didn't make a sound, but the iron sizzled against its shadow flesh and bits of darkness fell away.
"You're stronger than I thought. Maybe Kuro was right about you," Taro said and pulled a silver dagger from a sheath at his belt. It glinted in the light, and another ball of bright white energy formed in his other hand.
The dagger screamed distantly, piercing and awful. A Calamity Weapon. But why did he want to use it against me?
And where the hell was Aki?
The Shade lunged at me again, and I ducked and stabbed at its insubstantial side. The shadow broke apart, but the iron did as well. It crumbled
and left a rusty smear on my glove. I didn't need to feel for the ones inside my coat to know they were in a similar state.
"Don't let him touch you with the silver. You have to get to the monster!"
For once, I didn't argue with Lux. First time for everything.
The crunch of gravel and the telltale click of a gun alerted me to another presence. My fingers twitched again, the urge to pull that darkness inside and use it against Taro filled me to the brim and yet—
"Freeze!" Ken cried.
I spun.
He stood at the curve of the tunnel, and Aki was beside him, her hands balancing a golden ball that throbbed with spiritual power. The ice that encased my heart melted.
"There's a Shade in here, and he killed Kuro!" I cried and took the opportunity to slip past Taro and toward the creature.
The light Taro summoned flew toward them, and he leapt at me, dagger gripped in his hands.
"Now!" Lux cried.
I stumbled, and a hand snagged at my ankle. Together we tumbled backwards into the Spirit Rope. With a loud snap, it broke, and the silver dagger plunged into my shoulder.
27
THE WORLD TURNED upside down as I landed. Pain shot through every nerve in my body. No matter what I did, I couldn't bite back the scream that ripped clear of my throat.
"I told you not to let him stab you."
I shoved at something heavy that slumped on top of me, and Taro rolled off. I expected the Calamity behind me to reach down and devour us in that moment.
The fog and miasma that filled the tunnel only moments before dissipated.
And Kuro sat hunched at my feet, his green eyes wide and worried. His fingers clutched my ankle.
"We're in the Spirit World," he said.
I knew he was right even before he finished the sentence.
"Yeah," I grumbled and looked at my shoulder. It bled heavily, and the pain shot through me like an electric shock. After a few deep breaths, it eased enough that I moved my arm. And at least the dagger wasn't still buried inside me. It'd clattered on the floor near Taro's hand.