by Amanda Sun
Tomo said nothing, but he reached for my wrist with his other hand and pulled my fingers gently from his arm. He started to lead me away across the echoing stone floor.
“Did you find it?” Jun called after us, his voice resonating up to the ceiling. Tomo stopped walking, but didn’t look back. I twisted to look at Jun over my shoulder; he still had that sly smile on his face. “The Magatama,” he said.
A chill coursed through my veins. How had he known we were looking for it?
Tomo took another step forward, and Jun’s voice echoed around us. “Only two treasures left now, hmm?”
Tomo hesitated; this was a bad place to have a conversation like this. The station still bustled with people catching trains and buses; it wasn’t that late on a Saturday night. We had to be careful who heard us, but Jun kept shouting things like it didn’t matter.
Tomo turned his head to the side, his eyes cast to the floor. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“It’s too late for that now,” Jun said, opening his arms to the side. He pushed his foot against the pillar and lunged toward us, his black ankle boots clicking against the floor. “We’re too far in for lies.”
Tomo turned as Jun stepped toward us, closing the distance. If I reached out my arm, it would brush his; he was too close.
“Sometimes you forget you’re not the only one who has the nightmares,” Jun said.
I tried to swallow, my mouth dry. “Leave us alone, Takahashi,” I said, trying to distance him by name. “Please.”
Jun shook his head. “If only it were that simple, Katie. We’re linked now. The world is changing.” He lifted his arm, watching the lights catch on the silver spikes of his bracelet. “You think you could’ve gotten that close to the Magatama without my help?”
“You followed us?” I blurted out. Tomo squeezed his fingers around my wrist in warning, but it was too late. The words were out before I could stop them.
Jun laughed. “It’s too easy to ruffle your feathers. No, I didn’t follow you. But didn’t you wonder why it was so easy to infiltrate the palace?” He placed his left hand over top the bracelet, twisting it back and forth on his wrist as he grimaced. “You two kept me busy painting all day. Do you know how hard it is to fill twenty pairs of lungs with just enough ink to knock them out without drowning them?”
My stomach twisted with the horror of it. “You flooded the guards’ lungs with ink?”
Tomo narrowed his eyes. “You’re sick.”
Jun shook his head. “If I was sick, I would’ve killed them. I did what I had to so you could reach the Magatama.”
Tomo’s voice was edged with darkness. “What about the others you’ve killed? Got excuses for those, too?”
Jun shook his head, like we were hopeless. “Those murderers I saved the world from? I didn’t kill them, Tomo. They chose their own fates.”
“Like hell they did.”
“Why would you want to help us?” I said.
“Because,” Jun said, pointing at Tomo, “the Sanshu no Jingi are the only things standing between him and a gaping, smoking hole in the side of Japan. If you won’t be my sword, Yuu, I won’t let you be my thorn, either.”
Tomo took a step toward Jun, their faces nearly touching as they stared each other down. Tomo breathed out, and Jun’s bangs fluttered against his forehead. “Why don’t you just kill me, then?” Tomo sneered. “Why don’t you just cross me out in your sketchbook like the others?”
Jun smirked and Tomo’s bangs flickered. “I can’t kill a Kami as strong as you on paper,” he said, his eyes shifting as he studied him. “I’d have to use my own two hands.”
I shuddered, but Tomo didn’t flinch. “Try it,” he jeered. “You know I’m stronger than you.”
Jun clasped his fingers around his earring, tugging at the metal. “You don’t get it, do you?” he said. “This story has happened before. You made the Magatama from your own soul. From your tears and bitterness, from your cry of loneliness.” Jun’s cold eyes flicked to my face. “You gave it to your love as a token. She willingly gave it to me, after only one glance.” Jun’s fingertips dropped from the earring and curled around my hand, lifting it up to his mouth. “And I shattered it to pieces.” I tried to pull my hand away, but he gripped tighter, brushing his lips against my skin. The cool of his mouth jolted through me.
My hand ripped from Jun’s as Tomo grabbed him by the front of his jacket and slammed him against the pillar. He shoved him against the stone so hard that he forced Jun onto the balls of his feet, the neck of his jacket sliding like a collar up to his chin. Everyone in the station looked over at the sound of the impact.
Tomo screamed into Jun’s face, not caring who watched. “Don’t fuck with her. Touch Katie again and I’ll kill you. I’ll fucking kill you!”
“Tomo!” I hissed. A security guard dressed in pale blue spoke rapidly into his radio, no doubt calling for backup as the station travelers watched in shock.
Jun grinned, his eyes cold as ice. “What are you going to do, Yuu? The world is watching.”
Tomo took one hand from Jun’s jacket and squeezed it into a fist. He pulled it back, lining it up with Jun’s face.
“Yamenasai!” The security guard hurried toward us. “Stop right now.”
“I can still get in one good hit before he gets here,” Tomo growled.
“Tomo, he’s baiting you,” I said. “It’s not worth it.”
The security guard was closer now, wiggling his radio in his hand as a physical warning he’d called backup. He had no idea who these two were.
Jun smiled. “You can’t collect the last two treasures in jail.”
Tomo’s chin jutted out as he let out a frustrated breath. He lifted his other hand from Jun’s jacket, and Jun slid down the pillar to the soles of his feet. He straightened the collar of his jacket, coughing.
The security guard reached us and spouted rapid Japanese at Tomo. Crap. He’d already been arrested for fighting with Yakuza, and had been under suspicion with the police for breaking Jun’s wrist. This could be really bad.
But Jun smiled a winning smile, his eyes melting like a warm spring day. “Everything’s fine here, sir,” he said in a cheerful voice. “Just a publicity stunt.”
The security guard and I spoke at the same time “Publicity stunt?”
“Just some healthy rivalry to get everyone excited for the nationals,” Jun said, slicking back his blond highlights.
The security guard’s eyes widened with recognition. “Oh!” He pointed a shaky finger at Jun’s nose. “You’re Takahashi Jun! I watched you on TV.”
Jun smiled as the security guard canceled the backup, as he pulled out his business card and asked for Jun’s autograph. It was like watching a snake devour a mouse—it made my stomach crawl. I rubbed at my hands, trying to rid myself of the ghost of his lips on my fingers. Tomo looked at the ground, his shoulders shaking as he tried to calm down.
The guard waved as he walked away. He actually waved.
Jun stepped forward, so that he and Tomo stood side by side, facing opposite directions. “Don’t forget,” he said, his head tilting forward as his eyes gleamed like ice. “I hold your life in my hands. You’ll live when I want you to live.” His highlights slipped from behind his ear, curtaining his face from view. “And you’ll die when I want you to die.”
He stepped forward and was gone, lost to the maze of pillars around us.
* * *
We didn’t speak until we were halfway to my place, our footsteps trudging through the crackling maple leaves that had drifted onto the roadways of Suruga Ward. We weren’t sure what to say.
Tomo took a deep breath, and turned to face me, his silhouette lit by the buzzing vending machines behind him. “Gomen,” he apologized. “I shouldn’t have lost it like that.”
“How do you expect to control the ink when you can’t even control yourself? You can’t let him get to you like that.”
“I know,” he said, running a hand through his hair. “But he just lights this fire in my blood.”
“Maybe because of the old feud between Susanou and Tsukiyomi,” I mused.
“Or maybe because he’s a jackass.”
I couldn’t help it—a small smile escaped me. “That, too.”
Tomo sighed slowly, kicking at a maple leaf and flipping it over with his toe. “He knew about the Magatama. He knows the Imperial Treasures could hold the keys to his destruction, and he doesn’t even care. He wants us to find them.”
“Then we should stop,” I said. “Maybe he knows something we don’t.”
“He said the treasures will stop me being a threat,” Tomo said. “They’ll silence Tsukiyomi in my blood and render me useless. That’s enough for him.”
“But in my dream, Amaterasu told me the treasures could stop Jun, too. I don’t get it.”
We were silent for a moment, the only sound the whisper of the breeze, the humming of the vending machines.
“We have to keep going,” Tomo said. “We don’t have any other options. Maybe Takahashi doesn’t know the treasures will affect him, too.”
I bit my lip, thinking it over. “It’s possible. Amaterasu is on our side, right? She wouldn’t tell him if she was planning to destroy him.”
“Why do you think she’s on our side?”
I stared at him. “Why don’t you? She’s been in our dreams helping us, right?”
Tomo crouched to the ground, reaching for a dried leaf. “Has she helped us? Every night is torture. Death around every corner, threats, names on the wind.”
“But she wanted to protect Japan,” I said. “She gave Emperor Jimmu the treasures. She stopped Tsukiyomi from creating a new world by destroying this one.”
“Yes,” Tomo said. “She protects Japan. But it doesn’t mean she cares about us.” He rose to his feet, twirling the leaf by its stem before dropping it to the ground. It sailed between us, dropping with a small crunch. “We’re just pawns to the kami. I can be Takahashi’s weapon or Amaterasu’s. Either way, I’m still just a pawn.” He squeezed his eyes shut, his head tilting forward. “I want to be free from all this.”
Every fiber of me wanted to hold him, to take away the pain on his face. I reached my hands up and intertwined my fingers with his. “We will be,” I said. “We just need the last two treasures, and we’ll be free.”
He nodded, and we continued walking. He watched me walk up the stairs of the mansion, waited until the glass doors of the lobby slid closed behind me and separated us.
I rode the elevator up and tiptoed down the hall. I slid my key into our door to let myself in. Everything felt like it balanced on the edge of a cliff. How was I going to get to the other two artifacts we needed? Tokyo had been an easy day trip with a good excuse. What excuse could I come up with for going to Nagoya? And Ise was almost a four-hour trip. I’d need some kind of miracle, like Diane leaving for a conference for a week or something. Like that would happen.
At that moment, Diane popped her head into the hallway. “Okaeri.” She smiled. “I’m just sitting down to watch that doctor drama you like. Want to watch?”
I shook my head. I couldn’t deal with any more drama right now. I had enough of my own. “I’m pretty tired.”
“You must be,” she said. “It’s not even ten yet. I’ll record it for you. You and Tomohiro didn’t go to the café?”
“I’m sort of overwhelmed with everything that happened today.” It was the truth.
She smiled and made us tea, and we stayed up late talking about my dad. She bristled at the mention of Alison, just as I had. It was good to know I wasn’t crazy to feel the way I did.
She shook her head, leaning back into the purple leather couch. “I hope he really does mean it, that he’s sorry,” she said. “He did the wrong thing, and he hurt you. You can’t tell what people are going through by looking at them, you know? Look at you, for example.”
I felt the heat rise up the back of my neck. “Let’s not.”
Diane laughed. “What I mean is, you’re tougher than you look. You’ve been through a lot, and you keep going. You don’t give up. And it’s up to you to decide how much of a role you want Steven to play in your life, not him.” She sipped her tea. “And your friend Tomohiro. He looks tough, but he cares about you, and the Japanese he used with me was ultrapolite.” She shook her head with a smile. “He’s not fooling me. I can see exactly what he is.”
“And what is he?”
“A good guy.”
I grinned. “I think so, too.”
“But take your time with him, okay? I gave you freedom tonight to show you I trust you. Please show me the same respect by deserving that trust, okay?”
Oh god. The awkward talk again. “So no love hotels, huh?”
Diane’s face turned crimson. “Absolutely not.”
“I was joking,” I said. Kind of. I didn’t know how I felt about being alone with Tomo, but I knew I felt safe with him. I knew he wouldn’t push me.
I’d barely hopped into my pj’s when my keitai rang. Yuki. I pressed the phone to my ear.
“Where have you been?” she asked me frantically. “I’ve been waiting!”
“Sorry?”
“You promised me you’d tell me all the details about your Tokyo trip.”
I squinted, trying to remember. “I don’t think I promised that.”
“No, but you should have. What did your aunt think of Yuu? How much trouble did you get in when she saw him?”
I grinned. “Not much. She liked him.”
There was a pause. “I guess she had low expectations.”
“Hey!” I leaned back on my bed, staring at the ceiling. “You’re my best friend, Yuki. You shouldn’t talk about my boyfriend like that.”
She sighed, like I just didn’t get it at all. “It’s because I’m your best friend that I should talk about him like that,” she said. “You’re the starry-eyed one, so I’m the voice of reason.”
“So he’s no good, Voice of Reason?”
“I didn’t say that exactly. In fact, he’s...actually kind of nice.”
“See? I do all right for myself.”
“Did you finish your Future Plan assignment yet?”
I glanced over at my desk, where the paper sat untouched. “Why do we have to do it this year, anyway? We have two more years until graduation.” More than that if I flunked out and had to repeat a year.
“Two years isn’t much to plan ahead,” Yuki said. “You should work on it soon, okay?”
“Yeah.” I stared at the paper, wishing it would fill itself out. I could live in Canada with Nan and Gramps. I could move back to the States with Dad and this Alison who made him forget us. Or I could stay here with Tomo and Yuki and Diane. Even if it felt impossible, it still seemed so right. “Okay. I promise to look into programs here.”
“Great. Try for a school in Osaka, okay? Or even Nara or Kyoto. Then we can be neighbors. Or even roommates! Where is Yuu trying to get in?”
I’d seen papers on his desk I wasn’t supposed to, entrance exam info for Geidai, one of the best arts schools in Japan. Problem was, it was in Tokyo. Could he even live a normal life there? He could if we could end this, I thought. If we don’t stop Jun, there may not even be a normal life by then.
“Maybe Tokyo,” I said.
“Him, too? Tanaka is talking about Todai. Seriously. I know he’s supersmart, but Tokyo University has got to be the toughest entrance exam out there.”
“I wish we could all get away from this for a while,” I said. “Just...all of us hanging out, like that double date you wanted to go on that time.”
Her voice slowed down, filled with concern. “It’s a lot of pressure right now, right? Taking on all your kanji at the same time as the regular workload.”
“Something like that,” I said.
“Maybe we could,” she said, her voice brightening.
“Could what?”
“Go on a trip. The school always organizes a field trip in December. The student council is taking suggestions right now.”
But...there was no way they’d want to go to Nagoya or Ise, was there? But we could spin either one as a really educational trip. I mean, Ise Jingu Shrine was a hugely important monument of the Shinto faith.
“Where did they go last year?” I asked.
“Enoshima, I think,” she said. “The year before that was Fukuoka. Tan-kun’s sister Keiko was a First Year then and she told me all about it.”
Fukuoka was pretty far, on the southwest island of Kyushu. If they would go that far, then Ise might have a chance.
“It’s too bad December’s so cold,” she said. “I wish we could go to Kyoto for the cherry blossoms. It would be so romantic if I could sneak away with Tan-kun. That is, if I could get him away from eating all those takoyaki.”
“Do you think the student council would consider Ise?” I blurted.
She hesitated, only her breathing coming across the line. “In Mie Prefecture?” she asked. “Why would you want to go there?”
“We were talking about it in history class, right? It’s kind of the home of a superimportant shrine.”
Yuki let out a peel of laughter. “Yeah, but that’s boring!”
“It’s not,” I said. “Anyway, I bet it’s remote, and quiet, and...” I flipped on my laptop, searching the city for something appealing to Yuki. “It has lots of parks and forests,” I tried. “And Ise Bay?”
“You don’t have to sell me on it,” she said. I could hear the grin in her words. “You have to convince the council.”
“Okay.”