by C. J. Anaya
“We have a serious problem here, Mikomi,” Kenji said the minute Katsu was out of earshot.
“You don’t think I will have recovered enough to accept his healing?”
“Worse. Everything I told him just now was a complete and total lie.”
My mouth flew open in surprise. “What do you mean you lied? Is there no way for Katsu to heal me?”
“Absolutely none, I’m afraid. Your ki is damaged, and you tire more easily. If Katsu had waited to have you practice on me later this evening, you most likely wouldn’t have struggled as much as you did just now, but when he told me what happened when he tried to heal your spirit, I knew I needed to come up with a plausible scenario fast.”
“Kenji, I still don’t understand. Why would you lie to him? What is it you’re not telling me?”
Kenji worried his cane in both hands before answering. “Katsu’s inability to heal you has nothing whatsoever to do with your ki needing rest in order to accept him. Your ki will never be able to accept a healing from his.”
“Why on earth not?”
Kenji swallowed hard. “He isn’t your soul mate. The prophecy is flawed. ”
I stared at him in stunned silence, having no idea how I might respond to such an unbelievable declaration. I might have rejoiced at the thought that I would no longer be forced into a marriage with Katsu if what Kenji said was indeed correct, but the look on my old tutor’s face gave me pause.
“How do you know this?”
“Your ki would never have rejected a healing from your true soul mate. It shunned Katsu because it doesn’t recognize him. Your spirits do not belong to one another, and as a result, he can never hope to heal you.”
“What does that mean for the future, Kenji, for the healing of the veil?”
Kenji shook his head, his eyes wide with worry. “We’ve missed something in the prophecy. If you and the warrior god are not soul mates, then you can never become a full kami. Your soul mate is the only one who can help you complete the full transformation.”
My thoughts swam with questions. “If Katsu is not my match, then who is?”
“A very good question, but there is another I must pose that is far more troubling. How will you and Katsu heal the veil if you can never be united?”
The heart monitor attached to Hope Fairmont beeped slow and steady. Her breathing remained regular, and her MRI had come back normal. Any impartial onlooker would have assumed she was sleeping, but Tie knew better.
All of the monitoring was unnecessary, yet Tie had agreed with James Fairmont, Hope’s father, that it was better to allow their group to believe her unconscious state was due entirely to breaching the veil, though this was far from the truth.
He leaned forward in his chair and rested his elbows against Hope’s hospital bed. He tenderly took her hand in his own and brought it to his lips. She stirred ever so slightly but showed no other signs of awakening. Soon she would remember everything, and that knowledge filled him with equal parts of excitement and dread.
He had waited a millennium for this!
She would know him as he was a thousand years ago, but would she wish to be near him once she remembered everything that had transpired? He didn’t think so, and that thought, more than anything, terrified him.
He thought of a simpler time, a time when he stood in a clearing surrounded by cherry trees and taught a mysterious, beautiful woman the art of the samurai. He would’ve given anything to have those moments back.
He closed his eyes and let out a tired sigh. “Angie, you should go home and try to get some sleep.”
“Like hell!”
Tie opened his eyes, surprised at the look of indignant outrage on Angie’s face. She sat in the chair opposite him on the other side of Hope’s bed, clinging tightly to her hand.
“Angie—”
“Save it, Cupid.” Angie pointed a finger at him in warning.
Her emerald eyes gleamed a bright green as she glared at him with a ferocious intensity. With her flaming red hair tousled about her head, back-lit by the setting sun coming through the windows, she was an intimidating figure to behold; a beautiful, fiery goddess in her own right.
He tried to keep the corners of his mouth from curling up in amusement and thought it best not to correct the “Cupid” remark she’d just thrown at him.
She poked her finger in his direction again. “If you get to stay, then so do I.”
Tie shook his head. “I’m her soul mate.”
“I’m her best friend.”
“I think soul mates trump best friends.”
“In what realm of ridiculous would that ever be possible?” Her nostrils flared in anger.
Tie wondered if he should continue pushing her buttons. It was better than sitting here, thinking about the unknown future they were headed toward. He decided to try reasoning with her instead.
“I just think it would be best—”
“Stop talking! Unless you can sit here and tell me what it was like all those years after Hope’s mother died. Unless you can talk to me about her hopes and dreams, her favorite color, her favorite movie, whether she likes pepperonis or Canadian bacon on her pizza, every performance she ever gave at Expresso, every tear she ever cried and every horrible outfit she ever had to be talked out of, you do not get to sit there and tell me what you think is best in regards to my best friend.”
Tie studied Angie intently, acquiring a new respect for the girl. She reminded him of a sweet, stubborn, courageous friend he’d once had a very long time ago.
“Fine, but please remember that what you’ve heard discussed between James and myself cannot be shared with Victor or Chinatsu.”
Angie’s shoulders visibly relaxed. “Like I could ever be that stupid.” Her eyes narrowed. “How do you think Victor will take it?”
Tie quirked an eyebrow at her. “Why? You worried about his feelings? Are you starting to like him?”
“Just because I admire the way his rear fits into his blue jeans doesn’t mean I like him personally.”
Tie had to chuckle at that, though he noticed some tension around Angie’s mouth.
“We just have to keep this quiet. I’m fairly certain that Hope and I aren’t legitimate soul mates.”
Angie gave him a shrewd look. “Legitimate? What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
He pulled his hand from Hope’s as he heard the door to her room open, but relaxed a little when he saw James step in.
“Is it your turn to guard her, then?” James asked.
Tie studied Hope’s father, noticing the dark circles under his eyes and the worry lines surrounding his mouth.
“Yeah. This is my shift.” Tie gave Angie a meaningful look, but she leveled him with a challenging glare. “I told Victor I would take over for the rest of the evening since he has more veil strengthening to do somewhere in England. To be honest, I don’t see any nekomata returning for a while now. Not with Victor traveling as often as he can to strengthen the various weaknesses in the veil.”
James nodded but kept his eyes on Hope. “Do you know how much longer this is going to take?”
“I know she has a lot to remember, and she has to do it gradually. The shock of her first life colliding with her present will take some getting used to. I continually check her progress, and her life force always lets me know how her vitals are, far better than the technology you have around here.” Tie nodded to the heart monitor and IVs attached to Hope’s body.
James gave him a rueful smile. “Habit, I suppose. I just want to know she’s okay, and it makes it look as if she’s really in a coma. I’m assuming you still want Chinatsu and Victor to believe that.” He walked around the bed and sat down in a chair next to Angie.
“I do.”
Tie studied him carefully, worried James might fall over from the exhaustion plainly etched upon his features. He knew Hope’s father had slept very little since the latest nekomata attack at the football field.
“Where’s Kirby?�
�� Angie asked.
“He’s staying with Ms. Mori right now, refusing to go back to his own mother, although I’m sure we’ll have a fight on our hands when his mother realizes he no longer has leukemia.”
“That mother of his best not mess with me. I will go postal on her worthless a—”
“Angie, have you had anything to eat yet?” James asked.
Tie stifled a chuckle. Angie, whether at her best or worst, was always entertaining.
She gave him a sour look. “I see both of you are trying to get rid of me.”
James patted her shoulder. “Hope would never forgive me if I allowed you to miss a meal.”
Angie rolled her eyes and stood. “As if the doughnuts in the food dispenser could ever be considered real food. Any takers?”
“I would rather have something from the cafeteria,” Tie said, knowing it would take her much longer to get there. He needed some time alone with James.
“Oh, would you now? Why don’t I just dash down to the local Olive Garden and pick you up some Chicken Fettuccini Alfredo while I’m at it?”
“If you don’t think it would be too much trouble.” Tie gave her an innocent smile.
“Unbelievable,” Angie grumbled. “Who knew kami could be so high maintenance.” She stalked out of the room, leaving James and Tie to their conversation.
“I need you to explain to me again what you did to Hope and how this process works.” James looked at his daughter, and Tie thought he saw a small tick jolt at the base of the man’s jaw. He was not handling this well.
“When Hope healed Kirby, she damaged her brain just as she did the first time she healed him. It’s lucky I got to her first. I was able to heal her easily enough, but she was beginning to slip away mentally. Her life force was trying to travel to the other side of the veil. When my life force connected with hers it created an anchor for her, a trail for her to follow back.”
“Then why hasn’t she done that yet?”
“It’s not that simple, James. You have no idea what Hope is up against once we go back to Kagami. She has to remember her previous life. She has to remember how she felt, what she experienced, the customs, the culture, the people, the…relationships.” Tie swallowed a tight knot forming in his throat. He took a moment to compose himself and continued. “There are many things she will not be able to fight against if she doesn’t have the necessary knowledge backing her choices and decisions. I guided her back from the veil, but I instructed her ki to open that other part of her mind that stores memories, even memories of past lives.”
“Why didn’t you let Victor or Ms. Mori do this once you brought her back? We could have verified that she was fine.”
“She is fine.” Tie insisted. “I promise you, her mind is completely healed, but to answer your questions, I don’t trust Chinatsu. She’s only interested in forcing Hope to heal the veil. Victor…well, let’s just say neither he nor I are anxious for Hope to remember her past or the circumstances surrounding her death. I knew he wouldn’t help her to remember, but I also knew he was incapable of doing so.”
James’ eyes narrowed. “Why? Why can’t he do what you have done? Why can’t he open her mind as you have?”
Tie let out a heavy breath and looked at Hope, the one person in the world who truly loved him, the one person in the world who had managed to save him from his own self-destruction.
He reached for her hand again and held it up, palm and fingers flat against his. A bright, iridescent glow spread out from their contact, and a black cherry blossom slowly sprouted and unfurled from the tips of their fingers. He heard James gasp in surprise, and Tie turned his head to look at him.
“The prophecy has decreed that Victor and Hope must marry, but he can never heal her completely, never hope to help her ascend to a full kami, never join with her to heal the veil and never…” he choked back a tired sob threatening to escape, “…never restore to her the very memories that encompass the beauty, strength, and humility of who Hope truly is.” He watched as the black vine from the cherry blossom circled its way around both their wrists, binding them together as it had over and over every day since she had been admitted to the hospital.
“Why?” James asked, clearly desperate for more answers. “Why has everything changed?”
Tie watched as the black blossom continued to tighten the binding between Hope and himself before answering.
“Because a thousand years ago, I committed the worst kind of betrayal and forced upon Hope something she never would have chosen for herself.” He pulled his hand from the woman he loved and watched as the black blossom disappeared, leaving dark wisps of magic in its wake. “I forced her to sever her tie with Victor and bound her soul to me. She’s mine now, forever, and even if I wanted to, I could never let her go.”
Deep silence permeated the small space between Tie and James, interrupted only by the steady beeping of Hope’s unnecessary heart monitor.
THE GRASS CUTTER SWORD
The Healer Series Book 3
C.J. ANAYA
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved.
The Grass Cutter Sword
Copyright 2015 © C.J. Anaya
Cover by JRA Stevens
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author / publisher.
Edana, 700 A.D.
The day Edana died was much like any other, and yet her heart was filled with love, hope and happiness, cherishing the moments spent with an individual who had promised her an eternity of happily ever afters. With Katsu by her side she would never be subjected to death, illness or even injury. His gift of immortality granted her the opportunity to continue what she felt was her divine duty: to warn others of their own unnecessary deaths, receiving visions of how best to help them so that they too might live their own versions of a happily ever after. More importantly, however, she would finally have what she had yearned for most of her life: unconditional love from a man who valued her, not because of her own supernatural gifts, but because she was simply Edana, and he was simply Katsu.
Before sneaking out of her small, thatch-roofed hut to join Katsu forever, she stole a kiss from her sleeping mother. The contact gave her another reassuring vision of how her mother’s life would end; in her sleep ten years from now, her spirit leaving her body as naturally as it had first arrived. There existed no better way to slowly slip through the veil than by natural causes.
Edana felt relieved to never experience the crushing burden of warning her mother of some unfortunate accident or possible harm done to her by another. The best deaths were the ones fated to all of mankind, and she need never interfere with those.
She stole away into the darkness of pre-dawn to meet with Katsu at the appointed place and time; a small bluff overlooking a beautiful chasm of rocky green foliage and a tiny, rippling stream of sparkling azure. She wrapped her woolen shawl closer about her person, though she hardly felt the cold of the morning due to the warmth spreading from the love within her heart.
She was first to arrive at the bluffs and had a moment to breathe in the cool, crisp morning air, pondering on the circumstances that had brought her to this point. Only a few months had passed since she first met a wandering merchant by the name of Musubi, but the months blurred into a cacophony of emotional discoveries and eventually hope. He had wandered into her village with obvious purpose in his air and speech. Though his accent was strange and his appearance even more so,
she had felt compelled to help him locate a young woman by the name of Thesbis. He left the nature of his business a secret, but she didn’t worry about his motives for his eyes were kind and his manner sincere.
When she accidentally bumped into him without receiving a vision of his death, she had been overcome with shock and then an unrelenting curiosity. Contact with another human being always resulted in a vision of demise, whether natural, accidental or sinister in nature, but no visions manifested themselves in the presence of this intriguing man.
In the weeks that followed, he sought her out more frequently, and she was only too happy to oblige, enjoying the presence of a man who allowed her to feel normal and accepted for once in her life. Though she exercised caution when initiating contact with him, every time he touched her she was blessedly free of any and all visions dealing with the manner of his death. She soon began to wonder if Death feared taking him.
The day his friend Katsu came for a visit would mark the beginning of the end for her, though she hardly knew it at the time. The announcement that she and Musubi planned to marry was just as much of a surprise to her as it was to Katsu, and an unwelcome one by the look on his face. Though she ruefully realized she had never discouraged Musubi’s interest in her, her heart ached at the idea of marrying a man who had become a dear friend to her and nothing more. To marry him solely because he gave her a blessed reprieve from her visions would only end in her unhappiness and his. It wasn’t enough to build a marriage on, and yet what other options did she have as the village witch and outcast?
Katsu remained in the village while Musubi left to make preparations for their wedding, promising to return within a few weeks to fetch her. During that time it seemed to Edana that Katsu felt it his duty to look after her on behalf of his friend.
At first, he merely observed her as she worked in her garden, offering to lend a helping hand in cultivating the few vegetables she and her mother enjoyed. His regular visits gave them both the opportunity to broach different topics of conversation, some of a more serious nature, while others filled with the most wonderful sense of levity and true fulfillment. Though she had grown to know and care for Musubi, her heart longed for Katsu’s conversations and his opinions on any and every topic available. In short, she simply longed for him.