by Dave Ferraro
Yumiko bit her lip. “Yes. Why didn’t you make me aware of your suspicions?”
Mori chuckled. “I had to make sure. I could tell how you felt about him.”
Blushing, Yumiko was glad that Mori couldn’t see her. Yumiko had assumed she’d kept her feelings hidden well, but obviously that hadn’t been the case. “Yet you told Shou.”
“I felt it best to keep someone informed who could watch over you,” Mori explained. “And I confirmed my suspicions shortly after I landed. I…have other news to share, but I would like to discuss them with you when I’m back in Tokyo.”
“We have things that must be done here anyway,” Yumiko said carefully, deciding that she wouldn’t worry Mori with Shou’s abduction for now. “When will you arrive?”
“I will be boarding a flight back shortly. Please, Yumiko, stay safe until I arrive. I hesitate in saying this, but perhaps it would be best to let Kagami see to your safety.”
Yumiko blinked, then pulled the phone from her ear and stared at it for a moment. Was Mori really telling her that she should entrust a yokai with her life?
“Yumiko?”
“I will discuss our next move with Mr. Mathis,” Yumiko told her. “I will see you soon.”
“Yes. Be careful.”
After Mori hung up, Yumiko slowly replaced the receiver and sat, thinking for a minute. It was strange the way things had turned out. She never would have imagined her life being thrown into such chaos a month ago. Her whole life had been upended once, but this was something else entirely. This had worldwide consequences. This meant life and death for countless people. She was starting to feel the pressure, when she’d been completely ignorant of her role a few days ago.
“Where are they holding Shou?” Yumiko asked as she stepped back into the library.
Brian turned toward her. “There’s one way to find out.”
Yumiko frowned, wondering what he was alluding to. And then she recalled that he could see everything happening around the world through his mirrors.
“The Hall of Mirrors,” Ame-Onna stated. “You will find your answers there.”
Yumiko nodded and met Brian’s eyes before quickly looking away. Since she was seven-years-old, she’d prepared to fight Kagami, for the right to live, for her immortal soul. And now she’d come to find that she wouldn’t have to do that. But never in a million years had she thought that she would willingly return to the place where she’d been spirited away.
“Very well,” Yumiko said, the slightest wavering audible in her voice.
Brian continued to watch her, but she refused to look up into his eyes and let him know how he affected her. “Alright, Miss Sato. Please, lead us to a gateway.”
Yumiko turned on her heel. “The restroom mirror will do.”
Chapter Seventeen
Yumiko’s first meeting with Kagami when she was seven-years-old ran through her mind as she stepped through the mirror. Looking up into the face of the man from her memory, she now clearly saw Brian’s features in the shadows of the jingasa the yokai king had worn: the planes of his cheekbones, the curve of his lips. His face suddenly fell into focus, like the image in a telescope sharpening. A decade of fear lay behind her and now she walked alongside the man who’d instilled such fear in her. And to top it off, she felt…something for him, deep in her breast. Things had not turned out as she’d imagined they would. But then, they rarely did.
When she came out of the mirror on the mountain path, she didn’t dare breathe. She stood frozen as her eyes absorbed the area. It was covered in snow, as before, and the winding path was worn down with muddy slush. Again, she had no sense of temperature, and she didn’t hear a sound aside from the breathing of the others as they followed her. But it felt so surreal to be there, like she’d stepped into a dream that shouldn’t exist. Everything looked nearly the same as she remembered it.
“I’ve been so afraid of this place,” Yumiko breathed.
“You needn’t be afraid,” Brian said softly from beside her.
She looked up into his kind blue eyes and felt her heart stutter. She was trying very hard to stay mad at him, but he was so well-intentioned, and just so damn cute. She lowered her eyes. “I was always afraid when I passed through a mirror that I might end up here someday. But instead, the mirrors always brought me to the most beautiful places.”
“I…wanted you to know that there was beauty here. I wanted to show you that this place was nothing to fear. Obviously, I failed.” He stepped away from her, and Yumiko almost reached out to stop him, to tell him that she should have seen it. But she didn’t. She let her hand drop and she looked back as Tanuki shook his fur out.
“I hate that way of traveling,” Tanuki murmured.
“So, this place exists in the real world then,” Yumiko said, gazing around at the sky. “I mean, it must if my apartment exists here.”
“Yep. It’s Shuten-Doji’s castle on Mount Ooe.”
“Of course,” Yumiko nodded. Why wouldn’t Shuten-Doji’s reflection occupy the same place in the mirror world? It probably seemed only natural to Brian that he should settle down here. “Is that where they’re holding Shou?”
“Doubtful. Shuten-Doji’s no fool. He doesn’t have mirrors on Mount Ooe. And if he’s using Shou as bait, he’s going to want to show him off.”
“So, it’s a trap.”
“Of course.”
Yumiko processed this, wondering what Brian was thinking for a plan of attack. She looked up the slope to see him walking ahead of the kappa confidently. She stared at his back, as if she would be able to read his mind that way.
“Wow!” Reina breathed behind her as she stepped out of the mirror alongside Ame-Onna. “So pretty!”
Yumiko turned to see the girl looking around with rapture, then narrowed her eyes as a pair of kappa stepped through. “How come the kappa can walk through the mirror without a guide?”
“They are water-based yokai,” Ame-Onna answered, sidling up to her.
Yumiko glanced at her. “Like you.”
Ame-Onna bowed her head in answer.
“Because water can cast reflections?” Yumiko hazarded a guess.
“Quite right,” Ame-Onna replied, smiling as she looked up at Yumiko. The yokai was more beautiful than she remembered. She had smooth skin and kind eyes. No wonder Yumiko had been so trusting of her as a child.
“It’s weird,” Reina said as they began to follow the procession up the mountain slope. “It’s like one of those sensory deprivation chambers here. I can’t feel the cold. I don’t smell anything. And aside from our voices, there’s nothing. Just a big vacuum.” She tilted her head. “But it is beautiful.”
“Made ever the more beautiful by your lovely presence,” Tanuki added, looking up at her with a sly smile.
Reina rolled her eyes. “Don’t think I forgot what a perv you are just because you got us out of that mirror building.”
“You’ll be won over by my charming personality soon enough, my sweet water lily.”
Reina turned to Yumiko so that Tanuki couldn’t see and stuck her finger down her throat mockingly. Yumiko ignored the both of them and turned her head to the side to find Enenra staring at her.
“Enenra,” she said softly.
He grinned at her, continuing to stare.
Yumiko frowned. “What is it?”
“I’m just trying to figure out what makes you so special,” he said bluntly. “You have a rather pleasing humanoid figure, I suppose.”
Reina snorted. “She’s probably the prettiest girl I’ve ever met.”
“She’s definitely the prettiest I’ve met,” Tanuki said. “Can you blame me for hanging around?”
“Hey, what about me?” Reina protested, stopping to glare at Tanuki. “I thought I was pretty!”
“You are! Just not Yumiko-pretty.”
Reina crossed her arms and scoffed.
Tanuki rubbed his torso against her leg as he passed by her. “But don’t worry, my little tulip, you�
�ve captured my heart.”
Reina pretended to try to kick him, but Yumiko could tell her foot intentionally went wide. “I think what you’re trying to say is that you’re not picky.”
“Ah, you understand me so well,” Tanuki grinned up at her. “We’re going to make quite the pair.”
Yumiko felt her hair catch on something and put her hand up to find fingers near her temple. She flinched and pulled back to see Enenra rubbing a strand of her hair through his fingers. “What?” she demanded, yanking it away from him.
“It’s strange,” Enenra said. “Why does your hair only grow on top of your head?”
With a sigh, Yumiko turned her back on him without a reply. His hand had felt solid enough for someone made of smoke, so he must be able to change his mass as well as shape. Probably a good thing to keep in the back of her mind.
Soon, the castle came into view and Reina grabbed Yumiko’s arm. Yumiko thought that the sight of it had instilled fear in her friend, but when she turned to Reina, her eyes were wide and sparkling, admiring. Yumiko recalled having a similar initial reaction, but it had been so lonely and foreign within its walls that she’d wanted nothing more than to go home.
As they passed over the drawbridge and swept through the courtyard, there was a notable difference from the last time she’d been there, a decade ago. It wasn’t merely a silent, beautiful tomb. It was bustling with people. Everywhere she looked, Yumiko saw people strolling the cobblestone streets and stopping at little stores, or going about their business, sweeping and gardening, or sitting at one of any number of fountains, enjoying the day. The sounds of their voices breathed life into the scene, even if Yumiko couldn’t hear the water burbling or doors closing or people pushing wheelbarrows over the rocky road.
“What?” Yumiko found that she’d stopped, looking around in awe. And then she realized who these people were. Yokai. She saw monks without faces walking together, women with heads floating over their bodies conversing with one another, cats chasing each other through the legs of the crowd, heckling loudly. And then she saw The Funa Yurei, their dark forms drifting through the throngs of people, somehow more solid than when she’d seen them days earlier. She even recognized the captain she’d dispatched, with his eye patch, as he nodded her way politely, burning green briefly.
“You were right.”
Yumiko turned to find herself staring into the eyes of Kuchisake-Onna, The Slit-Mouthed Woman. Yumiko stiffened, but the yokai was smiling warmly at her, giving her pause. “I was right?”
Kuchisake-Onna nodded, her horrible mouth stretching even wider. “I found peace here, like you said.” She clasped Yumiko’s hand, startling her. “I didn’t think it was possible, to escape being a slave to my nature, from my drive for revenge. Thank you.” She bowed deeply, then stepped back and disappeared into the crowd. Yumiko stared after her stupidly, not quite believing the encounter as she tried to make sense of it.
“You did this,” Ame-Onna said, suddenly at her side.
Yumiko looked at her curiously. “I don’t understand.”
“Every time you sent a yokai to this world, Lord Kagami would bring them here, and created this place for them to thrive, and live with one another. He created this community for them, where they could be happy.”
“You mean that these are all yokai that I sent here?” Yumiko asked, blinking at the creatures around her. But she could tell that Ame-Onna was right. She recognized each yokai she focused on: Kejora, the woman with hair hiding her face, had been a victim to Yumiko’s blade at a hostess club. Mikaribaba, a kindly-looking old woman, had been pushed through a mirror in her cottage in the woods. Yumiko had sent them all here. And they’d found a place to live, apart from humans, where they could actually enjoy their lives, without their innate need to terrorize humans in the real world.
“Well, nearly all of them,” Ame-Onna amended. “There is Tanuki, Enenra, the kappa, and a few others that Kagami brought here himself.” She nodded toward a kitsune, who caught Yumiko’s eye and winked. The very kitsune who’d replaced Kagami to make it seem like he was a were-fox.
“Amazing.”
“He took your words to heart, you know,” Ame-Onna told her.
“Hmmm?” Yumiko found it difficult to focus. She was overwhelmed by the crowd, at looking into each and every face as she remembered having faced them with her sword.
“Kagami. Brian. He heard your words that day. About it being lonely here without others around.”
Yumiko turned to stare into Ame-Onna’s face, noting the small smile on the yokai’s lips. “I remember.”
“Then you know that he did this for you. He could have just as easily escorted all of the yokai you sent here back into your world. But instead, he built this.”
Yumiko blinked, forcing herself to look around the crowd again. Her eyes fell on two oni she recognized from Oni-Baba’s crew. “Wait a second. Is this a good idea?”
Ame-Onna followed her gaze. “Their strings have been cut from Shuten-Doji, so they have nowhere to channel their rage. They won’t harm anyone here, not when they’re so outnumbered. Even the most unruly yokai have learned to adapt to this place in time. It truly is magical. One would say peaceful.”
“Peaceful,” Yumiko echoed, frowning. Something tickled the back of her mind, and she turned toward Ame-Onna with suspicion. “I am supposedly going to bring about peace between humans and yokai.”
“As it was foretold,” Ame-Onna bowed to her.
“And in order to have built this little peaceful community, this beginning to a world of peace, I needed to have my power over mirrors, and the drive to fight yokai, to send them here.”
“What are you saying, Yumiko?”
Yumiko jumped as Brian materialized behind her. She met the concern in his eyes and opened her mouth to reply, but couldn’t get the words out.
“She means,” Ame-Onna said, cocking her head, “that my comment about you consuming her body and soul was meant to motivate her to fight yokai, and to inadvertently, build this paradise.”
Brian’s eyebrows furrowed. “But…what? Why would she think….” He frowned, then lifted a finger. “Why did you say that, Ame-Onna?”
Ame-Onna closed her eyes, the smile still playing at her lips. “I said that you would consume her body and soul because it’s true. She will be consumed by passion and love for you. It will envelope her and be her light in the dark. She will do anything for you, in time. I have seen it in the waters as I’ve scryed.” She opened her eyes and stared into Yumiko’s without apology. “However, she needed a push. My words were truthful, but I knew when I uttered them how they would be interpreted by her. Her quest for vengeance led her down this path, and now, she is where she needs to be for the prophecy to be fulfilled.”
Yumiko couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She stared at Ame-Onna wide-eyed. She’d always imagined the yokai as playing a passive role in all of this, but it seemed that she had been all but instrumental. She had chosen Yumiko’s path for her. “You used me,” Yumiko breathed. “You…you shoved me headfirst into this life of…of pain and bitterness and vengeance.”
Ame-Onna lifted her head high. “And I would do it again. It was necessary. In time, you will see that.”
And with those words, Ame-Onna turned and disappeared into the crowd. Yumiko watched her back until she couldn’t see it through the throng of yokai. And she hoped she would never see her again.
Her fists clenched tightly, Yumiko turned to Brian, barely holding back tears that wanted desperately to taste the mirror world’s blue sky. “You…” she choked out, unable to finish.
“I didn’t know,” Brian looked upset too, almost desperate. “I knew that you were holding on to this anger, this resentment. I knew you would fight me to the death, that you longed for it. But I didn’t know that Ame-Onna manipulated this. I swear to you.”
“And what of my mother?” Yumiko was ashamed that a tear betrayed her, and swiped at it angrily. “Where is she? Hidden in your
fortress?”
Brian opened his mouth, then closed it. He seemed at a loss for words, then just shook his head. “Your mother is unharmed.”
Yumiko blinked. “What? No. You kidnapped her! You…you did something to her.”
“I didn’t.” Brian looked away. “I never touched her, Yumiko.”
“Then…” Yumiko frowned. “Shuten-Doji? Or another yokai? Something happened to my mother!”
“Yumiko,” Reina put a hand on her shoulder, her voice low and sympathetic.
Yumiko glared back at her, then stopped when she saw the look of concern on her face. All of the yokai in the vicinity had stopped to stare, and Yumiko looked away, ashamed.
“We’ll find out what happened to your mother,” Reina murmured, close to her ear. “But first, we need to work with Brian to rescue Shou.”
Yumiko took a deep, calming breath that made her whole body shudder. She felt herself calm slightly and nodded sharply. “Yes.” She looked at Brian. “I’m sorry for my outburst.”
Brian looked wary, and tired. He nodded. “We’ll talk once we find Shou.”
“Yes. We will.”
He held her eye for a moment, then turned and led them to The Hall of Mirrors.
Chapter Eighteen
The Hall of Mirrors was just as Yumiko remembered it. When she stepped through the doorway, she saw a shimmering floor that resembled water, but felt solid beneath her feet. It stretched down a hallway that was long and curved, and it made her wonder vaguely just how far she would have to walk to find the end, if it really did contain the other side of every single mirror in the world. That would be a lot of mirrors. Billions of them. And as Yumiko swept into the hall alongside Reina, she saw strange places reflected back at her in mirrors of different shapes and sizes. Most of the mirrors didn’t have frames, but some ran from the floor to the ceiling, which was twenty feet overhead. Others were tiny silver circles that twinkled like snowflakes. Along the ceiling, huge mirrors could be seen, and through them, Yumiko saw museums and historical sites.