by Dave Ferraro
“But you died,” Reina said, pulling back to gaze into Yumiko’s face, which was still splattered with blood.
Shou approached with Enenra and Tanuki, and offered her a clean cloth, which she accepted gratefully and wiped her face clean as best as she could.
“I can’t die unless my totem is destroyed,” Yumiko said softly, voice shaking slightly as she gave voice to the words that related what she was.
Reina’s eyes widened. Enenra grinned, as if he’d known all along.
“Yumiko?” Tanuki said, hesitantly. “Have you always…”
“I only just found out,” Yumiko told him, then looked up at Reina. “I’m sorry.”
Reina shook her head, tears slipping out from her eyes. “You have nothing to be sorry for. I’m glad you’re alright.” She threw her arms around Yumiko again and Yumiko let her embrace her, looking over her shoulder at Shou awkwardly. He smiled and nodded to her.
“Fix her neck,” Ame-Onna said, shoving Oni-Baba forward.
Yumiko blinked and pulled back from Reina to regard Oni-Baba, staring at her in wonder.
“I didn’t see this,” Oni-Baba shook her head. She seemed to be reassessing Yumiko, eyes roving over her carefully.
“Fix her,” Ame-Onna ordered once more, prodding her roughly in the back.
Oni-Baba blinked, then nodded. She reached out a hand hesitantly, as if seeking permission from Yumiko, then gently touched the side of her neck.
Yumiko could feel a bone pushing up against the skin of her neck. It wasn’t really painful, but she felt pressure from it. It must have been unsettling for her friends to see, given that it would be a mortal wound, should it have happened to a mortal.
Oni-Baba nodded to herself, then cleared her throat and spit into her hands, as she’d done before healing Yumiko’s ankle. When the witch laid her slippery hands on her neck, Yumiko closed her eyes, and bit her lips as she felt the bone magically shift in her neck, as if it had simply decided to change position. And then the pressure was gone.
“Much better,” Tanuki said as Oni-Baba stepped back.
Yumiko eyed Oni-Baba for a moment, then crossed her arms. “How do I attach a totem to a yokai?”
Oni-Baba blinked, mulling over her question, probably trying to figure out why she would ask such a thing. “You don’t. When a yokai is created, it is because of an event. It’s a reaction.”
“What sort of event?”
Oni-Baba hesitated. “A…an overwhelming emotional or physical trauma. The yokai is a response to the trauma. But there’s no formula. Sometimes the result of the trauma is the creation of a yokai, but most of the time, no yokai manifests.” She shrugged helplessly. “It’s up to nature.”
“Very well.” Yumiko looked thoughtful, then turned to Shou. “Can you take care of things here? Bring some order to this mess?”
Shou blinked. “I…yes. I can do that.”
“You’re leaving?” Reina asked, eyes wide.
“There’s something I have to do,” Yumiko told her. She glanced over at Enenra and gestured for him to approach. She spoke low into his ear, and he nodded, pulling back. He looked surprised, but answered her question. And when he stepped back, the look on his face was knowing.
She glanced at the floor where her mirror sword laid, blade partially out of the scabbard. She leaned over and picked it up, unsheathing the weapon the rest of the way. She looked into the mirror, saw her eyes reflected in them. They looked determined. They looked confident.
She was a yokai. And she realized the potential in that.
She smiled at Tanuki. “Watch my sword for me.”
Tanuki nodded as Yumiko put a hand on the blade, and was absorbed into it.
She stepped out into The Hall of Mirrors, where she had hoped she would come out. It felt very empty without anyone else in the corridor with her, even with the hundreds of people in the mirrors around her.
She closed her eyes and let out a deep breath. She was crazy to do what she was about to do, but it had to be done. She refused to give up now. She had a plan. It was a vague plan, but she’d put it into motion and it could work. And it was all that she had.
When she opened her eyes, she walked along the hall, watching the mirrors for signs of location. She followed Enenra’s directions until she stopped before a small mirror that was little more than a jagged triangle. From the placement, it had recently been part of a larger mirror, still relatively small, but more than what this fragment of mirror was now.
Through it, she saw mostly darkness. The little light she could see illuminated the outline of rocky terrain.
She nodded and bit her lip as she psyched herself up for what she about to do. And before she could think about it too much, she reached out and touched the mirror, traveling through it to the other side.
When she was aware of her surroundings once more, she blinked and lifted her head, taking a moment to orient herself. She was in a tunnel. A tunnel made of rock, rough and uneven. She looked down at her feet to see a fragment of mirror winking back at her.
With a smile, she reached down and pocketed the mirror, ignoring the blood that clung to it, making it slippery. Shuten-Doji’s blood, from where she’d shoved it into his chest.
But Hell was a place. And as long as it was a place, and as long as there was a mirror from Earth to be found there, she could get there.
And so she had.
She looked up the tunnel, where light could be seen flickering far ahead. And she took the first step of her journey to track down Brian.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Yumiko paused as she approached a torch on the wall, frowning at the shape. Her stomach flip-flopped as she realized that it was another Wa-Nyudo. She walked slowly up the hall toward it, keeping an eye on both ends of the tunnel. When she was directly before the Wa-Nyudo, she tried not to gaze on the painful spokes of the ox-cart wheel as they skewered the head of another monk, his eyes frosted over. The wheel itself was on fire, providing light for the passage, as if it were merely a decoration.
“You will not remain undetected for long,” the Wa-Nyudo croaked, then smiled knowingly at her.
Yumiko swallowed hard, then picked up the pace. Once a curve had left the Wa-Nyudo behind, she slowed and looked back. The creature had been right. She would have to locate the new arrivals in Hell, and soon, if she was going to get out of there with her soul intact.
She reached into her pocket and picked up the wedge of mirror, careful to grasp it with a piece of fabric she ripped free from the hem of her shirt. Her hands were throbbing terribly, but the bleeding seemed to have mostly stopped. She would probably have had nerve damage if she were a normal human being, but if she could survive a broken neck, she was sure that she would somehow recover from this as well.
Yumiko held the mirror before her like a weapon, because it was all she had. And when she heard footfalls up ahead, she pushed herself up against the wall as closely as she could, willing the shadows to hide her. She watched, heart racing, as a shadow crossed the light, and a figure drew closer to her.
Drawing in a deep breath, Yumiko watched the creature approach. A bipedal cat, as tall as a human, fur black and fluid like ink in the wavering light. With each step it took, fire rose from the ground beneath its feet. Yumiko recognized it, even though she’d never seen one with her own eyes before. A kasha. A cat from Hell who fed on corpses and walked like a man.
Yumiko knew that she wouldn’t be able to control an oni should she cross one, so this seemed like her best chance for information.
When the kasha walked past her, it swung its head toward her, green eyes glowing in the dark, and meeting hers. Yumiko leapt at it, shoving it against the far wall, her shard of mirror at its throat. The kasha let out a yowl, but stopped abruptly when she flashed the mirror at it.
“Okay,” Yumiko said, looking into its eyes and conveying as much intimidation as she was able. “This is what’s going to happen. You’re going to bring me where I want to go, and in return,
I won’t cut you with this mirror. Do you know what happens when I cut you with this mirror?”
The kasha shook its head, eyes wide.
“I extract your soul and then I eat it,” she lied, then licked her lips in what she hoped was a convincing display of hunger. “Now, are you going to do as I say?”
The kasha nodded its head vigorously.
“It takes only the tiniest cut,” she told the creature. “So don’t you dare try to run.”
“I won’t,” the kasha said, its voice like that of a human male, which was rather unsettling.
Yumiko lowered the mirror and stepped back.
The kasha put a hand to its throat and blinked at her. “What do you want?”
“I want you to take me to the new arrivals here.”
The kasha licked its paw and rubbed it against its cheek. “The humans that have just arrived are down two levels. You’ll never get to them unnoticed.”
“I want the yokai new arrivals.”
The kasha cocked its head. “Two levels up. Same problem.”
Yumiko blinked, then narrowed her eyes. She had found the mirror along this passage. It had fallen from Shuten-Doji on this level, which meant that the kasha was lying.
She held the mirror before her threateningly. “I don’t take kindly to liars.”
The kasha swallowed hard. “Alright, alright. It’s straight ahead.”
Yumiko smiled. “That’s more like it. Lead the way.” She watched as it turned and began to slowly walk up the tunnel. She searched it carefully for any cues that it might take off running or decide to turn and attack her, but it seemed more than willing to follow her orders. And keep its soul.
They passed several more Wa-Nyudo, but they seemed content to merely light the way, offering no advice or remarks, if they even noted their passage. More troubling than the grotesque heads were the sounds of screaming coming from ahead. Wails of torment, of despair, found their way down the corridors, worming into Yumiko’s ears. She tried to ignore them, insistent as they were, but they became increasingly urgent the closer they drew to the screams. Soon enough, it was a cacophony of pain, and she wanted nothing more than to throw her hands over her ears to keep the torturous sounds out. But she had a mission, and if she showed signs of weakness in front of the kasha, she might never find Brian. So, she held her head high and did her best to look indifferent, although each scream made her heart beat a little faster.
After about five minutes of walking, the tunnel ahead noticeably brightened, but Yumiko could still detect the dancing shadows of flames. “Slower,” she ordered softly, and the kasha slowed its pace, allowing her enough time to comfortably step into the light as one wall of the rock tunnel gave way to a gaping opening for about twenty feet, before resuming. Yumiko drew closer to the kasha, to make sure that it didn’t make any noise, for the opening overlooked a vast cavern, and there were many yokai among the rocks below.
Yumiko gazed into the cavern stupidly, as many large torches lit the uneven ground. It was larger than a football field, with many hills and outcroppings, as well as pools of molten lava. Many of the yokai she saw were oni, or their female counterparts, kijo. While the red and blue-faced oni walked around with large iron clubs, razors fastened to them, the kijo wore monstrous masks with exaggerated teeth and features, their true faces hidden. Yumiko wondered if what was beneath those masks was better or worse than the features of the masks. Most of the kijo brandished whips or lengths of chain, although some had iron clubs like the oni.
Thousands of humans and terrified yokai cowered in the cavern, trying very hard not to be noticed by the oni and kijo, who lorded over them threateningly, mocking them and spitting on them and, ultimately, torturing them. Humans were forced into the molten lava, their screams filling the air, much louder here without the rock barrier muffling their sounds of anguish. As they pulled themselves out of the lava, skin blackened and boiling, the flesh healed, so that they could be tortured all over again.
Other humans were being skewered on large stakes that seemed to grow naturally from out of the cave floor, while still others were merely beaten under the blows of the iron clubs the oni wielded. The oni and kijo seemed to be having a blast, while the humans suffered at their hands in ways no human should ever have to suffer.
Before she could tear her eyes away, Yumiko noted a woman, definitely a yokai of some sort, who wore a simple white dress, her blonde hair flowing behind her like honey. She was barefoot and seemed to be watching the torturous goings-on around her with amusement as she walked around the cavern, carefully stepping on the heads and backs of humans when she could. Before Yumiko turned away, the woman looked up and caught her eye, tilting her head with interest. Yumiko felt her heart quicken at the attention of the woman, but the yokai dropped her eyes after a moment, suddenly taking delight in a kijo who was strangling a woman with her whip. She clasped her hands to her chest and laughed, her voice echoing loudly even over the shrieks around her.
As Yumiko stood there, transfixed by the scene, she suddenly noticed something roiling overhead, and tilted her head to look up at the ceiling of the cavern, where a large disembodied eye watched everything that occurred below, black smoke slowly swirling around it like a storm cloud. Even looking at the eye made Yumiko feel sick to her stomach, like she might suddenly vomit. It made her feel dirty, and filled her with self-loathing and disgust for everything. Her throat thickened with bile, and she choked it back, tearing her gaze from the eye. As soon as she looked away from the eye, she felt much better, suddenly clear-headed again and in control, but for a moment, she had descended into despair, and she knew that she couldn’t dawdle, but had to find Brian and escape as soon as possible, or find herself in a similar state of mind in the near future, and perhaps too broken to find the strength to leave.
It was hard for Yumiko to look away from such a terrible scene, but she did, heart heavy, knowing that she would have to leave these people to their torment.
Upon passing the opening in the rock wall, the kasha looked back over its shoulder at her and led her down the right tunnel at a fork in the road. A few steps in, and it took another right, then waved up a short hallway, where the tunnel ended in what looked like a room, glowing bright with fire. “They’re in there. They will each have their own cells, as they await judgment.”
“Judgment,” Yumiko repeated, biting her lower lip. She looked up the tunnel then nodded toward the end. “Go on, then. You’re coming too.”
The kasha didn’t look pleased, but it complied. When they reached the room, Yumiko saw that it had been telling the truth. There were cells built into the stone walls, with thick iron bars keeping prisoners in check.
Yumiko stopped the kasha as they stepped into the room. “Guards?”
The kasha chuckled. “This is Hell. There is nowhere to go.” It nodded to the far left of the room, where a large metal door took up most of the wall. “That’s where the oni and kijo will take the prisoners for judgment, where they will decide if these yokai deserve to be tormentors or the tormented.”
“And the keys to the cells?”
The kasha frowned. “They will have them on them, for when they come for the prisoners.”
Yumiko nodded and let out a breath. “Very well. You’ve done everything I’ve asked. Thank you.”
The kasha relaxed its shoulders and turned to walk back up the corridor. Yumiko didn’t give it a chance to get very far, however. She slashed her mirror across the back of its neck and it vanished. “You’ll be much happier in the mirror world,” she promised, turning back to the prison cells.
At once, her eyes fell on Brian. She felt her chest lighten and she ran to his cell. He wore a gray robe, like all of the prisoners, and sat on a bench behind the iron bars. “Thank god I found you,” she said, smiling in at him.
He blinked at her, as if not registering her at first, or trying to decide if she was a hallucination. Then he stood and smiled. “Yumiko. You’ve come to rescue me?”
&nbs
p; As he walked toward the bars, Yumiko saw something in his face. A flicker of amusement on his lips that warned her that something was wrong. She stepped back from the bars and watched him.
“Are you afraid of me?” he asked her. “You know that I love you, Yumiko. Release me and we can leave this place together.”
He lifted a hand toward her and his robe shifted, allowing her a glimpse of his shoulder. A deep red cut ran down his chest from the shoulder. In a second, he had covered the wound again, but that one second had been enough.
“Shuten-Doji,” she said, crossing her arms. “I’m glad to see that you ended up where you belong.”
“I think I’ll fit in here nicely,” he grinned knowingly. “Thank you for the ticket.”
Yumiko lifted the mirror. “And thank you for the doorway.”
Shuten-Doji stared at the shard of mirror for a moment before throwing his head back and laughing. “Brilliant! You’re not just a stupid human, after all. You cunning little yokai. What a fool you’ve made of me.”
Yumiko offered him a tight smile. “Enjoy your stay,” she told him, then walked away, looking into each cell she passed, hoping for Brian at each one. With every step, she grew more pessimistic. Could it be that he wasn’t there at all? Had he perhaps already been taken in for judgment? Was she too late?
And then she saw him, sitting in the final cell on the right. He sat on the floor of his cell, chin resting on his knees, which were pulled up to his chest. He seemed lost in thought, and looked heartbroken and sad. The sight made Yumiko tear up, and she grabbed the iron bars that held him with enthusiasm. “Brian!”
Brian’s head shot up and he stared at her. Then he blinked and stood. “Yumiko? But how…?”
Yumiko held up the shard of mirror. “I’m here to get you out of here.”
“You came for me?” he asked, voice filled with disbelief. “You came to Hell for me?”
Yumiko laughed, the sound coming out a little hysterical from relief. “I did.” She grasped his hands like a life preserver she didn’t dare let go of, and grinned at him, her smile so wide that her cheeks ached with the effort. “Hold tight. I’m going to get you out of there.”