"You shall be a feast. With your energy and virility, you will last much longer than Riku."
She leaned forward to kiss him again and he gave the signal. The tanuki who'd been posing as Yuki's corpse transformed with a pop and a puff of smoke. Lady Fujimori turned and upon realizing she'd been tricked, she transformed.
Her beautiful face contorted into something monstrous. Her cheekbones ended at sharp points and her long black hair turned into writhing tentacles which rose up behind her. They wrapped around Hotaru's body and squeezed.
Just then Yuki burst into the room, carrying a sword.
The yokai turned toward her. "I should have killed you when I had the chance," she hissed.
Yuki lunged toward her, but as she did the yokai knocked her backward, slamming her into the wall. She kept Hotaru lifted into the air where he fought against the tentacles. She stalked closer toward Yuki, who was pinned by the hair tentacles to the wall.
Yuki struggled against her. "You killed my father and you were trying to kill my brother too."
The yokai laughed. "I did. And I'll take your lover as well."
"If I was in the way, why not just kill me?"
The creature hissed. "The forest protected you until you swore yourself to another. Now that protection is gone."
Yuki's eyes grew wide and Hotaru realized what he had done by making her marry. That had been the monster's intention all along. She must have swayed the elders in their favor, forced them together. He pushed against the bindings of the monster's hair but it was no use.
The creature unhinged her jaw, revealing rows of jagged teeth as she stalked closer to Yuki. As she approached Yuki, her eyes started to glow. It was a bright light that was almost blinding. Then a song burst from her lips. The words full of ancient power. The creature shrieked and tried to back away, but there was no use, Yuki's power tore through her until there was nothing left but ashes on the ground.
Hotaru fell with a thump and Yuki rushed over to help him up.
"Are you alright?"
"I'm fine, thanks to you." He grinned at her.
She had her hands on his shoulders, and their faces were inches apart. The magic still flickered around her. He felt it like a slight buzz in his ear. She took a step back. Nothing had changed between them. He'd still forced her into this marriage, and by doing so it had put her in danger. There was only one thing he could do for her now.
"I was going to tell you before. But I'm leaving tomorrow."
Her eyes were wide with shock. "What?"
"We have our alliance. You’re free to live your life as you wish. I will not trouble you anymore."
They stared at one another, neither of them daring to speak. But he desperately wanted her to say anything, to give him the slightest sign that he shouldn't go.
"That's for the best then."
He kept his expression neutral, not wanting her to know how those few words struck him like a blow to the gut.
26
The forest pond was cloaked in silence, even the wind did not blow through the trees as Yuki knelt at the edge of the pool. The guardian's shrine in the center was cold and unmoving. There was never any guarantee the guardian would show up. But now more than ever, she needed his guidance.
"Please, I need to know what I should do," she begged.
Her knees were soaked from the wet earth and her back hurt from kneeling this long on the ground. Hotaru was leaving, and she should let him go. He'd only come here for an alliance; he didn't really care for her. But a part of her wanted to ask him to stay. She was in love with him, but she didn't know how to say it.
But as was expected there was no answer. The tanuki, who rarely came to this place, had held a silent vigil while she prayed. But as an entire day passed, she knew there was no answer coming. The decision was up to her. No one could tell her what to do now.
Yuki returned to the palace and to her brother's room. Once the yokai was destroyed, he had woken up and in the days since the yokai's extermination he was beginning to recover.
As Yuki came into his room, he was sitting up in bed, eating with more vigor than she'd seen in a very long time. There was a healthy pink flush to his cheeks.
"Slow down our you're going to get a stomach ache." Yuki laughed as she sat beside his futon.
"You were out in the forest again," he said through a mouthful of food. Grains of rice dribbled onto his chin.
She shook her head and wiped them away. "I was."
He swallowed his food and said, "Did you figure out what you needed to?"
She sighed. "No."
He set aside his empty rice bowl and then took her by the hand. "I never should have pressured you into marrying. If you're very unhappy, we can undo the marriage."
"We cannot undo what has been done. We are bound together by the kami."
"The kami would not want you with a man who nearly killed you. And who knows what else he's capable of?"
"It wasn't Hotaru who tried to kill me, but our stepmother."
Her brother flushed and looked down. Her hooks remained in him. The memory of the woman who had taken care of him could not be erased, even if her spell was broken.
He cleared his throat. "I just want you to be happy, Yuki."
She patted his hand. "I am happy."
"You don't seem like it."
She sighed again. She wasn't sure what she wanted. No matter the reasons, Hotaru had lied to her. But the idea of never seeing Hotaru again clenched at her heart and threatened to tear it to pieces. But she couldn't leave the forest behind, it was her solace and her serenity.
"I will be, don't worry." She forced a smile for Riku's sake.
Yuki went to the garden after that, watching the koi soothed her mind. The tanuki followed her into the garden and hovered around her, playing and splashing in the water. Their antics amused her but it didn't bring her any closer to a decision.
They stopped their playing and froze. She turned to see what they were looking at and saw Hotaru standing at the edge of the garden. He had his hands folded behind his back and he seemed to be muttering to himself as he paced just out of sight. When she looked at him, she knew what her decision was. She had to tell him the truth.
She got up to greet him and as she approached his head shot up.
He walked toward her and they both stopped a few feet away. They were husband and wife, bound together by the kami. But from the distance between them you would have thought they were perfect strangers.
He cleared his throat. "I came to say goodbye."
"Goodbye?" She choked on the word. Don't let him go, tell him you need him!
He nodded his head. "We made an agreement, and I plan on upholding my end. Besides, I have a war to deal with."
He trailed off. But Yuki could see it all clearly now: the fear she'd kept hidden all this time, the rejection she knew for certain would always come at his hand.
"Well, I suppose you have no reason to stay now that you have your treaty." She let her own bitterness get the better of her, when all she wanted was to hold onto him and never let him go.
"That's not it—"
"Goodbye, Hotaru." She turned and strode away from him. She didn't want him to see her tears. `
Hotaru left early the next morning. Yuki didn't stop to watch him go. She wasn't going to make a complete fool out of herself in front of the entire clan. She'd been an idiot to think he cared for her at all. Now that he was gone, her life could go back to how it was before.
The days that followed went down a familiar path, her brother's health steadily improved and life at the castle returned to how it was before Hotaru ever arrived. It was as if he had never been there at all. She received a formal letter from Hotaru, which she refused to read but her brother read to her, informing her that Hotaru had arrived home safely. It was over now. But there was a deep ache in her chest that wouldn't go away.
She went to the guardian's spring almost every day, searching for answers to her unasked question
. It was quiet and still as usual. When she approached she knelt down to pray. She kept her vigil for hours but there was no response. She got up to leave but an elderly priestess was blocking her way. She had long white hair and a crescent-shaped scar by her eye. No priestess tended this place. No one came here but Yuki.
"Who are you?" Yuki demanded, taking a defensive pose. It could very well be another yokai in disguise.
"Your heart is heavy, child." The holy energy of a priestess exuded from the woman and her words had a calming effect on Yuki.
On closer inspection, Yuki recognized her as the woman who had conducted the marriage ceremony between her and Hotaru. She had remained at the palace since, tending to the palace shrine.
"How did you find this place?" Yuki said, ignoring her comments.
The old woman held up her hand and a flickering blue light that Yuki associated with the guardian landed on her hand. The old woman smiled at it.
"I know a place of power when I see it." The light fluttered away from her and she smiled at Yuki.
"What do you want with this place?" The woman seemed harmless, but she'd been deceived before.
"It is not this place that I seek, but you, child."
"What do you want with me?"
"Your heart has been crying out these past weeks since your husband left."
Yuki placed her hand over her heart.
"I don't know what you're talking about." She brushed past the woman, intending to hide herself in the forest. She hated feeling this exposed, especially to a stranger.
"You want to forget."
She froze in place as tears sprang to her eyes and ran down her cheeks. Yuki wiped away the tears and turned back to the old woman.
"I can help you forget," the old woman said.
It was foolish to even entertain the idea. Nothing came without a price, she knew that. But this pain wouldn't go away and by now she'd give anything to pretend Hotaru had never walked into her life. "How?"
The old woman reached into her sleeves and revealed a golden peach. It was the most perfect and plump peach she'd ever seen in her life. The old woman placed it in Yuki's hands.
"Eat from this peach and when you have finished, you will forget everything that makes your heart ache."
Yuki held the peach in her hand. It trembled with power. Was this the only solution? She wanted her life as it had been. But even if she forgot, it wouldn't erase her marriage.
"I cannot just forget. I am... married."
"All vows you made will be wiped away when you bite from this peach. You will be free."
Yuki's hands shook at that one, bittersweet word—free. Before she could rethink it, she took a bite. And as soon as the juice touched her lips, she felt the power burning up inside her. Rising up and flowing out of her.
"What did you do—" Yuki gasped and clutched at her throat. The golden light of the kami's power poured out of her and into the old woman.
Her body transformed and time reversed itself. She went from a very old woman to a girl Yuki's age, with an uncanny resemblance to her. The last of her power seeped from her and Yuki collapsed onto the ground, the bitten peach rolling from her lifeless fingers.
27
"You've grown desperate," the guardian said. Yuki's crumpled body lay at his feet. As a kami he was often forced to stand outside the happenings of nature, but being a part of her had deepened their connection. But as he was outside the mortal realm, he was powerless to stop the witch.
"It was that child's choice," the witch said with a wicked gleam in her eyes.
"My power will not sustain you long. For something as old as you, I would have thought you would know."
"This is merely a temporary fix. The girl I was grooming as my next body is out of my reach now."
"One of your girls got out of reach?" He threw his head back and laughed. "So that is why you’ve grown so bold as to risk the wrath of the kami."
The witch shrugged her shoulders. "I do not fear you, forest guardian.
"And what of the punishment of The Eight?"
She laughed. "The Eight left this plain long ago. They will not bother with one girl."
This witch was dangerous. Perhaps it would be better if he spoke to his siblings about returning to earth.
The guardian of the forest only shook his head. Those who craved immortality were the most dangerous. "I can see why you'd want Yuki, by why that man Hotaru?"
"You should understand, guardian. It is good to be worshiped."
She reached down toward Yuki, perhaps to hide her evil deed by disposing of the body, or worse yet, she intended to take her body for her own. That was how this vile creature had lived well beyond a mortal's time. But he could not stand the idea of her taking her. Though his power in the mortal realm was limited, he sent his vines to pick up Yuki's body, encapsulating it, protecting it from the witch by shrouding it with his holy energy.
"You've grown attached to her, have you?"
Cocooned in his vines, the kami felt the faintest flicker of Yuki's soul. She was not gone from this world yet. She was a fighter. But there was little time left.
The witch sang, attempting to undo his protection. When she got close, he unfurled his power toward her in a flash of bright light.
Her song clashed against his holy energy. The fool had thought he was one of the thousand lesser gods. But that was not the case and he deflected her song with ease. He fired her song back at her, burning her face in the process. She turned to hide the damaged skin, which was already knitting itself back together. Her lips curled back in a sneer.
"I will leave you the girl, my gift to you." She threw her head back to laugh. "Lord of the Animals."
She disappeared in the rush of the wind and the guardian, trapped in the world of the divine, could do nothing but cradle Yuki's body. He might not be able to restore the spark of life into her, but he could shield her until someone who could arrived.
He called for the tanuki, the seven brothers who loved Yuki dearly. They were never far from her, and they approached slowly. Some of them cried loudly at her loss.
"It is not too late," he told them. "The bravest of you must go and find the man, Hotaru. Only he can save her now."
The oldest of them, the one Yuki called Kashikoi, stepped forward. With the little power he had available he gave the tanuki his blessing of protection. He was young yet, and had a very long and dangerous journey ahead of him.
"Go," he commanded.
The tanuki ran into the forest, off in search of her savior. His brothers sat along the shore, preparing for a long vigil. He just hoped the little tanuki could bring Hotaru back before it was too late.
Hotaru stared across his empty room, the wide-open space faced his garden. The winter frost had started to melt away and left thick, muddy slush behind. Trees stripped of all foliage, reached skeletal fingers toward the gray sky. Clouds gathered on the horizon, threatening rain. The clan house felt bleak and inhospitable.
The cultured gardens of home were wastelands and the simpering greetings of his clansmen were hollow. He'd locked himself away in his room. He'd promised Yuki her freedom. He'd never thought doing so would be like carving out a piece of his heart.
War was imminent. One he had pursued for the glory and honor of his house. But as Hotaru sat down on the edge of his futon, and dropped his head into his hands, he wondered if the fame was worth it. When he'd taken control over the clan, he aspired to be a powerful leader. And when Lord Fujikawa had started talking of war, he had wanted to fight rather than talk.
But now instead of thinking of glory on the battlefield, his thoughts were filled with Yuki. Her smile and her laugh. What a fool he'd been to open his heart.
Twinkling bells chimed in the garden and Hotaru heaved a sigh. Not now.
There was no avoiding her. She was critical in winning the war. Hotaru hauled himself to his feet and went to meet the witch. When he stepped into the garden, however, it was not the old witch who greeted him, but a
beautiful young woman with long raven hair and a crescent-shaped scar by her eye.
"Who are you?"
"Do you not recognize me? I am your wife."
"You're not Yuki." Hotaru glanced over his shoulder, searching for a weapon. Had the monster from the Fujimori's survived and followed him here?
The young woman laughed, and her voice was soft and sweet. "You're correct, that girl is gone."
"What happened to her?"
"It does not matter. You have your alliance, and your bride." She touched his arm but he jerked his hand away.
"If what you're saying is true, then Yuki is—" He choked on his words. He never should have left her behind. What if that creature hadn't been the only one trying to kill her?
"You fell in love with her, didn't you? Fool, I thought you were smarter than this."
It was as if the wind had been knocked out him. He stumbled and almost fell over, and leaned on the nearby wall. "How did this happen?"
She arched an eyebrow. "You wanted to win this war, more than anything. For your own vanity."
He stared at the young woman, eyes wide. "No."
"I told you my power was depleted. And when I ordered you to marry the girl, you never questioned me."
"NO!" he shouted as he shook his head. "Not like this. That's not what I asked for!"
"It was your own willful ignorance that destroyed her."
Hotaru’s entire body trembled with rage. An animalistic growl burst from him as he as he ran for his sword. He lunged at the witch, but before he could even land a blow she leaped out of his way.
"Do you think you're any match for me boy?" she taunted.
"I'll kill you."
"And for one woman, you would doom your people? I have the ear of each clan leader, all of them belong to me. If you turn on me now, I will exterminate the Kaedemoris and they will be nothing but a distant memory."
Hotaru hesitated. He'd seen what she could do, it was no idle threat. His hubris had brought them here, and there was no changing the past. Yuki was dead, but he could spare his people.
Yuki: A Snow White Retelling Page 12