by A. L. Knorr
Aimi canted her head and gazed at me without answering. Her eyebrows crept slowly up her forehead.
"You?" I blinked with surprise. "You never said."
She shrugged. "The eligible men in our village have black hearts. All except for Toshi and his father. They are the only good ones."
"All?" My head jerked back in surprise. "That can't be true." My mind skittered over the young unmarried men in our village, calling their faces up in my memory. It was the good-looking ones who came to mind first, fine faces with strong bones and good teeth. "What about Mitsuo, and Soichi, and Yuji."
"Mitsuo has the emotional construct of a beetle, Soichi is a pervert and a liar, and don't talk to me of Yuji. He's a pirate, all he cares about is money. He would step on his own grandmother's face if he thought it would get him favor with his rich uncle."
My jaw went slack at the conviction in her voice. "How do you know all this?"
She laughed. "Little sister, I am a creature of the Æther. I can see into their hearts and the rot that lives there."
"I'm a creature of the Æther, too. Why can't I see it?"
"You will," she said, tossing the curls of grass into the waves and crossing her legs under her. "Give it time."
"And you can see into Toshi's heart?"
"I can," she said, looking at me unblinking.
"What does it look like?"
"Toshi's heart is a rare white pearl," she said. "It glimmers with all the colors of the rainbow. Light pours down from the Æther and into him as though filtering first through a crystal." Whenever she talked like this, I would stare hard at her, trying to winkle out whether she was playing with me or not. "There is only one other heart that is more beautiful."
"Whose is that?"
"Yours," she said, smiling at me in her crooked way, her fox’s eyes unblinking.
I shoved at her shoulder. "This isn't funny. If you liked Toshi, why didn't you ever say anything to me?"
"It's not up to me who Toshi marries," she replied. "You know that as well as I."
I frowned. "So you would marry him if our father and Kito agree you are a better match?" Bright green jealousy oozed from my heart at the very thought of Toshi marrying anyone else, especially my sister.
"Like I said, Toshi is a good man. The best to be had," Aimi answered, her voice sly.
"Ugh," I groaned. "This is not a time to talk in circles. Would you agree or wouldn't you?"
"Who am I to deny our parents?" She shrugged.
"Don't do that," I said, picking up a pebble and whipping it into the ocean.
"What?"
"Pretend that you're subject to the laws of humans. You are Kitsune, you don't have to do anything anyone tells you to do. You could disappear tomorrow and start a whole new life somewhere else, with someone else, if you wanted to."
"And leave all this? Our parents? You?" She was still avoiding answering my question. This was her nature. Aimi was as evasive as she was beautiful, as crafty as she was swift. She just didn't often turn her prevaricating ways on me. I enjoyed watching her ply them on others, but I had thought of myself as immune until now. "Come on," she said, sliding down off the rock and splashing into the shallow waves. She waded through the water to the beach.
"Where are you going?" I got up and walked along the tops of the rocks to reach the sand. She strode across the beach away from me, her dark head bobbing as the sand got deeper. "Aimi," I huffed after her.
Her dark head of hair rippled and disappeared, her dress collapsed into a heap on the sand. A big lump moved under the mess of fabric, trying to find an exit.
I sighed. "I hate when you do that. You know I'm the one who will get stuck washing your dirty clothes." As the younger sister, my tasks were the most menial ones.
A glossy blue-black fox the size of a large dog shook off the dress and looked over her shoulder at me, her tongue lolling out as she laughed. Her eyes were as bright as limes and her sharp teeth gleamed white. She flicked her tail and darted up the beach, over a moss-covered log and into the bush.
I lifted my hands out to the side, pulled my arms rapidly into through the wide arm-holes of my robe, my body shimmering like a mirage in the desert. Wings, feathers, talons and impossibly sharp eyesight took the place of my soft human body as I phased into a kintail – a small but nimble bird of prey.
I snatched at my dress before it hit the ground, carrying it in my talons to drape it over a dry rock. I picked up Aimi's dress, laid it beside mine, and winged over the woods, my kintail scream letting my sister know that the hunt was on.
The woods had gone as quiet as a tomb. The presence of a large predator had silenced every rodent, bird, and nearby deer. Animals didn't know the difference between a fox and a Kitsune. Aimi had no interest in stalking and killing prey, not anymore. But as a girl Aimi weighed nearly a hundred-twenty pounds, and when she chose to take her full size as a fox, she was enormous. Large enough to give even another predator pause to attack her. She was solid blue-black with soft thick fur and a ruff around her neck. She was nearly impossible to spot when she hid in shadows. Her mistake was looking up at the sun to watch for me. The light would reflect in her bright green eyes and my raptor's vision could find her as I soared overhead.
My shadow skimmed over the tops of our thick rainforest as I winged for the gorge. A small river gurgled over stones and fallen trees, rolling its way to the sea. The rubble of years of old avalanches had built haphazard natural stairs along the canyon. My head cocked as the sound of toenails scraping over stones echoed up to me. I banked left where a fissure in the rock met the river.
From my vantage point I could see what Aimi could not, that the space between the rock walls ahead of her narrowed to barely a hands-width and she was flying toward it at full speed. My little heart leapt into my throat and I screamed a warning cry. She didn't slow down and I called again. She sped up.
She hurtled toward the narrow gap, her black form shimmering into a fox the size of a kitten. She passed through the opening, her pelt skimming the rocks, and landed on the paws of a normal sized animal, smaller than her original shape. Aimi's unique fox-laugh bounced off the canyon walls, sounding like it was coming from everywhere.
Screaming my applause and relief, I dipped lower as the running fox disappeared under an overhanging ledge and continued through the fissure, scrabbling over stones and then sliding into the trees like a ghost.
I slowed and spiraled, catching an updraft and taking it higher. The fissure ended and became thick forest over steadily rising ground. The landscape turned into a sea of bright treetops and dark shadows. I dove down and into the trees. Here, there was no gliding, here there was only quick banks and turns. Skimming through narrow openings between branches to grab the breeze, and skipping up with it like an athlete sprinting upstairs.
A clearing bathed in sunlight up ahead revealed my prey. Aimi let loose that laugh again and I responded with a haunting scream. The race was on. She sprinted full out and I followed from above, diving and turning and trying my best not to misjudge and crash. The forest got tighter and tighter, the branches skimming my feathers. Aimi's running form appeared and disappeared below me in flashes through gaps in the canopy. We exploded into a clearing and I dive bombed for her head.
She was too quick. Bunching her hindquarters, she took a flying leap to meet me in the air. She shimmered, taking on her full-sized shape and punting me in the breast with her nose. I bounced up into the air in a turmoil of feathers, that yipping laughter coming from everywhere. I righted and circled the clearing, screaming in pretend frustration.
Aimi sat on her haunches and watched me, those bright eyes blinking into the sun, her tongue lolling out and her sides heaving. She'd won and we both knew it. She lowered onto her elbows as I flew low enough to raise the dust in front of her. She dropped her chin onto the dirt as I landed and bounced up to her. I ruffled my feathers and shook the ache out of my wings.
The sound of a human voice in the distance made Aimi ra
ise her head and cock an ear upward. Our mother. Aimi made eye contact with me and stopped panting, going as still as a statue. I bobbed my head twice and took to the air. It took mere minutes for me to retrieve our clothing, but as I grasped the robes I realized they were too heavy for my current form. I shifted into a falcon so I could bear the burden.
I winged back to Aimi with our clothing but I deposited her dress on a branch and out of her reach. She lowered her head and watched me as I shimmered and took on my human form, pulling my dress on in front her.
She let out a whine.
I grinned at her. "You know what I want," I said. "You won that one, but unless you want to show up at home stark naked then you know what to do."
She whuffed at me, rolling her eyes and shaking her head. Her fur rippled like a sharp wind had blown over her and her big powerful form melted away, leaving a fox pup.
"Ohhhhhhhh," I squealed.
She sat back on her little haunches and howled to the sky, the cry turning into a yipping laugh. Her eyes had gone the soft green of winter moss. Her ears had thickened and shrunk, soft little triangles poking out to the sides. Her fur was fuzzy and stuck out in every direction like black dandelion fluff. Her tail was short and narrow, unlike the thick bottle-brush tail of her full-grown form. It stuck up behind her and curled over to one side.
"Gaaaaa! You're so cute!" I cried.
She tottered toward me on baby fox legs and I scooped her up and held her warm body under my chin. Her fur was down-soft and hot from the sun. She licked my face and neck as I cradled her. She stuck her cold wet nose into my ear and I laughed. Kitsune rarely had reason to take the form of a kit. It was an act of love. When we were like this, I had no anxiety in the whole world and she could feel it. She stopped licking me and cocked her head, pointing her nose toward home. She gave a little whine. I hadn't heard anything with my human ears, but I knew Mother must be calling again.
"Yes, all right," I said, putting her down and climbing the tree to retrieve her robes. When I turned back to her, Aimi was in human form again and holding out her hand for her clothing.
She was shaking her head at me, a sly smile playing about her lips. "Your flying has gotten so much better," she said as she wrapped herself up and tied her dress closed. She scraped her disheveled hair back and twisted it up, retrieving a stick from her pocket to secure it.
"Still didn't win," I said.
She shrugged. "You probably will when it really counts."
I opened my mouth to ask her about her cryptic words but she spoke first.
"Shall we take the bridge back?" She began jogging for home, her bare feet flashing at me to keep up.
Chapter 7
My mother had the door open and was waiting for us as we came up the walk, out of breath. Her brows drew together and the corners of her mouth pulled down. Her gaze traveled from the tops of our disheveled heads to our muddy feet. She shook her finger at us. "You're filthy again. You are lucky Kito has gone or he would change his mind. You couldn't pick another day to play your bush games?"
We were used to her admonitions about our sport. My mind snagged the important thing like a burr to wool. "There has been an agreement?" I asked as she ushered us inside the house.
"There has," she said. "Baths for both of you, and wash your hair. Kito returns tonight."
I bit off a groan. Preparing a bath was my job and it took a long time to heat pot after pot of water and fill the large wooden tub we kept behind the frosted sliding glass doors.
"I'll help you," Aimi said as my mother left us to talk with our father in the other room. We watched as she slid the door shut between the two rooms and gave us a stern eye to do as we were told. She and father would keep their voices so low that we wouldn't be able to eavesdrop, not in human form anyway.
Aimi allowed me to have the first bath, a luxury that, as the youngest of the family, I had never had before.
I scrubbed myself all over with wet soap first, and then sank into the steaming water with a sigh. Scratches on my legs that I hadn't noticed now stung from the hot water. I lifted my hair over the back of the tub and let my neck relax as Aimi picked the tangles out of my long black strands.
I looked up at her as she was working. From the angle I saw her at, her face upside down, her lips looked downturned and sad. My heart gave a confused pang. I wanted Toshi, more than anything, but I hated to see Aimi unhappy. "You are the eldest," I pointed out. "It is traditional to marry off the older sister first." I could barely keep my voice from hitching.
Her eyes flashed to mine. "How many elder sisters are Kitsune? Would you knowingly agree to marry a Kitsune off to a prominent member of your community without their knowledge?"
"You could bring great fortune," I said.
"I could bring great misfortune, as well. Even I don't fully know the nature of the warrior whose blood did this to me."
"Yes we do," I said fiercely, sitting up and sloshing water over the side.
"Shhh," she said, putting a hand on my shoulder and pushing me back down.
"You are a Zenko; it is impossible to think otherwise," I said, my face flushing with heat. I couldn't tell if it was from the indignation I felt when Aimi talked like this, or from the steaming tub. There were two main kinds of Kitsune, and Zenko was the benevolent kind. It was unthinkable that Aimi was the malevolent kind, known as Nogitsune.
Aimi swept my hair to the side. "Move down."
I moved forward and tilted my head back as she scooped up water with a jug and poured it over my hair. I closed my eyes with the pleasure of her fingers scrubbing at my scalp.
"When you talk like that, you sound like you want it to be me," Aimi said.
"No," I answered. "You know that I love him. You don't love him." When she didn't answer I opened my eyes and straightened my head to turn and look at her. Water ran in rivulets down my face. I rubbed them away. "Do you?"
She dumped another jug of water over my head and I had to close my eyes and cover my face.
"Do not worry about me, little sister."
Sitting there in that tub, my hands over my face and water sluicing over my head, my mind raced over the possible outcomes. Would our father knowingly wed a Kitsune into another family? Kitsune were as complex as the warriors they came from, never all good or all bad. Legends circulated of Zenko, benevolent Kitsune who healed the sick and provided wealth to families who were in great debt, who influenced events to turn in their families’ favor. But there were just as many legends of Nogitsune, Kitsune who tricked people out of all of their wealth and disappeared without a trace, even of leading a husband they'd become tired of into a trap that would result in his ruin. Aimi had become my parents’ daughter before I was born; I couldn't picture life without her. Father was the one who had brought Aimi in, taking the risk of inviting a nogitsune into his home. Our mother had told our father that Aimi had gifted me with a tamashī—the spiritual heart of a creature of the Æther. I was also an Akuna Hanta, a hunter of demons. What that meant for my future, I didn't know, and even Aimi seemed unable to prepare me completely.
The water stopped coming and I opened my eyes. Aimi took a bar of soap scented with yuzu oil and rubbed it into a wet cloth. She began to scrub my arm, keeping her eyes on her work, her face impassive. The truth that we both knew was that in this situation, one scenario was just as likely as another.
I put my hand over hers and she stopped scrubbing. Her green eyes met my gold and there we locked, the sisterhood we'd shared up until this moment in time as visible to me as it was to her.
"Promise me," I said, my voice shaking, "that no matter who has been given to Toshi, we will never let it come between us. We will always be sisters, always be together."
Aimi held my gaze, and the soapy washcloth stilled on my shoulder. "Akiko," she said. "You are not a little girl anymore. At some point you have to stop living in a dream world. You know that I cannot promise you this, and you cannot promise it to me either."
I gasped at t
he brutality of her words. She'd said them so softly, almost sweetly, but they shot straight to my heart and punctured me like a barb tipped with poison.
"No," I said, my eyes widening.
She dropped the washcloth in the tub, her expression melting. She took my cheeks in her hands. "I do not say this to hurt you, little sister. You will come into your Hanta powers soon. I will have to move on with whatever comes into my nature to do." Her voice took on a sound like wind. It blew around me and through me. "We are immortals. Forever stretches out in front of us. It is foolish to think that we can spend all of time together."
"Why?" My vision blurred as tears filled my eyes. Aimi was going to leave me? I didn't know how to be anything without her.
"Hush now," she said, releasing my face. She kissed my cheek and retrieved the washcloth from the tub. "Mother comes."
"Aimi, are you in the tub yet?" came our mother's voice.
"Just getting in now, Mother," she said.
"You are dawdling." We heard the sounds of her hands clapping together, the way she did when she was trying to hurry us along.
"Yes, Mother," Aimi and I said at the same time.
Aimi brushed a tear away from my cheek, smiled at me, and picked up the jug to rinse me. "Cheer up. We have a fiancé to meet."
Kito arrived without Toshi and as I stood there behind my parents with my eyes on the floor, disappointment curdled in my stomach. I had thought there was a chance he would come.
Aimi and I stood side by side, our hair pulled back and up in the traditional hairstyle of Furano, our village. We wore our best kimonos—Aimi striking in a moss-green that flattered her eyes, and me in my favorite shade of blue, like the sky on a cloudless day.
There was bowing all around as my father, dwarfed by Kito's stature, welcomed him into our home. "These are my daughters, Aimi—the eldest, and Akiko. Good girls, both of them." My father's chest puffed out at these words and my mother’s face colored. She wouldn't say so in Kito's company, but my mother's advice was always to project humility.