by Jet Lupin
“What do you think of coming to America with me?”
“Leave Ten no Mon? What for?” She raised an eyebrow, cautious, but interested.
Shige gave a casual shrug. “Beaches. No snow. Pretty girls who run around half-dressed in all weather.”
She stroked her chin. “It has been a long time since I’ve seen the ocean…”
He had her at ‘half-dressed.’ Humans enjoyed posturing, acting as if they had leverage when really they were barely containing themselves. He’d let her pretend she had to consider it.
“You’ve got time to give me an answer.” Though not much. Before he returned here, he wanted to have a loose plan in place. Chiyo came first, but he wouldn’t forsake the others that lived here. Accommodations would be made for all of them.
Chiyo stood, stretching her midsection by leaning side to side. Shige had seen people half her age less limber. She had a western style bed raised from the floor that had been turned down for the night. She climbed in and dimmed the light.
“Before you leave,” she yawned, and didn’t hide her mouth behind her hand. “You should talk to Kaoru.”
He intended to find Kaoru after this, to discuss Chiyo’s care and general health, but it didn’t feel like that’s what she had in mind. “Why?”
“He’s been waiting for you to come back all this time. He doesn’t say it, but he’s young, so he’s terrible at hiding his feelings. He wanted things to be perfect for you, for him to be perfect for you. But you’ve brought Phil here. I’m sure his pride is hurt. I don’t know if it’s because he’s a kitsune or because he’s vain. Maybe both.”
He’s just a child, is almost what Shige said. Kaoru was Chiyo’s elder by more than two centuries. Yet, Shige had trouble viewing him as more than the scared child who’d sought him out when he wanted to cry. He’d grown to be, beautiful and capable, but even if Shige had come here alone, he would never be with Kaoru in that way. In Shige’s mind, he would forever be that shy boy who appeared no older than four or five, always eager to please. Shige ignored his affections then deeming them childish, and he would do the same now.
Chiyo frowned at him in silent disapproval. She’d likely read his mind as well.
“I’m not sure what you expect from me. I’m not going to lie to him.”
“I’m not saying to lie. Be mindful of his feelings.”
Shige would try, but if it became a choice of Kaoru’s feelings or Phil’s safety, they both knew what he’d choose.
He bid her good night, got halfway through the door, when he turned back. “Take it easy on Phil moving from here on, yeah? Ease him into things when you can.”
Chiyo settled in, scooting down into a more comfortable position. “I don’t give him more than he can handle. But he’s got a lot of catching up to do.” She yawned again. “I’m not going to coddle him. That can be your job.”
Most of the house was asleep, but the kitchen buzzed with activity. Yokai too small to pass themselves as humans scuttled about, preparing for the next day’s meals. Three yokai walked by him in the hallway with webbing between their fingers and toes. Others in the kitchen had odd discolorations on their skin, oblong heads, teeth that were sharp and needle like. There were too many individuals and inhuman traits to keep track. Good thing that that wasn’t his job.
They paid him little mind, stopping only to bow hastily before returning to their tasks. Shige was the master of the house in name only. It was clear who ran the show.
Kaoru had his back to the door barking orders to others who scuttled to obey. His voice was strong and commanding. Where had he picked that up?
He jumped when he found Shige watching him, but surprise gave way to a pleasant smile. He drifted over to Shige with a grace no human possessed. He schooled his face into an unmoving mask of beauty. Though, on the inside, his heart beat too hard to ignore. “Shige-sama. I didn’t get to welcome you back properly last night. It’s good to see you.”
“And you, Kaoru. You look well. You’ve grown into a fine adult.”
Kaoru averted his eyes in a play at submission. “Only because you provided me with the safety to do so. I owe my life to you.”
“I’m sure I had very little to do with it. I was hardly here.” He’d dropped Chiyo off and hadn’t looked back. Before that, it had been more than a hundred years. And Kaoru still harbored these feelings despite being abandoned for so long?
“You’re an important man. You had more pressing things to do than hang around here. But that doesn’t change the impact your generosity had on my life. On all our lives.” Shige clenched his jaw.
This idol worship had also kept him away. He’d hoped Kaoru would have grown out of it. He needed to give him something else to focus on.
“Do you have a moment? I want to talk with you.”
“Of course, lord.” He resumed his role as taskmaster, shouting directions to the assembled yokai before relocating to a quiet corner of the kitchen. A pot of tea and a plate full of senbei were brought over to them.
“Is tea alright? I’ve procured some blood for you. I’m not sure what kind you like, so we have an assortment.”
“No, tea is fine.” Shige was painfully aware that the last time he’d fed was back in the states. He should have been dangerously close to his limit, yet he felt at peace. No hunger bit at him. It was like he was always sated. This wasn’t normal, he knew, but he wasn’t sure he was ready to worry Abby about it.
Shige sipped politely at the tea. “Tell me, how have you been?”
Kaoru’s heart fluttered again.
“Everything’s been efficient, running well.”
“Yes, but how are things with you?”
Kaoru hesitated. “What do you mean, lord?”
“How are you? Are you doing well? Are you and the others happy here?”
More pauses on Kaoru’s end. Shige appreciated him thinking about his answers, but he hadn’t expected them to take this long.
“I’m not sure what you’re asking me. I don’t think I’m going to give you the answer you want.”
“There is no right or wrong answer. I want to hear about you.” In all this time, Shige had never asked something so simple. He honestly hadn’t cared. He looked at all this, all of them as a task. One he completed when he’d given them shelter. They were likely used to this sort of banter with Abby. She could be cold, but she’d always been warmer than Shige had tried to be.
Kaoru relaxed a fraction. He let the cup of tea warm his hands. “It’s quiet here. But it’s always been quiet. This past winter was good. We were only snowed in for a week. Food, supplies, and the internet held, so everyone was fine. Being stuck out here that long… It’s always lonely. No one ever comes out this way, but we couldn’t leave either."
Shige raised a brow. “Do you leave Ten no Mon often?” Abby never mentioned that, but she might not have known. Kaoru passed as human well enough until he opened his mouth. If he acted off the grounds the same way he had last night, he would stand out, and not in a good way. Then again, every human he encountered wasn’t Phil and what he represented.
Kaoru’s fingers tightened around the cup in his hands. “Every once in a while, I head into town. I swear that I’m quiet and I keep to myself. Sometimes I need to stretch my legs and get a change of view. I don’t do anything that would jeopardize everything you’ve given us here.”
But if that were true, why bring it up?
His need to wander gave Shige the in to bring up what he really wanted to discuss. He sipped at his tea again. “How is Chiyo? Is she healthy? Is she well?”
Kaoru cocked his head a bit as he nibbled on a rice cracker. “She is very old by human standards. But as far as I can tell, she’s more mobile than people much younger. She has no extra pains, and she takes all that medication Abby got for her, though I’m not sure she needs it. Her life force is strong. I can feel it. She has a lot of time left. Why do you ask?”
“I was thinking of bringing her home with me.”
Kaoru’s gaze locked with Shige’s over the rim of his tea cup, alarm flashing in those golden eyes. “You mean you aren’t staying?”
“I have business here for the time being, but my home is in America.”
Silence reigned as Kaoru stared down into his tea. “Isn’t that why you brought your companion? Because you’re moving back here?”
“No.” Shige said. “I’m not staying.”
“Then what will happen to us when you take Chiyo?”
“You can stay here, or you can come back with me. All of you. I would prefer that.” He would have to talk this over with Abby, but they could make it work without raising too much suspicion.
“What would my position in America be?” Kaoru’s voice grew quiet and shaky.
“What do you want it to be?”
A flush tinted Kaoru’s cheeks and ears. Shige gritted his teeth.
“I would like to continue my care of Chiyo, of course. But also… I want to become your consort.”
There it was, as plain as day. His boldness stunned Shige into silence.
“I don’t mean all at once,” Kaoru amended. “You have your companion, but there are things I can do that he can’t.” He started to reach across the table, but stopped halfway, hands retreating to the safety of his cup. “But I’ll take whatever role you give me as long as I don’t have to be away from you again.”
Shige held his tongue. There was no chance of them consorting, but he couldn’t just say that outright. He needed Kaoru cooperative, but telling him yes was also out of the question. “There will always be a place for you. But it would help if you were on your best behavior while I’m gone. That means where Phil is concerned.”
That was enough for Kaoru. He backed away from their makeshift table and knelt, pressing his forehead to the floor. “Give the word, and I will arrange things for Chiyo and my departure.”
This wasn’t a solution, but it was the best Shige could come up with on the fly. He would fix things when problems arose, but for now, he was dealing with more than he could handle. There would be hell to pay down the road, but he would deal with it then.
Chapter 7
PHIL
Shige left for Tokyo the next evening. He said how much he didn’t want to go, and offered to reschedule half a dozen times between stolen kisses. But if he had to go, he had to go, no matter how abandoned Phil felt.
If Shige had stayed, this mountain hideaway would have been romantic if not for the little old woman who made it her job to work him into the ground, that one resident with a permanent problem, and the spotty internet. That was quite a hefty caveat, but Phil stood by it.
The following morning after Shige left, Chiyo gave Phil a break, but she pushed him twice as hard that afternoon to make up for it. Phil didn’t understand her urgency, but if she gave him a chance to catch his breath. Maybe he could…
“Concentrate.” Chiyo rapped him on the shoulder with her walking stick.
“If you gave me a second!” Phil hissed.
She expected him to block out her mental assault while at the same time finding how many people were in the house while he knelt in the dirt digging up potatoes. To further complicate things, she recited the Japanese national anthem at the top of her lungs, tapping out a beat with that very staff. The idea was to help him multitask. Not every place he wound up needing to use his power was going to be a secluded mountain hideaway full of minds he could barely detect. So far, he had only tracked down a headache.
“Your blocking is weak,” Chiyo chastened him. “But you can’t even do it with this much distraction? This is simple.”
“Simple for who?” Someone with decades of experience under her belt? Or someone who just found out that controlling this power was possible?
According to her, Phil was far behind where he should have been developmentally. With his amount of raw talent, he had the potential to do things he’d thought were only the stuff of fantasy. Influencing minds, psychometry, telekinesis, and more. She only had a few of these powers herself, but she hadn’t had as much time to grow as Phil. By the end of this, there was no telling what he’d be capable of. But he needed practice. Lots of it. He had years to make up for and not enough time to do it.
“Concentrate!” She made the words big in his mind, a mental shout that had the desired effect of distracting him.
“I’m trying!”
Another hard tap on his shoulder. “Don’t try. Do it.”
Phil had something smart to say to that, but Chiyo tapped him again before the thought got to his mouth.
“Again, like I told you.”
Phil pushed his frustration down, letting Chiyo’s instructions echo in his mind.
Imagine you’re on a boat just off shore. Feel the chill in the morning air, the wood under your knees as you kneel in the bow. You take up the net you’ve brought, fine and delicate in your hands. Throw it from the boat as far as you can. Watch it spread out over the water before it melts into it. Pay attention to disturbances in the net. A twinge here, a ripple over there. How much of it is disturbed? How many fish are trapped under it?
He raised his shield, a brick wall reinforced with steel, thick, impenetrable. He picked a portion and thinned it until a hole formed. He imagined his perception as a net. Picturing the boat was the hardest part. He’d never been on a boat, but Chiyo helped it along with her own mental pictures. She encouraged him to change it later to whatever worked best for him. Until then, he piggybacked off of what worked for her.
He’d used his powers to reach out to people in the ER and to help Shige before everything had gone haywire, but never with this amount of control, for this number of subjects or with this many non-humans.
For a minute, the thrashing was too much to single out where one started and another stopped. Then it calmed down to almost nothing. He was ready to call this attempt a failure as well when something twitched. He didn’t get a full read, but the subtle stirrings of minds active, moving, thinking came through. This was different from picking up emotion. Basic thought. He couldn’t read the thoughts themselves, only that the owner was awake and alert. He sensed another, then another bubbling away. In a far corner of the grounds was a cluster of less active minds. Likely the night shift. Phil had never seen them, but he heard them in the hallway when he tried to sleep.
Now that he had tuned in, the number of minds kept growing. They overlapped as they interacted. Moving around?
“I think… forty-three.”
“You think or you know?” Chiyo asked.
“No… forty-seven. Some of them are too close together. It’s harder to tell.”
“That’s right.” Chiyo stood. “You overcame one of your biggest hurdles. People who want to do you harm are sometime able to hide their intent, but not their presence. If I was able to teach you anything, it needed to be how to hide yourself while being aware of your surroundings. It’ll make your life easier and keep you alive better than you’ve been doing on your own.”
“Did I pass?”
Chiyo gave him a nod.
“We’re done for today.”
Phil rose, brushing the dirt from his knees. He needed a break, and a nice hot bath was looking better and better.
He finished clapping grit from his hands in time to see Chiyo wobbled on her walking stick before her legs gave out and she crumpled to the floor.
Two long strides brought Phil to her side. She leaned heavily on her staff, already trying to rise, but Phil made her stay put. She resisted at first, trying to wave him away, but soon she relented.
“I’m alright. I’m alright.” She tried to shoo him away. If Phil had a dollar for every time an elderly person said that when they’d been wheeled in after taking a spill, he would have enough money to give Shige’s fortune competition.
To her credit, she did seem OK. She had no shortness of breath, no unnatural color in her face. Her heart beat steadily under the crepey skin of her wrist. He turned her arm and her bird like bones mo
ved smoothly. “Can you tell me what happened?”
He was aware of her eyes on him as he measured her heart rate.
“It’s my knees.” She rubbed one with the hand not trapped in Phil’s grasp. “Sometimes they give out on me.” She sighed. “One of the pleasures of getting old.”
“Maybe for our next lesson, we do it inside sitting down?” Help would only be a shout away if this happened again. He hoped that it wouldn’t.
She shook her head. “I have to enjoy this place while I still can.”
That was too depressing for Phil to accept. They’d talk about it when the time came.
Trying to move her by himself was too risky. He had to track down Kaoru, though he didn’t want to leave her on her own either.
“I’m going to get help, OK? Try not to move.”
She chuckled. His concern was amusing? As long as it kept being unnecessary, that was fine by Phil. “Yes, Nurse Torres. I’ll be here.”
Over the course of his training, he’d become familiar with the tone of Kaoru’s mind. It was more active than the others, and something about its energy seemed perpetually angry, almost manic, and afraid. Though, what he had to fear way out here, Phil hadn’t the faintest idea.
He went inside the house and reached out for Kaoru’s mind, but it blended in with the nearly 20 other minds crammed around it. Tracking him down would take too long. But there was another mind that stood out from the rest that he found with ease.
Jonquil was in his room, two doors down from the kitchen, nodding off while sitting up, his cellphone in his hands. Phil barged right in and took him by the shoulder.
“Have you seen Kaoru?”
Jonquil squinted up at him. “Uh… no. I haven’t seen him all day.”
“Come with me. I need your help with something.”
Phil left the room before Jonquil had the chance to slow him down with questions. The floorboards yawned under them as they made their way back to the garden. Chiyo was right where he left her, only now she wasn’t alone. Kaoru knelt next to her, inspecting her leg. How had he known? How had he gotten there?