Jukai (The Torihada Files Book 2)

by Tara A. Devlin

  Contents

  Title

  Copyright

  Jukai

  01

  02

  03

  04

  05

  06

  07

  08

  09

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  18

  19

  20

  21

  22

  23

  24

  25

  26

  27

  28

  29

  30

  31

  32

  33

  34

  35

  Want Even More?

  About the Author

  Rate This Book

  Newsletter

  Jukai

  The Torihada Files Book 2

  Tara A. Devlin

  Jukai (The Torihada Files Book 2)

  First Edition: February 2019

  Illustrations by: Emiru the Yurei

  taraadevlin.com

  © 2019 Tara A. Devlin

  All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  jukai [joo-kai] noun

  a sea of trees

  broad expanse of dense woodland

  abundant leafage

  1

  A thumping on the front door drew me from my revelry and a familiar face grinned at me. He held up his delivery sheet and pointed to some boxes on the ground.

  “Morning! Got a nice big delivery for you today.” He smirked as I opened the door and let him in. He dropped the boxes in the corner of the store and placed a few smaller parcels on top. “You guys must get a lot of business out here, huh?” He nodded towards the pile of packages and looked around the tiny room. “I suppose there’s never a bad time to drink tea. I love matcha myself. Hey, you’re a tea specialist, right? Which brand would you recommend?”

  Sayumi, my boss and mentor, was the one who usually dealt with him and I was glad for it. He never shut up. I couldn’t recall his name, although he’d mentioned it once or twice. He was entirely unassuming; average height and build with black hair hanging in front of his eyes from underneath his cap. He could have been any man in the street in his plain brown uniform; there was nothing about him that stood out. Every time he came to the store he wanted to chat and, unlike Sayumi, I was not a chatty person. It was becoming more and more difficult to be cordial towards him.

  “They’re all good.” I smiled, doing my best to not make it a grimace. “It depends on how bitter you like your drinks.”

  “Oh, I love bitter.” He beamed. “The more bitter the better!”

  I signed the delivery sheet and nodded. “Well, the matcha is over there.” He peered at the shelves and followed me as I walked back to the front counter.

  “Do you shift a lot of stock here? I’ve been thinking about starting my own business, you know? Getting out of delivery. I mean, it pays okay, but it’s not what I want to do forever. I want to run my own shop and there’s always a market for tea. Who doesn’t love tea? No-one, that’s who.”

  The soothing mood that filled the store before customers arrived was rapidly fading.

  ‘Go away!’ my mind screamed. ‘Stop bothering me!’ I painted the best pleasant expression I could on my face and turned around. Being rude to him wouldn’t get him out of the shop any sooner.

  “We do okay.”

  “Hey, where’s the owner? What’s her name, Sayumi?” He searched the store, as though it wasn’t clear that we were the only two people there. “She’s nice, always greets me with a tasty Japanese sweet for my troubles. I haven’t seen her around for a while.”

  “She’s on vacation,” I lied. “She’ll be back soon.” I hoped against hope that would be true.

  “Oh, really?” He leaned on the counter and got closer. “So, it’s just you running the store now, huh?”

  “That’s correct.” His proximity made my skin crawl. The scent of his cologne flooded my nostrils, and I fought the urge to cough.

  “That’s gotta be tough. What do you do when there are so many customers that you can’t serve them all at once?”

  “We’ve never had that problem.” Why wasn’t he getting the hint? Sayumi always handled him much better than I ever could. There was no person or situation that she couldn’t deal with, whereas I found myself wishing a giant hole would open up in the ground and swallow either him or me whole. It didn’t matter which, as long as it brought an end to this pain.

  “What?” He looked outraged. “How is this place not flooded with people when a pretty young woman such as yourself is at the counter?”

  The polite smiles were becoming more difficult to force.

  “We’re a tea store, sir, not a fast-food outlet.”

  “But still. Don’t you get lonely working here all by yourself? I mean, it gets dark pretty early these days, and you’re all the way down the end of the street here, no-one else around…” He let the word dangle at the end of his sentence and looked up through his eyelashes. “You must wish you had company sometimes?”

  “Not necessarily, no.” I suppressed a shudder. The curt replies weren’t getting through to him. If anything, he seemed to enjoy my discomfort. Hiroshi, his name-tag said. He caught my eyes and smiled, pushing himself off the counter and offering a hand.

  “Name’s Hiroshi. We’ve met before, but I think this is the first time we’ve properly talked one-on-one, yeah? Nice to meet ya.”

  I bowed, ignoring his proffered hand.

  “Mako.”

  “Mako. A beautiful name for a beautiful lady.”

  I swallowed my disgust back down. “You must be busy, please, don’t let me keep you.”

  He shrugged his shoulders and leaned down again. “It’s early, I’ve got some time before I need to be elsewhere.”

  “Well, if you don’t mind, I have to work.” I grabbed a book from underneath the counter and moved away, flicking through the pages. Sayumi was reading it before she left, a novel about an ancient samurai war, but he didn’t need to know that. ‘Get out!’ my mind screamed again. ‘Just go!’

  “Oh, don’t let me keep you!” He put his hands up and loitered around the store, picking up random items, feigning interest and returning them. He stepped around the boxes he had just brought in and grabbed a few bags “Hey, what’s the difference between this tea and this one?”

  I glanced up from the book and did my best not to scream. “The price.”

  He laughed and pointed at me. “I like you.” He returned the bags and scratched the back of his head. “Say, what are you doing for lunch today? I don’t have any particular plans, but if you wanna go out and grab something, then…”

  At least he finally got to the point. “I’m busy today. Sorry.”

  “How about this weekend?” He stepped around the shelf of Japanese sweets and slid up beside me. I closed the book and sighed. “Surely you don’t work every day?”

  “I’m busy,” I repeated. “I’m very busy while Sayumi’s away.”

  “Do you need any help? Because I don’t mind dropping by and doing a little extra work if you need it. You don’t even have to pay me. I’ll do it out of the goodness of my own heart.” He might as well have patted himself on the b
ack for that one. It was all I could do not to sneer.

  “No, thank you. I’m fine. And you really should get back to work. I have some things I need to do out back as well. I wouldn’t want you to feel left alone out here.”

  That was the wrong thing to say because his grin grew even larger. “Do you need any help back there? I played a lot of soccer at university and I like to keep fit.” He held his arm up and patted it. “Delivery work is heavy, but it builds a lot of muscle, there’s nothing too big that I can’t carry!”

  I bit my tongue. “No, sir. Thank you. Thank you for the delivery, but I really must get back to work now.”

  He nodded a few times and clapped his hands together. “Okay, sure, I can tell when I’m not wanted.” He looked around the room and back towards the door. “Sure is dark in here, isn’t it? And cold. Don’t you feel it too?”

  “I’m used to it.”

  “Huh. I hate the cold. You’re lucky. Well, I enjoyed our chat. Let’s do it again sometime!”

  I painted one last forced smile on my lips. “Goodbye.”

  “Oh!” He stopped and turned around, pulling out a piece of paper and a pen. He scribbled something and put it down on the counter. “My number. In case you change your mind.”

  He held a hand up and the doorbell tinkled as he left. I let out the breath I didn’t realise I was holding and returned Sayumi’s book to its place.

  Where are you, Sayumi? Hurry back. Please.

  2

  I opened the top box and a glittering teapot caught my eye. I inspected it closer, running my fingers over the design. Cherry blossoms; Sayumi‘s favourite. She would love it. A pang filled my chest and I pushed it away. I dug through the box and removed the teacups that accompanied it and sat them on the bench. They were stock for the store, but I didn’t have the heart to put them out. Sayumi loved cherry blossoms. I envisioned the look on her face when she returned from her work trip and saw them sitting on the counter, waiting for her. That pang again.

  Where was she?

  Two weeks earlier Sayumi left without word of where she was going or what she was doing. “Take care of the store for me,” she said on her way out. “I’ll be back in a few weeks. Don’t look for me, okay? Promise me.”

  I nodded and she disappeared into the rain. There had been no word of her since. Sayumi often left on side jobs and didn’t return for days or weeks at a time. I didn’t ask and she didn’t tell. I picked up the cup and stared at it under the faint ceiling lights. Exquisite craftsmanship. Sayumi would love it. No, I couldn’t sell it. This unfamiliar item I had discovered in a storage box was now a link to my mentor. It awaited her return, like I did. There was no way she would let us down.

  I unpacked the rest of the box and set the items on the shelves. Matsuda Tea and Sweets. A quaint little store on the edge of a quaint little town in the middle of nowhere. The villagers liked their tea bitter and their sweets a little less so. That summed up the atmosphere, too. Not a soul in the store. Just me and a bunch of tea bags and tea cups. Sometimes it felt like the walls were closing in on me, and that sensation only worsened in Sayumi’s absence.

  Soft rain drizzled outside and the overhead light flickered. Again? Three lights in a week. I made a mental note to call the electrician and grabbed the store ladder from the back. It wobbled as I stepped up, and shadows materialised in the dark corners of the room as I climbed. I ignored them and changed the bulb as quickly as I could. I climbed down and flicked the switch; light roared to life, filling the store with a warming glow.

  The computer on the front desk buzzed, joining the drizzle of rain on the storefront window. It was a decrepit old thing Sayumi had picked up a few years earlier when it was already ancient. The sound was both comforting and off-putting. It reminded me that I was alone, but it was better than complete silence.

  “I’ll be back in a few weeks. Don’t look for me, okay?”

  I wrapped the teapot and matching cups in bubble wrap and placed them under the register. The deep grooves and stains in the hardwood counter Sayumi used as a front desk told of stories older than I, of things it had seen and could never explain again. And yet, unlike most products sold nowadays, it was sturdy and it was solid. It could take a sledgehammer and crack, but not give way. How could I find such strength? Sayumi’s absence filled the store with bogeymen at every turn, monsters in every shadow, watchful eyes in every crack. There was nobody there but me, I told myself, but that just made it even worse.

  The doorbell tinkled and a middle-aged man walked into the store.

  “Welcome!” I smiled and bowed my head. He shook the rain from his thinning hair, nodded in return, and silently filled his arms with tea.

  “Hey, do you have any of those sweet bean cakes?” he called out across the store, searching high and low for his prize.

  “We have several, sir. Which type are you after?”

  “They’re about, oh, this big—” he demonstrated with his hand, dropping a few bags of tea at the same time “-and they’re shaped like tiny sea shells. My… my little girl loves them.”

  I stepped around the counter and walked over to the other side of the store. “Do you mean these?” I held a bag up for him. His face lit up and he nodded enthusiastically.

  “Yes, yes! Those! I’ll take two.”

  I grabbed two packets, and he dumped the bags of tea on the counter.

  “Sencha.” I smiled and scanned through the items. “A wonderful choice. It’s Ms Matsuda’s favourite as well.” Sencha was the first tea she served me when she took me in off the streets, so it held an especially important meaning to me.

  “I’m not a big fan,” the man said, pulling several bills out of his wallet, “but my wife loves it. You know what they say, happy wife, happy life, or something like that.” He attempted to grin, but he looked like someone was punching him in the stomach.

  “I suppose that would be true, yes. That’ll be 4,569 yen altogether.”

  The man put the notes down and slid them across the hardwood counter. He threw everything into his bag as I presented his change.

  “I hope your daughter enjoys the cakes,” I said and bowed my head. Again he grimaced, as though I was the one doing the punching, and nodded in return.

  “I, yeah. Hopefully. That would be nice.” He nodded again and fled the store, lifting his jacket to the rain and turning down the street. His wallet stared back at me from the counter.

  “Oh no… Sir!” I picked it up and ran to the door. Rain pelted me in the face and a strong wind howled through the new opening it had found. The man was nowhere to be seen. The street was empty, much like the store, and it wasn’t hard to imagine that I was the only person left in the entire town, small as it was. Just me, the rain, some tea and a bunch of apparitions waiting to drag me into the darkness. I closed my eyes and shook my head. The man would be back when he realised he forgot his wallet. Chasing him through town would be pointless.

  I went back inside and wiped the water from my face. A photo slid out of the wallet and landed on the floor, fluttering like a leaf on the wind. A small girl of roughly nine or ten years stared back at me, smiling. I leant down to pick it up. My head exploded in pain and the world went white.

  Trees. Darkness. Footsteps. Chimes. Rope. Fear. Panic.

  I let go of the photo and grabbed my head. It was like someone was hammering train spikes directly into my brain and it took me a few moments to recover. The little girl stared back at me from the floor. My hands shaking, I grabbed the shelves next to me and pushed myself up on wobbly feet, returning to the counter for my gloves. I put them on and stumbled back to the photo. I knew it was safe to pick up with my gloves, but I hesitated regardless. The throbbing in my head continued, and tiny pricks of light dotted the edges of my vision. It made no sense.

  On the day Sayumi took me in she called me a ‘finder.’ I didn’t know what that meant, but she explained that I was able to see the hidden connection between things. “Everything is connected, and when
something gets lost, people like you are able to find it again. Nothing is ever truly gone. A small trace always remains. Always.”

  I picked the photo up. No head exploding visions. No overwhelming urge to vomit. Nothing. It was a regular photo of a happy little girl, safe in my gloved hands. I put it back in the man’s wallet and waited for the dizziness to pass. Under Sayumi’s teachings, I was able to focus on an object or person through something connected to them and find them. A piece of clothing, their favourite perfume, or even a simple photo would do it. It took incredible effort and every single time it terrified the living daylights out of me, but never before had it happened just by picking something up.

  Well, no, that was a lie. Under Sayumi’s tutelage it had never happened, but when I first discovered that I could see things, it almost drove me insane. Every single little thing drew me in. Pulled me into the darkness. Showed me things I didn’t want to see. Showed me to things that…

  I shook my head of the memories and put the man’s wallet down on the counter. He would return for it when he realised it was missing. All would be fine.

  The store was silent. The little girl’s happy face burned at me through the wallet’s leather lining.

  3

  The first floor of Matsuda Tea and Sweets functioned as the storefront while the second floor was our living quarters. I climbed the stairs, dragging my feet as sleep threatened to claim me right then and there. The building had been in Sayumi’s family for generations, and I was the first non-family member to live there. That fact wasn’t lost on me.

  Sayumi’s room stared back at me from the stairs, the first room on the right. She left the door open when she took off and darkness filled the room. The rain outside had stopped and a sliver of moonlight filtered through the curtains. The bed was immaculate, and all the papers and files on the desk next to it were neat and orderly. Just how she liked it. A fresh stab of pain pierced my heart when I saw the photo beneath the window. A picture of Sayumi and myself at my coming of age ceremony, a year after she took me in off the streets. She paid for the kimono herself; not a rental, either. She outright bought a new one designed especially for me. “Don’t you think the pink brings out the colour in your cheeks?” she said. I didn’t know what to say, so I just bowed my head in thanks and that was enough for her. She always knew how I felt without having to say anything. A good thing, because I wasn’t the most chatty teenager.