“We’ve discussed this. I’m not making enough at work right now to afford that. What’s wrong with Shirotama? Both our families are here, so we don’t have to travel far for special occasions, and the cost of living is cheap.”
“But it’s so boring here. We’ve been here all our lives. I want to go somewhere new.”
“That’s why holidays exist.”
A young couple were arguing over their future. It was pleasant; neither was accusing the other nor raising their voice. They slurped their ramen between answers and, although the woman huffed and puffed, she looked at her partner with complete devotion. I smiled despite myself. How nice to find someone who would look at you like that without even realising it.
“Mama! Mama! I wanna go to a big park for my birthday! A big one!” A small boy, perhaps only seven-years-old, was bouncing in his seat next to his mother.
“You’ll have to ask your father, dear.”
The boy turned expectantly to him. “Papa! Papa! Can we go?”
The father slurped his ramen without looking up. “Ask your mother.”
“Mama! Mama!”
Next to them, two police officers were having lunch, one engrossed in his noodles while the other was engrossed in his newspaper.
“You know they’re talking about budget cuts again, right?”
The officer eating his noodles nodded his head and slurped a particularly long noodle. “They talk about it every year. If they went through on everything they said, we’d all be living in mansions and homeless at the same time. They’re fools.”
“I can’t afford to take a wage cut.” The officer turned the page of his newspaper. “I’m struggling enough it is, and now Ayumi’s threatening to leave me.”
His partner laughed out loud, drawing the eyes of a few customers in the store. “Sorry. But can you blame her? You’re never there! I’m surprised she hasn’t left your sorry ass already.”
The other officer closed his paper and looked up. “I’m never there because I’m always working to provide for her!”
His partner held his hands in the air and nodded. “Sure, sure, I’m not judging. I’m not the one telling you to spend all your time and hard-earned money in the snack bar each night.”
“I don’t…” The man sighed and smacked his partner over the head with the rolled up newspaper. “It’s not like that. It’s just to unwind after a hard day working with an ass like you.”
“Sure, sure. But what really gets me is the constant stream of cases they’ve been piling on our desks lately. Like, I get that we’re understaffed, but it seems that every day we get a new case, and it’s almost always someone missing.”
My ears perked up.
“Yeah. This is supposed to be the quiet time of year, and I’m not getting home till after midnight most nights. Do you know how cold it is then?”
“Do you? Doesn’t all that booze warm you up?”
“Shut up. But if I have to knock on one more door and ask ‘Have you seen this girl?’ I’m gonna go nuts.”
“Are you okay?”
The waitress’s concerned voice drew me back from the conversation.
“I’m sorry?”
She smiled and put the bowl of ramen down before me. “Sorry if it’s none of my business, you just looked a little sad, is all.”
“Oh!” I smiled and shook my head. “No, no. Well, not really. Kind of. I suppose.”
The waitress—Akari, as her name tag reminded me—smiled.
“My mentor… my boss… Technically she’s both… she’s on holidays, but I haven’t heard from her since she left.” I tasted the soup broth and warmth spread throughout my chest. “And someone broke into our house last night while she was gone.”
Akari poured herself a cup of tea and took a sip. “What? I don’t know what you can do about that first one, but if someone broke into your house, you really should report it to the police.”
I turned to look at the two officers sitting in the corner. The one with the newspaper was hitting his laughing buddy again with it.
“I don’t want to bother them.”
Akari laughed. “That’s kind of their job.”
“I know, but… well I don’t have any proof, and nothing was taken, so…”
Akari nodded. She leaned forward and lowered her voice. “To be honest, I don’t think the cops in this town are the greatest, anyway. Just last week there was some guy in here hassling me on his lunch break, right, asking me to go out with him and pestering me for my number. I told him to leave, and he got all upset. He was a paying customer, he said, and I ought to show him some respect. He got all loud and violent, so much that the boss had to come and kick him out himself.”
Hiroshi flashed through my mind.
“We told the police about what happened and, of course, they were like, there’s nothing we can do, he didn’t commit any crime. Well, sure, but he sure did cause a fuss, and the boss has had to walk me home ever since because that very same day he was outside waiting for me.”
“No way. Can’t you get a restraining order against him?” I asked. Akari shook her head.
“We tried. They said there’s no evidence of stalking, and happening to be in the same place at the same time wasn’t a crime. He hasn’t done anything wrong yet, and they can’t arrest him until he does. Stupid, right? I have to wait for him to kidnap and murder me before they’ll do anything… Lotta good it’ll do by then.”
I bit into a piece of pork and let the sounds wash over me for a moment. Not even a busy ramen restaurant was safe, huh?
“I think the person who broke in last night… I don’t have proof, mind you, but… a few days ago a delivery driver came to our store and he started acting the same way. Asking me out and pestering me for my number. He did it several times and never really took the hint to go away.”
Akari straightened up. “Was he about this tall?” She held her hands about a head-length above her own. “Kinda shaggy black hair and thin?”
I swallowed and my eyes widened. That was enough of a response for Akari. “No way. It’s gotta be the same guy.”
“Hiroshi,” I said. “His name is Hiroshi. I’ve seen him a few times before, but he always dealt with Sayumi… I mean my boss.”
Akari shook her head, getting angrier by the second. “That scum… we really should report him, if not to the police then to his company or something.”
As nice as that sounded, what the police said was true. Until he actually did something, there was nothing either of us could do. Being a creep wasn’t a crime, and despite my suspicions, I had no proof that he was the one who broke into our house.
“You should be careful,” Akari said. She scribbled down a number on a piece of paper and gave it to me. “My number, in case he ever drops by when you’re alone again. You work at Matsuda Tea and Sweets, right?”
I tilted my head. “How did you know?”
“Well, there’s only one tea shop in town, so…” She smiled.
Of course. “Thank you. I… I will.” I put the piece of paper in my bag. I barely knew this woman any better than Hiroshi the Delivery Guy, but having a friend in this whole confused and messed up situation made me feel better, regardless.
“Seriously, if anything happens, give me a call. Me and the boss can come running down to save you.” She laughed, throwing a fake punch. “We girls gotta look out for each other.”
I smiled. I had few friends outside of Sayumi. “We do. Thank you.”
“I’m worried that one of these days he’s gonna go a little too far, you know? Like, actually kidnap a girl or something.”
Kidnap a girl… there was far too much of that going on. But how was I, one lonely woman working in a little tea shop on the edge of town, supposed to do that?
11
I jumped on the train after work. It was a small, private line, and the train was only two cars long. Darkness settled over the area and I, along with two others, sat in the quiet, dim car as it chugged along. The swinging and swayi
ng tempted me to sleep, lulling me into a false sense of relaxation. An old light crackled and fizzed above me while the old lady to my left nodded off. To my right, a businessman sat reading his newspaper.
The trip to Kurohana Station wasn’t far, but as the train rocked, I felt the lure of sleep almost too difficult to fight, like the train didn’t want me to be awake as we passed. It would be better if you slept, it was trying to tell me. You don’t want to go there.
The old woman got off two stations later, leaving myself and the businessman. He folded up his paper, crossed his arms, and rested his head on his chest. The light buzzed and flashed a few times. The sun was long gone, and while the train was warm, I could sense the chill settling in outside. I didn’t want to go out there. I wanted to be at home, safe in bed with my warm blanket and perhaps a good book. Even a bad book would do. Anything that wasn’t me, here, attempting to go into a cursed forest at night. Although home didn’t feel safe now either…
As if on cue, the train pulled up to Kurohana Station. I stepped outside into the cold night air and barely had enough time to look at the station sign before the train took off again. It swayed left and right, left and right. You shouldn’t have gotten off there. I tried to tell you. You’re on your own now.
I pulled my jacket closer. Kurohana Station had no attendant, and like the little train chugging away, there was a single overhead light that crackled and buzzed. You don’t want to be here either. Get out, go, while you still can!
Kurohana Forest was visible from the station, only a few minutes’ walk away. The sign from my vision rose lonely in front of it, dirty and rotting away, the characters barely legible. The forest was, back in the day, a popular spot with locals and tourists alike. Then it fell into decline and few people visited anymore. The only people who went in were those who didn’t plan to come back out.
Pulling a roll of string out of my pocket, I walked towards the forest. I had every intention of returning, and hopefully in one piece as well. I didn’t know what tricks the forest had up its sleeve, but I didn’t intend on becoming another of its victims. This was a simple reconnaissance mission. Have a look around, see what I could find, and perhaps discover whether Keiko (or the little girl) were really there. It couldn’t be a coincidence.
“Alright.” I took a deep breath, held it for a moment, then exhaled. My breath, visible in the cold air, dissipated before me. I tied the string around a tree, pulled out my torch, and set it to the strongest beam. “Let’s go.”
A small dirt path led into the trees, wide enough for three or four people to walk side by side. Yet as I followed it deeper into the forest, it grew smaller. Soon, only two people could stand side by side, and then finally, one.
There was nothing out of the ordinary. I shone the light at my feet, then up and around the trees. I shone it high into their branches, hoping against hope that I didn’t see anything up there. The dirt path disappeared, and before long I had to continue through the trees without direction. I unspooled the thread as I walked. It wouldn’t last forever, but it should last long enough to give me a better idea of what I was facing.
“Hello?” I called out. I cringed at how loud my voice sounded in the darkness. “Is anyone there?”
Was no answer better than the alternative? Leaves and branches crunched beneath my feet, but there was no reply, ghostly or otherwise, to my call. Trees closed in around me, and as I spun my torch around, I realised just how similar they looked. No wonder they said it was so easy to get lost in here. There was nothing to distinguish where I was. The trees all looked the same; the same size, the same width, even their branches looked like they agreed to grow at the same points at the same time so as not to stand out.
“Hello?”
Not even an insect chirped or cried.
“What am I even looking for?”
There were no bodies hanging from trees. No bodies lying in the dirt. No chimes ringing in the distance. Just a sea of trees that spread out in all directions, nothing to distinguish one from the next. I tugged on the string again, just to be sure. It pulled taut. Relief spread throughout my veins.
“Sayumi?” I didn’t know why I called out for her; if she was there in the first place, surely she would have responded to my initial call. But I wanted to check. I wanted to be sure.
“Don’t look for me.”
How could I not? Two weeks without word, and each passing day my fear that the worst had come to pass grew. She was on a job so dangerous that she felt the need to leave me out of it entirely; a job so dangerous that if things went wrong, she didn’t want me to follow her for fear that I would get dragged into it as well. She had to know that I couldn’t just leave it be. Sayumi was the only family I had left. Not blood family, of course, but that didn’t matter.
Like myself, Sayumi lost both her parents when she was a child. She went to live with her grandparents in the Matsuda Tea and Sweets store and, when she got older, made it her personal mission to help out children whenever she could, particularly young girls struggling with family problems like she did. That was how she found me. That was why I couldn’t just sit back and wait for her while she was potentially in trouble somewhere. If she needed help, then I had to find her.
“Don’t look for me.”
I shook my head. “Sayumi!” I called out again. The forest shuddered in reply.
12
Leaves crunched beneath my feet. Twigs snapped and pebbles pressed into my shoes. As I walked, the trees grew so dense that even the moonlight found it difficult to penetrate their upper branches. I tugged on the thread and it pulled tight. Still good. I’d be able to follow it back to the start if needs be.
It was impossible to tell if anyone had been in the area recently. There were no tracks, and I was no hunter. I couldn’t read the telltale signs a professional might. There were no footprints, nor could I tell if a stick was freshly broken by someone treading on it or if it had been that way for years. I couldn’t even tell my own tracks behind me, and if it weren’t for the string, I had no doubt that I would be completely and utterly lost. This was why people said that those who entered never returned. If you wanted to disappear and never be seen again, this would be a great place to do it.
I continued further in. The end of the string was in sight; a little further and it would run out entirely. Then I would be faced with a difficult decision: continue further without it (just a little…) or give up and go back. There was no sign of the missing girls, nor any evidence that Sayumi had been through either. That didn’t mean much; it was a big forest, a veritable sea of trees that covered more ground than my little piece of string could hope to cover in a single night. But there was only one entrance, and it made sense that anyone entering would come through the same path. After that, however…
“Hello?”
Still nothing but darkness and the chill settling into my bones. As I walked, however, the forest seemed to grow unnaturally quiet. The leaves and sticks beneath my feet snapped loudly like an echo chamber. Somewhere eyes were upon me. I shone my torch around, spinning in a circle. They were out there; their gazes piercing me as plain as day. My heart beat faster, but I saw nothing.
“I know you’re out there!”
I didn’t know anything, but on the off chance that someone was watching me, and I hoped against hope that it was a someone and not a something, I didn’t want them to know that.
“Please, I’m here to help!”
If they wanted help, they made no attempt at letting me know. Keiko’s necklace throbbed in my pocket. If she was nearby, the pull would be stronger. All I had to do was take off my gloves, reach in, and grab it. The necklace was a direct link to her. If Keiko was nearby, it would lead me right to her. But it would also link me to them.
“Hello? I don’t mean you any harm!” I couldn’t say the same for whatever was watching me. I spun the torch around, but I didn’t expect to see anything. The necklace in my pocket called to me, but I resisted it. It was a last resort
, and if I could avoid opening myself up to the spirits of the forest, I would. I had no desire to become the newest of their numbers.
As I walked in silence, I noticed something else. Footsteps. Faint, but somewhere in the distance, slightly out of step with my own. There was no denying it. They were footsteps. Crunching on the dry leaves just beyond sight.
“Hello? Is anyone out there?”
Still no response.
“Are you hurt?”
Nothing. I started walking and the footsteps picked up again, almost in unison with my own. They weren’t lost. They were following me. I picked up the pace, pushing myself through the dense trees. The string caught on a branch and I hurried to unravel it, my fingers fumbling with the delicate wool. I needed every spare centimetre it could give me. I shone my torch around, particularly on the dirt around me. I was no tracker, but I saw no evidence of anyone nearby. Nothing disturbed or broken. Just a plain forest floor covered in the dead leaves and sticks of winter, the dirt untouched.
“Hey, wait!”
My heart jumped into my throat. A girl. There was a girl up ahead. I caught only a glimpse, but it was enough, and there was no mistaking it. There was a girl, barefoot and in a white dress, running through the trees up ahead.
“Stop!”
I ran in her direction, forcing my way through tight spots in the trees and ignoring the branches grabbing for my face. The girl’s footsteps hastened, and I with them. Finished, the string fell from my hand, and I stopped to look at it. The string or the girl. She was just up ahead. I could reach her in time. I could.
I ran as fast as my feet would take me, carrying me blindly through the trees.
“Please, stop! I just want to talk!”
But she didn’t stop. The light from my torch highlighted the dirty soles of her feet as it thrashed wildly through the trees. The faster I ran, the faster she ran. I pushed through, no idea where the string was, but the girl was just there. I could almost reach out and touch her. A little faster and I would catch up. I could find out what was going on. Just a little more…
Jukai (The Torihada Files Book 2) Page 5