Jukai (The Torihada Files Book 2)

by Tara A. Devlin

  To that, I honestly didn’t know the answer. “I think she tried, a while ago, but nothing worked. When she realised it kept other spirits away, however, she stopped trying. It’s like leaving a spider be so it’ll kill the household bugs, you know? You don’t touch it, it doesn’t touch you, but it keeps the other pests away.”

  “Like a guard dog?”

  “Yeah.”

  “A guard dog that could rip your face off at any moment?”

  “…Yeah.”

  When she put it that way… “As long as we don’t come down into the store after dark, it’s fine. And if I have to share a space with them so I don’t have to see other spirits all the time, well that’s worth it for me.”

  “You’re far braver than I could ever be.”

  “Says the girl threatening to bring an ikiryo to my doorstep.”

  Megu scoffed. “To help!”

  “Remember that guard dog? That’s a good analogy for your ikiryo friend as well.”

  “Yeah. Well. We’re working on it.”

  I snickered. “We?”

  “Well, she’s working on it. I’m there for support.”

  “Uh huh.”

  “Shut up.”

  I missed Megu.

  “And some delivery guy has been hassling me as well. Apparently he’s been harassing several women around town. It never rains but pours, huh?” It felt nice to get everything off my chest, and I didn’t have to pretend around Megu. She was unaware of the exact circumstances of my parents’ deaths, but she otherwise knew all about me. What I could do and what I could see. She was the only person other than Sayumi that I could trust.

  “What?” she screamed. I pulled the phone away from my ear. “Go to the police! Right now!”

  “I can’t,” I replied, bringing the receiver back. “He technically hasn’t done anything that’s a crime yet. Well, I’m fairly certain he broke into the house the other night, but I don’t have any proof of that either.”

  “What?” The scream got louder. “I’m coming down there right now!”

  “No, Megu, please. It’s fine. I’m handling things.” I really wasn’t handling things, but I didn’t want to drag her into it as well. “The house dealt with him, anyway.” I didn’t know how else to explain it. Something happened, there was a scream, and then someone—most likely Hiroshi—broke out the back door and fled into the night.

  “Mako.”

  “What?”

  “I’m coming to see you.”

  “No. I’m fine, really. I just needed to get all of that off my chest.”

  “Mako.”

  “What?”

  “I love you.”

  “I love you, too.”

  “But I’m still coming to see you.”

  I sighed.

  “Keep all your doors locked and make sure you have the police on speed dial, okay?”

  “Megu, it’s not that—”

  “Okay?” she interrupted me. There was no getting out of this one.

  “I’ll be there in a few days. I’d be there right this instant if I could, but there’s some stuff I need to sort out here first.”

  “You really don’t have to.”

  “I insist. And I’ll bring my ikiryo friend with me. We’ll bust down some asses, ghost and otherwise.”

  I smiled. There would be no arguing with her. She was nothing if not stubborn. “Thank you, Megu.”

  “You stay safe. We’ll be there soon.”

  I hung up the phone and looked down at the notepad I was scribbling on. A shrine maiden was looking back at me, smiling. I tore the page out and threw it in the bin, my heart pounding wildly. A noise outside the store drew my attention back. A delivery truck pulled up and another familiar face stepped out.

  20

  He was back. Hiroshi. He stood in front of the store and glowered through the window, several boxes on his trolley. He raised a hand and rapped twice, then waited with his hands crossed in front of him.

  “Good morning.” It didn’t feel like a good morning, and the expression on his face agreed with my sentiments.

  “Delivery.” He held his clipboard out for me to sign. No ‘good morning’ or ‘how are you?’ No invasive questions into the state of my loneliness or invitations to lunch. He wouldn’t even look at me and turned his gaze to the roof as I took the clipboard from him.

  “That’s a nasty cut on your face there,” I said, scribbling my name and handing the clipboard back. A large cut ran down the length of his cheek, mostly covered by small bandages. Anger flared in his eyes momentarily, a sudden fire roaring to life. He opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it and clenched his jaw. His eyes darted around and he looked over my shoulder before swallowing. The fire was replaced with fear.

  “A fishing accident,” he said, putting the clipboard back in his truck and waiting for me to open the door to let him in with the boxes.

  “A fishing accident?” It was difficult to hide the disbelief in my voice and not laugh in his face.

  “A fishing accident. Now, if you could just open the door and let me in so I can deliver these boxes and get back to work.”

  I opened the door and he rolled the boxes in. I pointed the usual corner and returned to the front counter. There was no friendly chit-chat, no leaning on the counter or picking up goods he didn’t intend to buy. All of a sudden, Hiroshi the Delivery Guy was all business. He unloaded the boxes and then pulled a smaller package out of his pocket.

  “Oh, I forgot this one.” He put it down on the counter. This one was addressed to Sayumi personally, not the store. Curiosity burned, but I put it aside and thanked the man. He looked at me a few more moments, several emotions fleeting through his eyes like he wasn’t sure what to feel or how to say it. Anger. Confusion. Fear. He unconsciously touched his cheek, and I decided to do something I’d never done before. I didn’t know if it would work, but I figured there wouldn’t be any harm in trying. Probably, anyway.

  I reached forward and grabbed his wrist. I focused on the store itself, but it was too broad. Colours swirled everywhere and sounds fought each other for dominance. He came to the store all the time; it wasn’t specific enough. I needed something better. The pen on my desk. Yes. I focused on the pen.

  The colours focused and the sounds quietened. I was in my room. He was in my room. Hiroshi the Delivery Guy was standing in front of my desk, rifling through it, looking for something. I couldn’t tell what, but the emotions were overwhelming. Anger. Lust. Rage. Humiliation. Panic. I rejected him and he wanted to teach me a lesson. He knew I was alone and he didn’t want to hurt me—much, anyway—but a lesson had to be learnt and his feelings respected.

  Two figures materialised beside the desk. The pen rose. Hiroshi realised too late. He ducked to the side and it slashed his cheek. He screamed and fled the room. A boot connected with the back door and he was outside. He was free.

  I let go and Hiroshi yanked his arm back like I’d just stabbed him with hot pokers.

  “W-What the fuck was that?”

  Did he see it too? I’d only ever tried it with objects connected to people, not people connected to objects.

  “I…”

  “You crazy bitch!”

  He backed away, bumping into a shelf and knocking some bags of tea onto the ground.

  “It was you.” There was no point in either of us pretending otherwise. “You were here, the other night. You were in my room.”

  “Y-You’re crazy. I don’t know what you’re talking about, but if you touch me again, I’m calling the police!”

  “You’re calling the police?” I laughed in disbelief. “You break into my house, my store, you sneak into my room and, and what? You plan to make me pay for not going out with you?” He continued to back away. “What exactly were you planning to do, huh? Maybe slap me around a little to prove a point? Tie me up and leave me there?” I moved around the counter and he backed up into the door, knocking his trolley over. “Or maybe something else. That’s it,
isn’t it? I said no and refused to play your little games, so you were just going to take what you wanted anyway like some spoilt little child.”

  “You’re insane!” His lips quivered and he fumbled to pick the trolley up, placing it between us for safety. “A-All of you are the same. Stay away!”

  “Perhaps you should have taken your own advice before breaking into my house and leaving your DNA everywhere. Like your blood on my pen.”

  His face said it all. Why didn’t I think of that before? In my fear it had completely escaped my mind. His blood was on my pen. I did have evidence. It was right up there in my desk. Hiroshi swallowed and leapt for the door handle, jiggling it over and over. It refused to open. He turned back to look at me. “Now you’re locking me in? Is that what this is? You think this is funny?”

  I held my hands up in the air. “I was behind the counter all this time. You saw me with your own two eyes, Hiroshi.” He flinched at hearing his name. “Yes, Hiroshi, I do know your name. You told me several times, and it’s right there on your name tag.” He looked down and blushed. “And yes, you better believe I’ll be filing a report, not only with the police but with your company as well. I hope you didn’t like delivering because I’m pretty sure your days as a delivery driver are numbered.”

  He jiggled the door handle again furiously. “What the hell? Let me out of here!”

  I walked over and Hiroshi stumbled back, giving me a wide berth. I turned the handle and the door opened. He slinked through the open space with his trolley, threw it into the back of his truck, and then jumped inside. He gave me one last glance before taking off, the fear plain in his eyes.

  I turned back to the handle. The lock was a simple knob on the back, and it was still in the unlocked position. The door wasn’t the thing keeping him in the store. Something else was. I returned to the front counter and sat down. The antique clock above my head ticked. Tick. Tock.

  Silence filled the room.

  21

  I retreated to my room after work. The brief rush of power I felt when I grabbed Hiroshi’s arm was long gone, and as darkness settled over the house, a familiar fear returned with it.

  Two figures were in my room when Hiroshi broke in. Two figures I had never seen before. They were in my room. Not the storefront, not Sayumi’s room. My room. It wasn’t my safe space anymore, and that unnerved me more than anything. They must have followed me back, but from where? The album? Keiko? The forest?

  Memories of Kurohana came flooding back. I had to go back, but every bone in my body screamed that it was wrong. Stay away; far, far away. Nothing good is waiting in that forest and nothing good will come from it either. Just carry on with your life like you never heard about it and that will be the end of it.

  But I couldn’t do that. I pulled Sayumi’s brooch out of my pocket and lay it on the desk before me. There was no way I could ignore what was going on there; not with how much I knew, and what was at stake. Yes, Sayumi was there, that much was undeniable. I found her brooch on the forest floor, and her room had presented me with a map she was working on before she left. A map that laid out the location of Kurohana Shrine, the same conclusion my research had led me to. She was there, and I had to find her and bring her back, but that wasn’t all. That little girl’s father deserved to know where she was. I couldn’t tell him, not yet. It wasn’t safe to enter the forest, and without proof, well… it was more unnecessary worry that he didn’t need right now. He deserved to know, but only once it was safe. And Keiko. I didn’t know whether she was dead or alive, but she was in there, and if she was alive, I had to do everything in my power to get her out safely as well.

  They weren’t the only ones, however. The girls on the posters outside the police box. The rumours around town of other girls gone missing. For some reason, the disappearances were increasing in frequency, and they wouldn’t stop until someone laid the shrine maiden’s spirit to rest.

  The map sat safely in my desk drawer with Keiko’s photo and necklace. Only the brooch remained on the desk, its bright blue stone staring back at me like a lost and lonely eye. What must it have seen? What secrets lay in its depths? I took my gloves off and laid them on the side of the desk. I wanted nothing more than to grab the brooch and find Sayumi immediately, run to the forest and drag her back home. Yet fear ran deep. Something else was in that forest, and that thing might very well find me the instant I tried to find her. The hunter becomes the hunted. That was how the saying went, right?

  The forest was evil. Perhaps it was once a power spot, a location of spiritual power that it granted upon those who visited, but now… something had changed. The energy was corrupted. Tainted. Evil.

  Screw it. I had to know.

  “I’m sorry, Sayumi.”

  I grabbed the brooch before I could talk myself out of it again and squeezed my eyes shut.

  A dark forest floor, covered in dry leaves and sticks. Endless trees, all the same, so thick it was difficult to walk between them, rising high, so high that it was impossible to see where they ended.

  A shrine. A small, dilapidated shrine, reclaimed by the forest. Moss and vines, peeling paint, cracked walls and caved in roof.

  Tombstones. Unmarked. Abandoned. Temple remains, nothing more than a stone base marking where its walls once stood. Tombstones surrounded it on three sides, more tombstones than a human could count. Unmarked. Unloved. Forgotten.

  I spin. Figures in the trees, growing in number. Darkness closing in. So many figures. Watching. Waiting. Afraid? Yes, they’re afraid.

  A body in the trees, swinging. Another body. To and fro, to and fro.

  Running. The figures encroach. They’re not engaging, merely watching.

  A small girl’s body, swinging from a branch. Heartache. Despair. Too late. I’m too late. I’m so sorry. I cut her down and lay her body on the dirt below. No, it’s not safe there. Under the brush until I can come back to help her. No time now. The figures, closing in. Run. Gotta run.

  Too late.

  She’s before me. A shrine maiden. She sees me. Not Sayumi. Me. She smiles and reaches out. Her cold fingers caress my cheek, leaving burning in their wake. Her dead eyes sparkle.

  “No!”

  I let go of the brooch and it clattered to the floor. I grabbed my cheek; it was cold to the touch, like a burn. Wind chimes jangled in the distance. I ran to the door; the hall was dark and empty. The entire house was dark. I was alone. Nothing followed me back.

  The chimes faded. I closed the door, locked it, and poured out more salt by the door and window, for what little good that might do. I put my gloves back on with shaky hands and picked up the brooch. The shrine maiden had Sayumi. Sayumi found the shrine, but something there had set her nerves on edge. The spirits in the trees weren’t approaching it. They were… afraid of it? They were watching her, waiting to see what she would do, but Sayumi felt it too. She ran, and she found the little girl and cut her down. How did she even get up there in the first place? She was too small to reach a branch that high.

  But then the shrine maiden found her, and she lost her brooch. Before I let go, before the vision cut out… I shuddered. The shrine maiden wasn’t looking at Sayumi. She was looking at me. She knew I was there, watching, and there was a brief moment of… happiness? Like she was glad I was there.

  The burning on my cheek faded and my heartbeat calmed. I knew what I had to do. It was the last thing I wanted, but it was the only option.

  I had to go back.

  22

  The next morning I found several messages on the work phone from Yasu.

  “Hi, this is Yasu. Um, look, I’ve been having these dreams. About Keiko. She wants me to join her in some forest, but the thing is… I looked it up. It’s a real place. They call it Kurohana. I’m sorry I keep calling, but I… I’m gonna go see her. I have to. I know, I know, it’s just a dream, but it feels real. I’m just going to check. I’ll let you know if I find anything, but maybe you can find something too. I dunno. Anyway, I’m gonna check
it out. Bye.”

  “God dammit.” Dreams weren’t good. Yasu running off half-cocked into a haunted forest without knowing what he was up against was even worse. I dialled his number and waited. The phone rang and rang and eventually cut off. I tried again with the same results.

  “Damn!” I slammed the phone back down. Another complication I didn’t need, and all because of his impatience. I told him I would keep him updated, and I told him I would find her. Why did he have to go and do such a stupid thing? He wasn’t ready for what was in there; I wasn’t ready for what was in there.

  I grabbed my stuff and locked the door behind me. The shop would have to remain closed for the day. The few locals who dropped by could survive one day without their tea. There wouldn’t be much of a tea store left if Sayumi didn’t return soon anyway, so what did it matter if it was one day or even an entire week? Besides, I could use the opportunity to find Mrs Tamita’s album as well. I looked up the emblem I saw on the school children’s uniform and discovered it was two stops before Kurohana Station. The area wasn’t familiar to me, but perhaps checking it firsthand would lead to some evidence of the album’s whereabouts. Once I was done I would continue on to Kurohana. Two birds, one stone.

  I ran to the station. Teenagers flooded the platform on their way to school. The train arrived and we piled in with barely enough room to stand. The pleasant, chilly air suddenly became hot and stuffy; heaters inside the train roared, working overtime, and the packed bodies weren’t helping either. A few kids drew faces in the steam on the window glass; others chatted and played on their phones. Everyone was going about their life without a care in the world. I was just like them once. Until…

  The train stopped and a few kids got out. I grabbed the first available seat and sat down. A minute later it took off, swaying back and forth and tempting me to sleep. And yet, the closer the train got to Kurohana, the less populated it became. The carriage grew quiet, a sombre mood settling over the remaining few who were forced to travel past it each morning. The train stopped at Hirono Station and I stepped out. The air was brisk and chilly and hit me like a brick wall. The river from my vision was only a 10-minute walk from the station, if the map was to be believed. It was barely a river—a creek, really—so finding the area I saw in the vision shouldn’t have been too difficult.