I was back in the forest. Yasu was swinging from the hanging tree next to Keiko. Emptiness. The world was dark and difficult to see. Only the shrine stood out, a bright, shining beacon that both called to me and rejected me. Hungry. So hungry. Lonely. Dark. Cold.
The world spun. No way to tell up from down, left from right. Closing in. All around. Darkness. Panic. No air. Must stop them. Keep them away.
A wind chime rang. Its soothing ring washed over me and pushed the impending panic away. Yes, the wind chime. The one thing they despised. I did this for them and they did this to me. Now I will make them regret it until the end of time. Time that bends to my will, not theirs. Energy. So much energy, all around, but now gone. Need more. It’s not enough. Too many of them. They will pay. Must find more.
The shrine dimmed. A rush spread throughout me. Everything went dark. Drowning… I was drowning!
“Mako!”
A voice, so far away. Not for me. For who? For her. Yes, for her. The one I need.
“Mako! Can you hear me? Come back!”
Such a sweet voice. There’s power in it. A light. Precious light.
“Mako!”
Go.
I came back to with a start. I was lying on the floor in the break room, Sayumi leaning over me. The lights were out.
“W-What happened?”
“Someone cut the lights. We need to get out of here. Now.”
“Someone—”
Hiroshi.
He was back to finish the job.
32
“Sayumi.”
“What?”
She pressed against the door in the darkness, listening to what was happening outside.
“There’s something I didn’t tell you about the delivery guy.” Something I was unaware of myself until a few hours ago. “Mr Fujita said his neighbour’s daughter went missing. They found her the next day by the river, but… I think it was him that did it. Hiroshi. The delivery guy.”
Sayumi looked at me in silence, frozen against the door. I realised she wasn’t just listening, but keeping it closed at the same time. Human dangers were new to both of us, and something neither of us knew how to handle.
“The only way out is through the front,” Sayumi said, her face turned to stone. The window in the break room was too high and too small for either of us to fit through. I fought the urge to force it anyway. Anything beat going through the front.
I shook my head. Sayumi remained expressionless, listening for signs of life on the other side.
“Mako!” A voice rang out through the house. “I know you’re here. There’s no point hiding.” Sayumi’s jaw set. She motioned towards the kitchen drawer. I shook my head again. She wanted me to grab a knife. The only knives in there were blunt—they’d be more effective at slapping than stabbing him—and if he was that close, it would all be over anyway.
I never realised just how much of a death trap the break room was. The door was the only way in, and after dark the only exit was the back door. The same back door Hiroshi was now guarding.
“I’ve been watching you for a while.” He continued his tirade. “I mean, this is the perfect location. I see a lot of people in my job. Travel to a lot of different places. It’s quite convenient. You get to learn the ins and outs of the city, and you get to know everyone’s names, jobs, places of work… and otherwise.” His voice got closer. Sayumi pushed harder against the door. “You learn when people are alone. So nice of Ms Matsuda to go on a trip and leave you here to run the store all by yourself.” His voice turned singsong. Suddenly the door shuddered from the impact of his boot, and Sayumi let out a gasp.
“I dunno what you did when you touched me, you freak, but I do know one thing. This place is fucked up! All I wanted was a date!” Sayumi’s eyes opened wide as another kick shook the door. I pushed myself up to my feet, but she shook her head. He already knew I was in there. It didn’t matter if I was quiet or not anymore.
“You killed that girl!”
He laughed. “What girl?”
“By the convenience store!”
Silence.
“There are a lot of convenience stores and a lot of girls. I’m afraid I have no idea who or what you’re talking about.”
I strode towards the door, for a moment forgetting who I was talking to. “How many others did you kill? Was she the first?”
“Stalling, huh? Well, sorry to say, but I have no patience for your games today, freak. See, I just wanted to get to know you a little. Get a little closer, yeah? As soon as I saw this place, it was perfect. Quiet, unassuming, out of the way, and a pretty young woman running the register—all alone, no less. It’s like god dropped everything neatly in my lap. I’m only here a few more weeks. My transfer is already in, so I’ll be long gone before anyone notices that you are too.”
The door cracked under his boot and Sayumi screamed. Hiroshi stood face-to-face with her, confusion in his eyes. He quickly recovered and stood up taller, puffing out his chest. “Ms Matsuda. Good evening. I wasn’t aware you were home.”
“What do you want?”
He snickered. “Well, I’m assuming you heard all that, so I think you know what I want. And I’m not opposed to two, if you catch my drift.”
He stood head to toe in black with thick, heavy gloves and a beanie pulled down over his face. The eyes and mouth were cut out. In one hand he held a rope, swinging it like he was at the rodeo.
“Get out of my house. Now.”
“Oho, aren’t you the feisty one?” He grinned. “I like them feisty.”
He grabbed Sayumi around the neck, spinning her around and pulling her close. She struggled against him, but he was too strong. “Now, we’re all going to play nice, and when I’m done, perhaps they’ll be able to recognise both of you. If you don’t, then you’re going to be feeding the fish somewhere in the middle of a river. Okay?”
Sayumi threw her head back and connected with Hiroshi’s nose. He let go and screamed, grabbing his bloody face, while Sayumi used the opportunity to run into the storefront.
“Sayumi, no!”
Hiroshi pulled his beanie off and threw it to the ground. Blood poured out of his nose. “Now you’ve done it!” He charged after her, kicking the door down. “Where are you?”
I skidded to a halt before the door. Hiroshi threw a bunch of papers and small gift items off the counter in his rage. “Neither of you are leaving here alive, do you hear me? And when I’m done, I’m setting this fucked up hellhole on fire! They won’t even be able to identify your bodies in the remains!”
I couldn’t see Sayumi in the dark, but every nerve in my body screamed danger. The entire time I’d been with her I’d never once seen Sayumi enter the store front. She feared it more than I did, and she didn’t fear much, if anything.
“Get out here!” Hiroshi continued his rampage. The phone was just a few metres away. I remembered the last time he came to the house, how he had the line on hold the entire time. It wouldn’t do any good. I needed to do something else, and quick.
The temperature in the room dropped. Icicles formed at the bottom of the window and slowly spread up. I could see my own misty breath. It was like being back in the forest again. Hiroshi stalked around the shelves looking for Sayumi. He pushed them over, sending bags of tea and snacks all over the floor, then wiped the blood from his nose again. It dripped to the wood below, landing with an almost audible splash.
The blood.
Oh no.
“Sayumi!”
Hiroshi turned towards me as a figure began to take shape before him. Several more followed it, morphing into a featureless human form.
“What the hell?”
Hiroshi stumbled over a shelf in his haste to escape the figure before him. He landed on his butt and scooted back towards the door. He reached up and jiggled the handle frantically. Sayumi emerged from the opposite side of the room and his eyes darted towards her.
“What the hell is wrong with you people?”
Sayumi
didn’t answer. A form materialised behind her, and her ears twitched in knowing. Another to her left, one more to her right. The others closed in on Hiroshi, who continued to fumble with the door. He grabbed spilt boxes of tea and tossed them, watching as they sailed through the air and straight through the dark shadows approaching him.
“Get away from me!”
Sayumi ducked through the shelves and skidded to a halt. Another shadow, much larger than the others, appeared a few steps in front of her. She took a step backwards, her eyes darting around, looking for another route of escape. A dark arm reached out for her throat and squeezed. Sayumi flailed, attempting to grab the shadow but her hands going straight through it.
“No!” I screamed and ran in. I had no idea what I planned to do, but I couldn’t just stand by the door and watch her die. Not like this. Not after all we’d been through.
“G-Go!” Sayumi choked. I dove through the shadow and into Sayumi, sending the pair of us to the floor as she fell out of the shadow’s grasp.
Darkness swarmed Hiroshi like a plague of zombies, covering him from head to toe, shadowy limbs groping and grabbing, pulling and tugging. His screams filled the room as he kicked and flailed.
“Are you okay?”
Sayumi rubbed her neck and nodded. Her eyes focused on Hiroshi and she grimaced as a wet tearing sound broke through his screams. They were feeding on him. Hiroshi pushed himself up the door, giving up on the handle and instead throwing his elbow into the window glass. Over and over he threw his entire body weight against it, but it was no use. He was bleeding from more than just his nose, and his attempts at fighting off his attackers were useless. How could you fight what you couldn‘t touch? He turned to us, fear in his eyes, and shook his head. Darkness dragged him to the ground and he screamed again. It was hard to feel bad for him after everything he’d done, but the sound of flesh being torn from bone didn’t make me feel any better about the situation.
“We need to go.”
Sayumi nodded, and I helped her to her feet. Her eyes grew wide, and I turned around. Another mass of shadows was forming, this time in our direction. They were standing between us and the door. Hiroshi gurgled at our feet. We were next.
Sayumi grabbed my wrist and pulled me behind her. We backed up into the wall; more shadows approached.
“What are they?” I couldn’t keep the tremor from my voice.
“I’m not sure,” Sayumi said. “They’ve been here longer than the house. Much longer. My grandparents warned me not to come here after dark. They said the spirits of war returned each night.”
“War?”
The spirits were getting closer.
“Shirotama was the site of a bloody battle many hundreds of years ago. Many of the dead were buried in Kurohana Forest. Others were burned in mass cremations.”
Sayumi pressed against me, her arms out to shield me from the encroaching darkness. It was right before us. She turned her head to the side, a wisp brushing past her face.
“They’re the lost spirits of war.” She grimaced. “They can’t move on until—”
She stopped. The darkness before her stopped. I could hear no sounds coming from Hiroshi’s direction, but there was something else.
Wind chimes.
She was here.
The shrine maiden had found her way home.
33
The shadows before Sayumi retreated. Though they lacked form, I sensed one emotion wafting off them stronger than all the rest; fear. They feared the shrine maiden. It was her sacred duty to cleanse the unclean, to commune with higher spirits, and to drive away evil. The wind chimes heralded her arrival, and although they could not see her, like us, they felt her. Several shadows dissipated like mist. Others backed into corners to watch in safety from afar. The entire room sat balanced on the edge of a pin; one wrong move and the whole thing would collapse.
“She’s here.”
I peered past Sayumi’s shoulder and, sure enough, the shrine maiden was standing by the front door, looking down at Hiroshi’s body. He was gurgling; a wet, choking sound as his life drained to the floor below. He twisted his head and reached for the shrine maiden—Sayumi’s mother. Sayumi put a hand by my hip and edged me towards the door. The spirits focused on the maiden, turning their gaze from us. This was our chance.
There was a hoarse, wet scream. Sayumi grabbed my wrist and we ran. She pushed me through the door into the hallway and slammed it shut behind us. The room filled with the sounds of ghostly screaming and I covered my ears. I had heard a similar sound only one time before; the night my parents were killed. The spirits were fighting, and the living did not want to be caught in the middle.
“Come!”
Sayumi grabbed my wrist again and we ran upstairs. I didn’t know where she was taking me, but I followed. She opened the door to the spare room at the end and pushed me in.
“What the…” I’d never been in the spare room, and now I understood why. Sayumi told me it was where she kept all her rare and expensive items. I never had a reason to go in, and so I never did. But it wasn’t just full of expensive items; talismans covered the back of the door, the walls, and even the roof. Cursive script adorned every visible space, illegible but clear enough in their meaning. This was Sayumi’s safe room, just in case something ever happened to let the spirits in the storefront loose.
“Quickly.” Sayumi pushed me to the middle of the room and forced me to sit. I was still taking it all in, but she moved to grab various items behind me. Downstairs grew silent. Was the room soundproof, or did something make the screams stop? Could the shrine maiden do anything to the spirits downstairs? How did that even work? Her duty in life was to cleanse evil and drive it away, so was she able to do the same in the afterlife?
“What are we going to—”
Sayumi threw a bunch of items before me. Salt. An ink brush. Paper. Various sticks of incense. A lighter.
“Umm…”
She held a finger to my lips. A woman’s laughter echoed throughout the house. That solved the issue of whether the room was soundproof.
“I needed you to bring her here for a reason.”
“Okay…”
She grabbed a box of salt and poured it in a circle around us. “I need you to listen very carefully. We don’t have much time.”
I watched her as she finished the box and started again with another. “Okay.”
“My mother, she—” Sayumi stopped to correct herself “—the shrine maiden, she wants power. That’s why she’s been seeking powerful mediums like yourself.”
I nodded, but I didn’t understand. Why me? I wasn’t a medium. I merely saw things.
“The Kurohana Shrine used to be a power spot. The spirits there… the forest itself… it’s very powerful. You’ve brought her here, but it won’t be long until the forest drags her back, so we need to work quickly before that happens.”
“What’ll happen if she gets the power she’s after?”
Sayumi threw the empty box of salt away and mixed some ink. “Then she’ll be free. Once she’s no longer confined to the forest, there’s no telling what she’ll do, but it won’t be pretty.” She stopped and looked up at me. “You of all people should understand what that means.”
I nodded. “Sure.” Bile rose in my throat. “What do you want me to do?”
Sayumi picked up the brush and grabbed my arm. She drew a character that took up the back of my hand, then drew further characters up both limbs. “You’re going to exorcise her.”
I laughed despite myself. “Me? Exorcise her? I don’t… I’ve never… I’m not a medium, Sayumi. I’m not a priestess. What am I supposed to do? I’ve never done anything like this before! I wouldn’t even know where to begin!”
She grabbed my other arm and continued. “I’ll teach you. You’ll be fine.”
“Why don’t you do it, then?”
She shook her head. “I’m not strong enough, and besides… she’s my mother. If push comes to shove, I don’t trust mys
elf to…” She let the sentence trail off. She tapped the bottom of my chin when she was done with my arm and continued drawing characters on my neck and chest. It tickled, but I did my best not to fidget. “The evil in that forest corrupted her. The forgotten spirits of a brutal war fought long ago. Malice can take years to build. It stews and ferments until it finally spills forth and takes everything in its path down with it, and that included my mother. This wasn’t her fault. It wasn’t anybody’s fault. None of them asked for this.” She tapped the top of my head and I looked back down. She drew on my cheeks, my chin, my forehead. “But we’re going to help end it.”
She put the brush down and grabbed a bowl full of water. Dipping some dried leaves inside, Sayumi splashed them on my face. She walked around the circle, chanting something as she splashed more around.
“You’ve done this before?”
“I have.” There were so many things I still didn’t know about her.
“Are you sure this is going to work?”
“I’m not.” That wasn’t confidence inspiring.
“So, those spirits in the forest, and the spirits downstairs… are they the same?”
She put the bowl down and grabbed the incense and lighter. “They fought in the same war, yes.”
“Which war?”
“The war that lasted several generations. The war that united this land.”
“Oh. I didn’t know any battles took place here.”
“Much of Shirotama’s history has been forgotten.” Sayumi wafted incense around the room. Sandalwood filled my nose.
“And the power spot? Is that… what is that?”
“Even more ancient than the spirits corrupting the forest. I fear they drew from its depths to become even more powerful, and that is how they claimed my mother.”
“I see.” I didn’t—not really—but it was enough for now. Big war, angry spirits growing angrier for hundreds of years, dead shrine maiden, lots of malice all around. Got it.
Jukai (The Torihada Files Book 2) Page 14