Yokai (12 page)

Blinking back tears, Yumiko stood up
to face her sensei.

Mori watched her warily, and shook her
head. “I’m sorry, Yumiko. Your aunt doesn’t have much time left.
She would like to say goodbye.”

Yumiko bit her lip to keep from
sobbing. Or wailing. She bit so hard that she tasted blood. Her
aunt had taken her in, following her mother’s abduction. Now, she
had…no one. What would happen to her?

With a brave face, Yumiko allowed Mori
to guide her down the hallway to her aunt’s room, feeling like she
was floating, or in a dream.

She stepped up to her aunt’s deathbed
and looked past the blood-soaked cloths on her cheek and neck.
“Auntie?”

Her aunt smiled back at her and held
up a weak hand, which Yumiko took. “My girl. You’ve been a good
girl, a joy since I took you in.”

Yumiko couldn’t help the tears that
slipped from her eyes. She wiped them away with her free
hand.

“
I remember wondering what
I’d gotten myself into when I brought you to your first doctor
appointment,” her aunt said. “When they told me about how you were
different…your defects.” She shook her head. “I still can’t believe
your mother never told me about it. Your organs all switched
around. The doctors didn’t know what to make of you at first.” She
smiled. “And then all of your talk of creatures and monsters…it was
a bit much to take.”

“
I’m sorry,” Yumiko said,
lowering her head.

“
Don’t be sorry, child,”
her aunt whispered. “The woman who attacked me wasn’t human. Her
face...” She shuddered and closed her eyes briefly. “She was a
monster, Yumiko. Some sort of demon witch.”

Yumiko’s eyes widened.

“
You were right,” her aunt
said. “There are things in this world, living among us, that we
don’t understand. And I’m only sorry that I didn’t believe
you.”

She dropped Yumiko’s hand then, to
cover her mouth as she coughed. She didn’t stop coughing for a full
minute. The heart monitor grew agitated and beeped louder, until
she withdrew her fist from her mouth, a trickle of blood escaping
from the corner of her mouth.

“
I love you like a
daughter,” her aunt said, smiling at Yumiko. “You were always
special.” She swallowed hard. “You listen to Madame Mori now. She
will keep you safe.”

Yumiko frowned at this, but didn’t
reply. “Auntie…”

“
Be strong, now, honey.”
She looked past Yumiko. “I’m tired. I think I need to
rest.”

“
Come along, Yumiko,” Mori
said softly, gently pulling her from the bed. “Let your aunt rest
now.”

Yumiko followed Mori quietly from the
room, until they reached the lobby once more, and Mori
stopped.

“
You will work hard under
my guidance,” Mori said. “And you will hide nothing from me. If you
can agree to these terms, I will take you in, as your aunt has
requested.”

Yumiko looked up at Mori, with hopeful
eyes. “Truly?”

Mori nodded. “It will not be a
luxurious life-“

“
I agree,” Yumiko cut her
off. “All I’ve ever wanted was to train, to be strong.”

“
And you shall be,” Mori
promised.

Seventeen-year-old Yumiko sat up
straight and snatched the dagger from her bedside. She looked
around her dark room, wondering what had awakened her. She didn’t
move for a minute, waiting for the disturbance to return, when she
heard a soft knock on the door.

Exhaling a sigh of relief, Yumiko
slipped out of her bed and pulled a robe around herself on her way
to the door, wondering who it could be. When she opened the door,
Madame Mori looked in expectantly.

“
Sensei,” Yumiko bowed,
opening the door wider. “Please, come in.”

Mori smiled and stepped into the room,
an envelope in hand. “I don’t have much time, Yumiko. I have a
flight to catch.”

“
A flight?” Yumiko blinked,
wondering for a moment if she was still dreaming. “What
flight?”

“
I’m going to America. I
have some colleagues there who may have answers to Mr. Mathis’s
condition.”

“
I see,” Yumiko said
slowly, watching her closely. “And you have to travel overseas to
be able to communicate with them?”

Mori chuckled. “Mr. Mathis isn’t your
typical yokai. I think that in order to understand his condition, I
need to become more familiar with lycanthropy.” She hesitated.
“There is something very odd about it.”

Yumiko recalled the item that Brian
had turned over in his hands. “What was the item you gave him to
look over?”

“
It was a mystical object
made of silver. Werewolves are highly allergic to silver. Usually a
blow of silver to the head, or a silver bullet through the heart is
even enough to kill them. So, I made some calls, and apparently
there are several different breeds of werewolves. I need to explore
them all if I’m going to be able to connect Mr. Mathis’s affliction
to something that the experts in this sort of thing are familiar
with. It could be catastrophic if were-foxes began to infect Japan.
Kitsune are one thing, easy to identify if you know how to look for
them – but hiding in a man’s body to cause mischief once a
month...” She shook her head. “It is very sly of the
fox.”

Yumiko released a deep sigh.
“Okay.”

Mori glanced around the room. “You
still have no mirrors in your room?”

“
You know that I
don’t.”

Mori nodded. “Good. Keep it that way.
And cover every mirror in the library.”

Yumiko raised an eyebrow. “What? Why?
Kagami won’t be coming for me for nearly a year.”

“
No need to show him any
more than we already have just how much you have grown,” Mori said.
She licked her lips. “And mirrors can only transmit images, not
sounds. If you cover it, no one on the other side can read your
lips, and they will not hear you.”

Yumiko recalled her walk through the
mirror world, how everything was silent when there should have been
noise. She shuddered. “Okay.” She cocked her head. “Has something
happened?”

Mori smiled reassuringly.
“No. I just have a feeling. It may be that I’m getting paranoid in
my old age.” She shook her head. “Just promise me that while I’m
gone, you will trust no one.” She grabbed Yumiko’s wrist. “And I
mean
no one
.”

“
I promise,” Yumiko
frowned, unsure, as Mori dropped her hand. Mori seemed to be hiding
something from her, but why wouldn’t she just come out and say it?
“Sensei?”

Mori shook her head. “Don’t worry. I
will be back in a few days.” She handed Yumiko the envelope she
held. “See to it that Shou gets this. Put it into his hands
directly. He will be wondering where I’ve gone, and what he should
concentrate on while I’m away.”

Yumiko nodded and accepted the letter.
“As you wish.”

Mori nodded and sent her one last
smile before slipping through the door, and
disappearing.

***

The first thing that Yumiko did when
she stepped into the library an hour later was to cover the mirror
that hung near the door. She stopped to stare at it for a moment,
wondering if someone was watching her, even now. Was Kagami
assessing her skills? Searching for weaknesses to exploit? Or was
he no longer paying attention to her at all, and wouldn’t for
another eleven months, and twelve days? She shook her head,
recalling the repositioning of mirrors each time she entered the
mirror world. He was watching her, and waiting for his moment. She
wouldn’t give him any more advantages.

She was feeling more stressed this
morning than usual. Mori leaving so abruptly had left Yumiko
feeling uneasy. She had a terrible foreboding that something was
about to happen, and that she wouldn’t see it coming. But it was
most likely her nerves. Since Mori had taken custody of her, she’d
never gone far, had certainly never traveled halfway across the
world for days, leaving her alone.

There was a crash from the
antechamber, and Yumiko bolted upright. In one fluid motion, she
slid open the paper door and flipped the lights on.

“
No, no, no, no,” an
exasperated voice greeted her. “S’bright.”

Yumiko sighed as she watched Tanuki
attempt to sit up at the table, empty sake bottles littering the
floor around him. “Really, Tanuki?”

Tanuki smiled, then grunted as he
grabbed hold of the table with his paws and hoisted himself up.
When he only fell over a moment later, he didn’t bother attempting
to sit up again. “The room…I think the room’s a yokai. Won’t stop
spinning.”

“
That would be your head,
from the sake,” Yumiko chided. “You only have yourself to
blame.”

“
Yumiko?”

Glancing back over her shoulder,
Yumiko saw Reina enter the library with a smile, as she tossed a
duffel bag casually to the floor.

“
What’s that?” Yumiko
asked.

Reina looked down at the
bag, then shrugged up at Yumiko. “Mori said I should train to fight
too. She says I lack discipline or something, but she has no idea
how disciplined I am. I do yoga every morning, and totally eat rice
cakes for days on end if I start to feel bloated. For
days
.”

“
She’s only looking out for
you,” Yumiko assured her. “If you’re going to deal with yokai, you
have to learn to handle yourself.”

Reina grunted noncommittally and
stepped up to the doorway, peeking inside. She raised an eyebrow.
“Looks like somebody had too much fun last night.”

“
You can never have too
much fun,” Tanuki told her, then rolled his head her way. “My
stomach is doing flip-flops.”

“
Poor thing,” Reina said,
stepping into the room. She lowered herself to the ground and
gently pulled Tanuki into her lap, running her hand gently over his
stomach. “Is that better?”

Tanuki’s eyes widened. “Yes. I mean,
it’s a little better. I’m cold though.”

Reina pulled him closer and looked
down at him with pity. “Poor fellow. Yumiko, you should get some
water for him. And something to eat.”

“
I’d rather not think about
eating right now,” Tanuki disagreed.

Yumiko rolled her eyes, but fetched a
bottle of water. When she returned, Tanuki looked as if he was
enjoying himself immensely. He was staring up at Reina’s chest like
it held the secrets of the world. “He’s a pervert,” Yumiko told
Reina, handing her the water. “You’ve been warned.”

Reina looked down at Tanuki, but the
raccoon-dog averted his eyes. “How can you say such a thing? He’s
just a helpless little furball.”

“
He’s a yokai who consumes
twice his weight in sake on a regular basis,” Yumiko corrected her.
“Just don’t say that I didn’t warn you.”

Reina snorted, skeptical.

“
I need to run an errand,”
Yumiko said, recalling the letter she’d left on the desk in the
other room. “Do you have things under control here?”

“
I think I can handle it,”
Reina muttered.

“
Okay. I shouldn’t be gone
long.”

“
Oh, take your time,”
Tanuki called after her. “We’ve got this.”

Yumiko sighed.

Chapter Nine

The host club that Shou worked at was
located on the opposite end of the red light district, near the
train station. Yumiko enjoyed the noise of morning traffic as
people milled about the streets, talking loudly into cellphones as
they hurried along, and cars honked at each other, hastening one
another.

At night, the buildings glowed neon,
businesses vying for attention to attract customers, but most
storefronts were silent and dark as the sun rose steadily into the
sky. A few places boasted early hours, but they were few and far
between on this side of town. But there would always be places open
to collect money from men and women desperate to seek comfort in
the arms of others, no matter what time of day they could manage to
sneak away unnoticed from their loved ones.

Yumiko stopped in front of the host
club, and turned toward the sound of a train rumbling along in the
distance, although she couldn’t see it with so many buildings in
the way. She glanced down at the envelope in her hand and, with a
heavy sigh, pushed open the door to the club.

She paused in the doorway. It was dark
inside, the lights low and curtains drawn, but it was a lot
classier than she would have expected. There were booths lining the
walls, with high backs to allow for privacy, as well as a dozen
tables in the center of the room, with white table cloths and wine
glasses. A man played piano on a dark stage, two couples dancing in
a small open area before it.

To her left, Yumiko heard a woman
shriek happily at the advances of a man, but Yumiko couldn’t see
what was going on exactly, which was probably for the
best.

“
Hello,” a perky girl with
a ponytail greeted her, dressed in a long black dress with a short
jacket over it. She flashed a smile at Yumiko and walked over,
carrying a black wallet.