Yokai (18 page)

“
What happened?” Reina
asked.

And Yumiko filled them in over tea.
She left out the ways that Brian had been kind and flirtatious. She
left out the kiss. But she told them everything else. The further
into the story she got, the darker the look on Shou’s face. By the
time she’d concluded her tale, Shou looked visibly angry, while
Reina looked guilty and sad.

“
I’m going to kill him,”
Shou announced.

“
Don’t be stupid,” Yumiko
said, then sat back with a sigh. “He’s too powerful. And I have to
do this.”

“
It’s so tragic,” Reina
murmured, not looking up from her teacup. “Like an arranged
marriage.”

“
It’s screwed up, is what
it is,” Shou said.

“
But,” Reina hesitated.
“Maybe he does really like you.”

Yumiko looked up at the ceiling. “Even
if he does, after this, all the lies and deceit…I could never
return his feelings.”

“
He’s a monster,” Shou said
resolutely. “I say we kill him. And if the three evil yokai plan to
try to take over the world, we meet them head-on and kill them too.
I’d rather fight then watch you marry an evil bastard like Kagami.”
He turned to Yumiko, eyes hard. “Wouldn’t you? Don’t you want to
fight back?”

Yumiko hesitated. “I don’t know what I
want. But I can’t let people be massacred because I have mixed
feelings. Whether I want to or not, I’m going to Kagami when I turn
eighteen, for the sake of peace.”

“
How noble,” Shou returned
bitterly, the word like a slap in the face, given how Yumiko had
been throwing it around.

“
What do you care?” Reina
asked him. “That will leave you as Mori’s sole apprentice. Isn’t
that what you want?”

Shou blinked. “It’s what
I
deserve
. I don’t
want to be her star pupil by default.”

Yumiko’s lips twitched and she laid a
hand over Shou’s. “Thank you.”

Shou gazed down at her hand, and
seemed to be warring with himself over something that he couldn’t
give voice to, but it was written all over his face, a range of
emotions that Yumiko couldn’t interpret.

Yumiko tilted her head, then looked
around the room. “Where is Tanuki?”

“
I don’t know,” Reina
sighed. “I think I may have chased him off.”

“
Small favors,” Shou
murmured.

“
He’s just gone?” Yumiko
frowned.

“
I haven’t seen him since
you left with Brian,” Reina shrugged. “Maybe he’s around here
somewhere and just isn’t showing himself to me, but I haven’t heard
a peep.”

“
And the Wadas aren’t
missing any sake,” Shou added with a smirk.

“
Hello?” a voice called out
from the other room. “Madame Mori?”

Yumiko jumped up and traipsed into the
library, a smile on her face as she bowed to the woman who stood in
the middle of the open space, looking uncertain. Shou and Reina
followed, mimicking her welcome. “Greetings,” Yumiko said. “My
apologies, but Madame Mori is out at the moment. But I am here in
her stead. I am Miss Sato, and these are my associates, Mr.
Fujiwara and Miss Arai.”

The woman, in her early twenties and
very pretty, bowed to them, and offered a shaky smile in return. “I
am Miss Mie. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt you. I work just
a few doors down and I’ve talked to Madame Mori in passing a few
times. I know that she…well, I wanted to warn her.”

“
Warn her?” Yumiko
frowned.

Miss Mie nodded and averted her eyes.
“There have been men watching the entrance. I noticed them
yesterday. They’re in samurai gear and they’re…” She hesitated.
“There’s something wrong with their faces.”

Yumiko let out a deep breath. “Thank
you for telling us. We will handle this. Go about your business as
usual, Miss Mie.”

She bowed and turned to leave, but
suddenly a form stood in the doorway, blocking her exit. In the
shadows of the door, Yumiko couldn’t make out any features, but
given its height and bulk, she had no doubt that it was an
oni.

“
Secure them,” a female
voice ordered from behind the yokai.

Six oni entered the library then, and
as their faces came into light, Reina gasped and looked away. Shou
brandished a sword, and Yumiko drew hers silently, eyes watching as
they filtered into the room, four with blue bloated faces, two red
and swollen. Miss Mie stumbled into the room and hid behind Shou,
who stood before her protectively. Yumiko would have been annoyed
if not for the dire situation.

The oni stopped a few feet shy of
them, but it was clear that there was no getting past them. And
with six in all, even with Shou’s help, it would be pointless to
try to fight. It would only take one hit from her mirror sword to
dispatch an oni to the mirror world, but likewise, it would only
take one strike with the strength of the oni behind it to dismember
her as well.

An old woman entered the room after
the oni, her skin wrinkled and hair thin. She looked like a witch,
her body slightly stooped as she leaned on a cane, a fur coat
covering her body. But her eyes were alert and clear, and took in
Yumiko with admiration.

“
So, here is the mirror
girl,” the woman said, in a raspy voice. “I’m impressed that you’ve
gone undetected this long. My powers are potent, but you have
remained a mystery to me, until you went to collect that
book.”

Yumiko stiffened. “Who are
you?”

“
I am the right hand of
Shuten-Doji. An oni myself, but with powers beyond your
comprehension, girl.” She smiled. “My name is Oni-Baba.”

“
The witch-hag,” Yumiko
sneered.

“
Sticks and stones, Miss
Sato,” Oni-Baba sniffed. She looked sharply at an oni to her left.
“Bring me the snitch. I tire of this form.”

One of the red oni stepped forward and
eyed Shou warily.

Shou gritted his teeth and stepped
into a defensive stance, holding his sword before him
defiantly.

The oni swung his sword at Shou, who
deflected it with his own, but the oni pushed on the blade with his
immense strength and caused Shou to stagger backward. The oni
seized the opportunity to chop a hand between Shou’s neck and
shoulder with such force that it sounded like his collar bone may
have snapped. Shou fell to the floor, limp.

Reina covered her mouth with both
hands, eyes wide, as the oni grabbed Miss Mie roughly by the arm.
Yumiko shifted her stance, planning on stopping the oni herself,
but three other oni mirrored her movements threateningly. It would
be useless to resist.

Miss Mie cried out and struggled in
the oni’s grasp, but her efforts were barely noticed by the oni,
who shoved her to her knees before Oni-Baba.

Oni-Baba seemed to revel in the girl’s
terror, and smiled down at her with pleasure. She ran a gnarled
hand down Miss. Mie’s smooth cheek, almost fondly. “Come now, dear.
No one likes a girl with no manners. Your young blood will not go
to waste.”

And before Yumiko could follow what
she planned, Oni-Baba had slashed the girl’s throat open with a
dagger.

“
Ah!” Oni-Baba purred,
throwing off her cloak. She slashed at the girl again as the oni
held Miss Mie up, and blood splattered over Oni-Baba’s sagging
breasts and loose flesh, painting her face and torso crimson. The
arterial fountain of blood lasted longer than Yumiko would have
imagined, and pulsed to life with each beat of Miss Mie’s heart,
growing weaker until it finally stopped. Then she was tossed aside
like a bag of trash, left to spill the remainder of her blood over
the hardwood floor. Meanwhile, Oni-Baba dug into her wrinkled flesh
and tore it open with a wet ripping sound. She sloughed off her old
skin like a snake, revealing firm, young skin and perky breasts.
She tore at her face, revealing renewed skin beneath, supple and
healthy. Her white hair came away to be replaced by radiant black
hair, as if the old skin had been a rubber mask and this was her
true form.

“
Much better,” Oni-Baba
said, sighing, as the same oni as before helped her shrug back into
her fur cloak.

Yumiko recognized the woman’s black
eyes, with red irises, and the cruel set of her mouth, but
otherwise, she was a beautiful young woman now, boasting a slim
waist and delicate features. Yumiko’s eyes darted to Miss Mie’s
crumpled form, and she mourned the loss. She had been an innocent
bystander who had merely been doing what she felt was right, and
she’d paid with her life. Yumiko looked up from the pile of
discarded flesh that Oni-Baba had left behind and met the woman’s
cold eyes.

“
Now that we have that
unpleasantry behind us, let’s get down to business,” Oni-Baba said,
crossing her arms.

“
What do you want?” Yumiko
snarled.

“
You’re a feisty one,
aren’t you?” Oni-Baba noted. “I like that. But it won’t save you in
the end. You see, not all yokai want this peace to come about. We
will not stand by while this union takes place, forcing us back
into the shadows. And if Kagami has no bride, we have nothing to
worry about.” She shrugged and grinned. “It’s as simple as
that.”

Yumiko swallowed hard. “What would you
have me do?”

Oni-Baba chuckled. “You mistake this
for a negotiation, my dear, when it is an execution.” She nodded to
the oni and stepped back to watch as they marched
forward.

“
Yumiko…” Reina said,
shrinking back. “You can take them, right?”

Yumiko didn’t answer. She held her
head high, and kept a steady grip on her sword. She wouldn’t go to
her death without a glorious fight. But death, she was certain,
would come for her.

Chapter
Fourteen

The moment before the oni crossed
their blades with hers, Yumiko felt regret. The kiss she’d shared
with Brian flashed before her eyes. Had that been the single best
moment of her life? Or had it been the walk along the lane of
cherry blossom trees? Or waking up on the train with his head on
her shoulder? She’d been blissfully unaware of anything else during
those moments, and they all had one common theme, as much as she
tried to deny it.

As she held up her sword to deflect
the blade of the first oni, a rushing sound filled the air. Yumiko
didn’t let herself get distracted, but took advantage as the oni
did. She sliced its arm, and it disappeared. This got the other
onis’ attention however, and they renewed their focus on her.
Yumiko was faster than the yokai she faced, but she found that with
two of them closing in on her, it took all she had to block their
blows, and still more were coming.

Then she noticed the smoke. It didn’t
come with a burning smell, which was her first instinct of what its
source could be, but was heavy and smelled of coal. In a moment,
the room was so thick with blinding gray, that Yumiko easily dodged
the blades of her adversaries, ducking low to the floor, where the
air was cleaner. Apparently, the oni weren’t very flexible, for
they didn’t follow her lead. That, or they were just confused or
stupid. Whatever the reason, Yumiko pressed her advantage and took
out the two oni near her with swift blows to their legs.

Glancing toward the door, Yumiko saw
several figures enter the room through the haze, and hop in the
direction of the remaining oni. Kappa. Of course Kagami had come to
the rescue. He had to protect his delicate fiancee. She looked up
to see a ghost-like figure floating overhead, causing the smoke in
the room to thicken. Another yokai. Enenra. He was made of smoke,
so that mystery was solved. And she had to admit that using him in
this situation was a rather good strategy. The oni were only
powerful if they could see what they were fighting. And scanning
the room, she saw that with the sense of sight removed, they were
easy pickings for the kappa, even if the kappa were significantly
weaker. They were knocking oni down left and right, pummeling them,
and dancing out of the way of blows. And even if they were no match
for the oni’s strength, they were still much stronger than they
appeared. One kappa leapt onto the chest of an oni that fell to the
ground with a roar, and quickly turned its neck nearly all the way
around with a loud snapping noise. They almost made defeating the
oni look easy.

Yumiko’s eyes narrowed as she saw the
form of Oni-Baba escape through the door, and she leapt at the
chance to follow. She was intercepted, however.

Blinking, she stared into Brian’s
face, who looked resolved, his arms crossed over his chest. His
sudden appearance startled Yumiko, and sent her heartbeat racing.
But she was also resolved, and clenched her sword
tighter.

“
Get out of my way,” she
ordered.

“
No,” Brian replied. A
cheek muscle flickered, and Yumiko realized that this was painful
for him. It gave her pause.

“
Kagami, I-“

She gasped as she felt pressure in the
back of her neck. She slapped her hand over her flesh and felt a
syringe come away. Her vision immediately began to fade and her
muscles became heavy. She heard her sword hit the ground but didn’t
feel herself let it go.

“
Please, call me Brian,” he
said, looking at her sadly as she fell to her knees. “And I’m
sorry. But this is my mess. They found you because I wanted you to
know the truth, so you wouldn’t hurt anymore. And I’m going to make
sure that you’re safe until I fix this.”