Yokai (9 page)

Shou stared at her fallen sword for a
moment. “So, what happens to the yokai you leave there?”

“
I don’t know. I don’t
exactly schedule follow-up visits.” She shrugged. “I assume they
find peace. It really is beautiful there. But either way, they
can’t bother humans any longer. They’re trapped there.”

Shou looked thoughtful, then cut the
end of the thread, admiring his handiwork. He tilted Tanuki a few
times, then nodded. “He should be fine, at least if he’s as
resilient as other yokai.”

Yumiko smiled. “Thank you.”

“
Don’t mention it.” Shou
narrowed his eyes at her. “You can see them, can’t you? You talked
to the tanuki when I couldn’t see him earlier.”

“
Yes. I can see yokai
everywhere, when others can’t. Another reason I’m good at what I
do.”

“
That’s quite an
advantage,” Shou said. “What else is different about you? I mean,
how else did you change when you came back?”

Yumiko hesitated, then lifted a hand
and pressed it against her left breast. “I came back a mirror image
myself.”

“
What does that
mean?”

“
I look the same on the
outside, but not on the inside. My organs have switched sides. My
heart is on the wrong side of my body now.”

“
Wrong side?” Shou frowned,
then his eyes drifted down to her hand over her right breast.
“Everything is symmetrical on the outside,” he said. Then he
reached forward, pushing her hand out of the way, his hand flat
against her chest. She gasped and made to slap his hand away, but
he caught her wrist with his other hand. “You’re right,” he said as
he dropped his hand and looked at her more closely.

Yumiko was blushing scarlet, and
turned away, covering her chest. “Of course I’m right,” she
snapped.

“
I just didn’t…” He looked
her over, from head to toe, then ran a hand back through his hair.
“Amazing.”

“
Well, it’s not amazing
having gone through what I have, Mr. Fujiwara.” She stood tall.
“Thank you for looking after Tanuki. I will consider that payment
for services.” She turned and scooped Tanuki up in her arms,
rushing from the room. “Please return the key to the room on your
way out.”

Once in the hall, she leaned back
against the wall. She didn’t know why she’d shared all of that with
Shou. Perhaps because she’d been so lonely for so long, it felt
good to let it out. Master Mori and Tanuki were the only ones who
knew the truth about her condition. And now Shou. But it wasn’t
like she was going to see him ever again. She’d just needed to…talk
to someone, she supposed. And it had been a mistake.

Shaking her head at herself, she
walked up the hall to the elevator, absently stroking Tanuki’s
back. When she’d returned from the mirror world, she’d come back
different, all right. But her world had been different as well. It
had turned upside-down on her. She’d come home to find her house
ransacked, her mother missing. The work of Kagami, she was sure.
He’d probably taken her mother, or worse…whatever it took to ensure
that Yumiko returned to him when she was eighteen.

“
See what sort of a life
you can make for yourself out there.”
That
was what he’d said. And so he had taken her mother from her. And
her life had become that much harder to endure.

She closed her eyes, ignoring the
tears that slid from her eyes.

“
You will beg to be
mine.”

Chapter Six

The love hotel may have been used by
Madame Mori and Yumiko for their line of work, but it was more than
that to Yumiko. Yumiko called it home, as embarrassing as that was.
On the top floor was a lone room with heated floor tiling, a small
toilet, and a kitchen area on one side. There was a small entryway
cut off from the rest of the room by a paper wall, a sliding door
permitting entry into the room. Within, there was enough space for
a queen-sized bed, a desk for her computer, and a small area for a
sofa and loveseat, facing a television. There was a small table
near the kitchen for dining, and a bathtub behind a silk screen in
the corner. It wasn’t much, but it was what Yumiko had, and she had
made it her own. One feature she liked about the room was the huge
floor-to-ceiling windows that allowed the space to fill with
sunshine during the day, and stars at night. She often found
herself staring out at the city, her face tilted up to the sun. She
couldn’t have asked for a better view.

One thing noticeably missing from the
room were mirrors, something Yumiko gladly went without. She could
hardly look at her reflection without thinking of her fate, or of
prying eyes running over her body like greedy, unwanted hands.
Reina’s comment about Yumiko’s beauty the other day had caught her
off-guard because she never took the time to admire herself for any
length of time. She would glance in a mirror every so often, when
she was meeting with clients or going out in public, but for the
most part, she trusted her hands to do the work her eyes could not,
and she’d been doing it for so long that it was almost an art at
this point.

Recalling the previous night, Yumiko
left her room with regret. She wanted more than anything to just
curl up in bed and read, or take a nice, long luxurious bubble
bath. But time wasn’t on her side. She had less than twelve months
before she turned eighteen, and she was reclaimed by the yokai
king, to devour for his pleasure.

Dressed in a plain t-shirt and jeans,
Yumiko took the elevator to the basement, where she approached the
dungeon hesitantly. She hadn’t checked on Mr. Mathis during the
night as she’d planned. She’d been too caught up in her other
assignment. But as the morning sun had chased away the shadows of
night, and the full moon with it, she would see that he was safe,
and free him from his temporary prison.

She pulled the key out of her pant
pocket and let herself in, closing it behind her quickly before
turning to assess the room.

Everything was as she had left it. She
was half-afraid that the fox would have escaped his cage during the
night, but it seemed he had been confined to his cell without
incident. She walked over to the cage, relieved, and stopped short
when she saw Mr. Mathis’s form behind the steel bars. He was
sprawled over the floor, faced away from her, but he was completely
in the nude, his robe cut to ribbons in the corner. She turned
around quickly, blushing, but then peeked back over her shoulder.
His back was nicely-muscled, with one arm hanging back to show off
his biceps, which bulged with strength. His legs were powerful as
well, and his butt…well, she could hardly stop looking at it. She
didn’t think she’d ever seen a man’s bare butt before, at least not
in person. She couldn’t help but let her eyes drink in the sight,
until she heard him cough, and she whipped around with a start. She
immediately felt shameful for her breach of trust. He had been
vulnerable and she had taken full advantage of the situation to
ogle him. What was wrong with her?

Kitsune couldn’t shapeshift until they
turned a hundred years old, whereupon they earned their first tail.
They could grow up to nine tails, one for each century. Clearly, it
was harder to hide the tails the more they grew, but they also got
better at impersonating humans as time passed. Only one kitsune had
nine tails, one of the great evil yokai.

Mr. Mathis felt far too human, and he
definitely had no tail. Even if she felt a little suspicious of the
fact that he changed into a fox, she had now clearly seen with her
own eyes that he was not kitsune. And even as she stared at the
wall across the room, she found that Mr. Mathis’s behind danced
across her mind, despite herself.

“
Um…Mr. Mathis,” Yumiko
said, clearing her throat. “It’s Miss Sato. I’ve come to see how
your night was.”

She heard him move around the cage.
“Good morning, Miss Sato,” he replied, sounding a little
bewildered. “I’m sorry. You must have…I must have been quite a
scene to walk into.”

“
Not at all.”

He cleared his throat. “Well, I seem
to have…uh, destroyed my robe. Could you hand me my
clothes?”

Yumiko stiffened.

“
I’m covering myself,” he
added, and she turned to see that he had his hands covering his
unmentionables awkwardly. He bit his lip, his face beet-red. “Sorry
about this.”

Yumiko strode over to his clothing,
trying her best to look professional as she handed them through the
bars to him. The sight of his powerful chest would forever be
burned into her retinas, as would the image of his muscled arm
reaching toward her. She looked away as he reached to grab the
bundle from her, and she accidentally dropped the pile of clothes
before he could get hold of them. This made him scramble to his
knees for them, and Yumiko turned away, utterly embarrassed.
“I’m…I’m sorry,” she stammered.

“
It’s quite alright,” Mr.
Mathis assured her. “My fault. This isn’t exactly an everyday
situation. Thank you for your hospitality, though. I do appreciate
what you’re doing for me.”

Nodding, Yumiko turned until he
cleared his throat, and seeing that he was clothed, she unlocked
the door to his cage.

He exited the cage with what dignity
he could manage. “I hope I wasn’t too much trouble.”

“
No, sir.”

“
Good.” He scratched the
back of his head. “I would like to see Madame Mori, if she has a
moment, to check on any progress she’s made.”

“
It won’t be much, I’m
afraid,” Yumiko told him, then sighed. “Follow me. She should be in
her library.”

He nodded and followed her through the
love hotel and the Wadas’ sake bar. “I apologize for making you
uncomfortable,” he said softly as they pushed past the beaded
curtain.

“
Not at all, Mr.
Mathis.”

“
Brian.”

“
Brian.”

He smiled tightly, and let her usher
him into the library, where Madame Mori was at her desk…and Shou
was in the middle of the room, swinging a sword with
confidence.

Forgetting Mr. Mathis all at once,
Yumiko stepped forward. “Sensei? What is he still doing
here?”

“
He’s right here,” Shou
said, swinging his sword and sending her a smile. “I know you
missed me. You don’t have to pretend.”

Yumiko ignored him.
“Sensei?”

Madame Mori looked up, unconcerned.
“Yumiko, Mr. Fujiwara is to be an apprentice under me.”

Yumiko’s jaw dropped.
“Wha…are you…
what
?”

“
That’s what I said,”
Tanuki said from the corner, where he was curled up into a ball on
a pillow, recovering from his injuries. “I think your sensei’s
going senile.”

Scowling, Yumiko stomped over to
Madame Mori’s desk. “What is the meaning of this?”

“
Just as I have related
it,” Mori replied, voice confident. “And you need to remember
yourself, Miss Sato.”

Yumiko swallowed hard and bowed
slightly. “Sensei, may I speak to you for a moment…in
private?”

“
Who’s the foreigner?” Shou
asked, gesturing toward Mr. Mathis.

“
Brian Mathis,” Mr. Mathis
replied, bowing, his eyes hard.

“
Mr. Mathis is a client,”
Mori announced. “Perhaps you could serve him tea in the other room,
Shou?”

Shou stopped swinging his sword and
frowned, but complied, ushering Brian into the antechamber with
little ceremony.

As soon as the door slid closed behind
them, Yumiko turned to Mori with crossed arms. “You’re going to
teach that spoiled pretty boy? Why on earth would you condescend to
such a thing?”

Madame Mori watched her for a moment.
“Yumiko, sit.”

Yumiko closed her mouth and sat across
from Mori, ready to hear her sensei laugh at the practical joke
she’d played. Anything but admit to its truth. Unfortunately, Mori
looked quite serious as she leaned over the desk and spoke in low
tones.

“
Yumiko, Mr. Fujiwara felt
helpless last night. He realized that this is the path he wants his
life to take, and what right do I have to tell him
otherwise?”

“
Sensei-“

“
No. Listen to what I have
to say.”

Yumiko grumbled, but sat
back.

Mori, satisfied, continued. “He has
studied yokai his whole life. He is well-versed – I’ve even
cross-examined him. And his swordplay is advanced. He could be a
real asset to you.”

“
He can’t even see
yokai.”

“
You forget that neither
can I.” Mori sighed. “Yumiko, I am getting old. I can’t teach you
techniques with weapons. I can’t go into the field with you to
ensure your safety. We need to think of the future. Shou, under my
tutelage, can be formed into a strong yokai hunter, one who will be
able to assist you in battle. He’s strong and
confident.”

“
And arrogant.”

“
Perhaps. But that doesn’t
eradicate his assets. We need this, Yumiko. You know it, even if
you don’t like admitting it to yourself.”

Yumiko looked away. “He begged for you
to take him in, didn’t he?”