Kami Cursed (Dragon and Phoenix)

by Julianne Price

  “Stop right there girl!”

  I spun around guiltily, though I had no idea what exactly I should be guilty about. It was the tone of voice the man used- the one that just made you feel that you had done wrong, even if you hadn’t.

  A monk in deep, rust colored robes was heading our way, a disagreeable look on his face. He pointed a long finger at the floor. “This is disrespectful. I just mopped this entryway, and look at it. You should be more aware of your actions.”

  I started at from his round, angry red face to the shiny wooden floor, where my sneakers had left a few watery prints. “I…I’m sorry,” I stuttered, taken aback at what a jerk the man was being.

  He harrumphed at me and I hurriedly handed my baseball bat to Ryuu, who looked like he was suppressing a laugh. “Where’s the mop? I’ll clean it up right now.” Oh God, I’d made a Buddist angry. Apparently, my dad was right; I really could try the patience of a saint.

  The guy didn’t look mollified. “Never mind. You wouldn’t do a thorough job of it. I’ll do it myself.” And he turned and marched away to the broom closet, muttering under his breath about youngsters and disrespect.

  I turned to look at Ryuu. Then, without a word, we both returned to the door and took our shoes off before proceeding into the temple.

  I was ashamed, but at the same time, I knew this wasn’t how the people here usually acted. Everyone I had ever met at the temple had been friendly and kind, and extremely patient.

  We waited in front of the Budda statue for a few minutes before Fumio appeared. Ryuu didn’t speak, but he shifted from foot to foot and rolled his shoulders a couple of times, looking uncomfortable. I glanced around the room to distract myself. My eyes rested on an ornate ledge built into the wall behind the Buddha. The only thing on it was a gold lotus blossom. I scanned the room again, but my eyes kept coming back there.

  When Fumio finally joined us, he looked harried. “Ah, you’re here Kit! We’ll be so glad to get rid of this thing.”

  He stretched on his tiptoes, the front of his robe brushing the floor as he reached up onto the little shelf where the lotus blossom sat. He patted the shelf then withdrew his hand. “Here it is.”

  He held out a little, tarnished coin. It babbled merrily as he held it out to us. “It doesn’t sound evil,” I said, staring at the thing but not touching it.

  Fumio frowned at me, but Ryuu spoke first. “You can hear it?”

  I nodded. “Just a little. Can’t you?”

  I glanced at Fumio and Ryuu. Both of them shook their heads.

  “Well, if you can’t hear them,” I asked Ryuu, “then how do you know what they are?”

  He sighed, his eyes on the little coin. “I feel them. And I see them.” He made a gesture with his hands. “This has an aura around it- kind of a dark halo. And when I walked into the room I could feel it.” He glanced at me. “If I touch it, it will feel like a kind of…sucking.”

  I shuddered. “That sounds gross.”

  He gave me a wry half smile. “It is.”

  Ryuu had my bat, slung over his shoulder in the soft leather case he had found for it. I took it and slipped it from its case.

  “So where are we doing this?” I tried to sound confident, even though I was pretty sure this was a waste of time.

  Fumio inclined his head toward the little back garden. “It’s damp out there, but a bit more sheltered from prying eyes.”

  I glanced behind me to see that the grumpy monk was mopping the entryway with a bit more vigor than strictly necessary, clearly still peeved. “Geez,” I said as I followed the guys out to the garden. “What in the world is wrong with everyone today?”

  Fumio glanced over his shoulder at me. “Well, it’s the coin of course. It’s making everyone cranky.”

  Ryuu nodded sagely. “It’s grating on my soul.”

  I rubbed my temple and resisted the urge to swat him. Grating on his soul? “Would you be serious?” Then I turned to Fumio. “So, being around this thing makes people cranky?”

  He nodded, but it was Ryuu who answered. “It sullies the energy around it. The monks have been working in close proximity to it for a week or so. It’s starting to wear on them. It will only get worse until it’s removed.”

  I had known about Ryuu and Fumio’s plan for our little experiment, but school had been really busy, and there were a ton of tests so it had taken me a while to get to it. Well, that and I’d been putting it off- hoping it would all just go away. By now the focus on school had passed and we could get down to it. Yay.

  “So where did you find that thing?” I watched Fumio set it down on a small rock near the edge of one of the flowerbeds.

  The monk looked down at the coin. “We found it in an antique store. Ryuu found it really, I just bargained with the clerk.”

  Ryuu grinned. “The place was going out of business, and the owner was so stressed out and pre-occupied that he was glad to get rid of it.” He shrugged. “Even though he griped about us ripping him off with the price, we’ve done him a huge favor. I wouldn’t be surprised if business picked up without this thing around to suck the life out of the place.”

  I studied the little coin, still muttering to itself as it lay on the stone. “This little thing caused all that trouble?”

  Ryuu came to stand at my side. Fumio, less brave or more practical, backed away and took shelter under the big maple tree.

  “Whelp,” I sighed, raising the bat over my head. “Here goes.”

  I brought the bat down like I meant it. It hit the stone with a loud crack that reverberated up my arms, numbing them from the fingertips to the shoulders. There was a sort of force that shoved at me, and I stumbled backward and fell on my butt.

  The bat clattered from my numb hands and I massaged my arms, trying to get some feeling back in them. I felt light headed. Ryuu paced over to the stone.

  “So?” My voice was a bit snippy. Jeeze that hurt. It hadn’t hurt before.

  Ryuu shook his head and glanced at Fumio, is dark eyebrows drawn together. “It’s still there.”

  I pushed myself to my feet. “What do you mean it’s still there?”

  He shrugged as Fumio stooped and picked up the coin.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me!” I said. I marched over to glare at the little coin as it babbled away, even louder than before.

  Ryuu sighed. “I think…” His eyes met mine apologetically. “I think you just made it worse.”

  Chapter 6

  “What really happened to you- I mean when you were gone?” Wyatt’s voice was soft and hesitant, lacking its usual cool.

  I sighed. How do you explain kami spirits and cursed objects to the uninitiated? “I had a seizure,” I said, staring at my math book. “They don’t know what caused it. Afterwards I was… well I was crazy.” I looked up at him defiantly, waiting for the mocking to start.

  Instead, he just frowned, as if thinking that over. “So you just… lost it?”

  I nodded. “Yep. Completely batty. I was at Birch Hill all that time getting things ironed out. I don’t remember any of it. They say it was because my mom left when I was little.” I knew I was being blunt, but I had reached the point where I just didn’t care anymore.

  He used his thumb to ruffle the corner of my notebook. “You don’t seem crazy now.”

  I snorted. “Relatively speaking.”

  He laughed. “Well, sure, you’re not like the other girls in our class. But there’s nothing wrong with that.”

  I frowned at the equation in front of me, biting my pencil. Wyatt tapped his fingers on the table, impatient with my speed. I shifted my glare to him and the tapping stopped. He looked sheepish as he tucked his hand under the table.

  I worried my bottom lip with my teeth as I worked it out in my head. Then, very carefully, wrote out the answer. I waited for Wyatt to erase it and tell me to start over, but he didn’t.

  “You know, you’re really cute when you make that face.” He smiled at me.

  I stared at him,
not knowing what to say. “Uh, so is it right?” I tapped the paper with my pencil.

  He blinked at me, then glanced at the answer. “Yep.”

  I grinned. “I think I’ve got it now!”

  He grinned back and reached out to ruffle my hair. “Good job.”

  I froze. It was the exact same thing Ryuu would have done. But for some reason, it felt all wrong coming from Wyatt. I tucked my hair behind my ear and started putting my stuff away without looking at him. “You’re going to be late for practice.”

  I finally glanced up, afraid he was offended. He was watching me with an odd look on his face. “Hey, do you like me?” His voice was calm, like he was asking my favorite color, or what I like on my pizza.

  And I’d thought I was the blunt one. I stared at him. Did I like him? “Uh…”I said intelligently. I gaped at the green-eyed captain of the basketball team. He was looking back at me as if I was an especially hard math equation. “Well, you’re really nice, for a jock.” I bit my lip. What the heck was I supposed to say?

  He laughed. “So I’m just tolerable?”

  I put my bag over my shoulder, poised to run. “I don’t know what you want me to say,” I admitted, totally at a loss. “I’m not even sure if you’re saying what I think you’re saying.” My face was hot and I wanted to crawl under the desk and hide.

  He put his head on his arms and laughed. I waited. And waited. Finally, he sat up again. “You’ve never had a boyfriend, have you?”

  The few other people in the library were beginning to shoot curious glances our way, obviously wondering what was so funny- probably wondering what kind of joke Wyatt was playing on the crazy girl. I was beginning to wonder that myself.

  “No,” I finally croaked out.

  He let out a sigh. “So it’s not true, those rumors about you and that junior high kid?”

  I gaped at him. “Ryuu? What about him?”

  He leaned back and gave me a look. “Well, you’re with him all the time. I saw you holding his hand on the way home from school one day. People say you’re going out.”

  I shook my head vehemently. “No way. He’s been my friend since forever. We’re neighbors. And besides, he’s way too young for me.” I pushed away a sudden memory of his dark, perceptive eyes.

  Wyatt seemed relieved. “I thought it was kind of weird. I mean, in a year or so it’d technically be illegal, right?” He rocked his chair onto its back legs, still laughing. “Anyway, since you’re not dating anyone, will you go to the movies with me next Saturday?”

  It felt like time stood still. I could have sworn everyone in there was looking at me. My heartbeat was thundering in my ears, and it seemed hard to get my voice out over the noise it was making.

  I just wanted it to end so I could get out of there. “Sure, why not.”

  He laughed. Time seemed to resume its normal speed. “Okay, why not. I’ll call you and we can decide what to see.”

  “Sure.” I walked away feeling completely confused. Did I like Wyatt? He was certainly cute. And all the popular girls liked him, probably because he was a heck of a lot nicer than the other jocks. But did I like him like him?

  I rolled my eyes. We were just going to the movies. He was my friend. It wasn’t like it was a date or something. Although he’d said I was cute. Oh crap, was this a date? Did I just agree to go on a date?

  *****

  The next day, I tried to avoid Wyatt, and thus avoid thinking about Saturday. It worked pretty well, until Andrea and I came around a corner and walked right into him. We all laughed, and he didn’t- thank God- seem to want to walk with us. But Andrea was like a bloodhound when it came to sniffing out a piece of gossip, and she latched onto my hot cheeks and awkward silence immediately.

  The minute Wyatt was out of sight she put her arm through mine and pulled me close to whisper in my ear. “Kit! Do you like Wyatt?”

  I closed my eyes for a second and tried to corral my jumbled up thoughts. “Yes. I mean no.” I groaned. “I don’t know. But he asked me out to the movies.”

  She let out a little gasp and squeezed my arm tighter. I could practically feel the bruise forming. “Of course you said yes.” It wasn’t really a question.

  I shrugged. “I did, but I think I should tell him I changed my mind. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

  Andrea’s pretty round face was scandalized. “Kit! How could you turn him down? God, he’s so cute!”

  I turned my head and actually looked at her. She was blushing harder than I was. What in the world was wrong with her? I thought she was an expert at these things.

  At that moment, Ryuu popped up from somewhere, making me jump as he just silently appeared at my side. “What’s going on?” His voice sounded distant, and I knew he wasn’t really participating in the conversation. He was more absorbed in the book he was attempting to read while he walked.

  I tugged my arm free of Andrea’s grasp. “Nothing.”

  Andrea nudged me and grinned. “Kit just got asked out by one of the guys in my class,” she said with a superior air at having been the first to know this little bit of information.

  Ryuu closed the book he was carrying and I felt his dark eyes on me. I refused to look at him. “Someone asked you out?” Now he was interested.

  I shrugged. “It’s no big deal.”

  Ryuu didn’t seem to share Andrea’s excitement. “Of course you said no.” It wasn’t a question.

  I frowned at him. “No. I said I’d go. But I think I should tell him I changed my mind.”

  Andrea snorted. “Oh no you won’t. Uh…der!” She smacked my forehead lightly. “He’s the captain of the basketball team. Your freak status is about to become a thing of the past.”

  Ryuu stopped walking with us. He just stood there in the middle of the hall for a second, then did an about face and walked off in the opposite direction without a word.

  Andrea stared after him, surprised. “That kid is weird,” she observed.

  *****

  After school, Ryuu was waiting for me at my locker. He even more quiet than usual, and he hadn’t bothered to bring a book along for the walk home. It felt like someone should talk, so I vented about the math test I’d just bombed. The subject took us almost all the way home.

  “…and I can’t believe he put those equations in there in the first place. We barely even looked at that chapter in class. Does he think we’re in college or something?”

  I shook my head, still fuming. I was trying so hard, and I still failed. “And I studied everything Wyatt told me to. Wait until I get a hold of him. I’ll show him right where he can stick his study guide. I mean-“

  “Are you going out with that guy?”

  It was the first time Ryuu had spoken since we left school. I heaved a sigh, realizing that he hadn’t heard a word of my fifteen minute rant about math equations and the unfairness of balding, middle-aged high school math teachers with chronic halitosis.

  “I don’t know,” I said tiredly.

  His dark eyes were incredulous. “What do you mean you don’t know? Either you’re going out with someone or you’re not. Do you like him?”

  I was taken aback at his short, clipped words. “Well…I mean…we’re going to go see a movie on Saturday, that’s all.” I muttered under my breath, “It’s not like we’re engaged or something.” I didn’t really see what all the fuss was about.

  I shrugged and looked at the ground, scuffing my feet as we walked. “I don’t know how this stuff is supposed to work, you know? He’s cute. And he’s nice to me.”

  Ryuu looked furious. “You shouldn’t go out with him.”

  I just stared at him. “What in the world are you so mad about?” I was really at a loss.

  He stopped and stared at me with eyes the color of obsidian, black and sparking with irritation. “You’re going to regret this,” he said firmly. “You might look seventeen, but inside you’re just a little kid.”

  I gaped at him. That stung. “What would you know about i
t?” My voice was rising. What made him think he had any right to throw that in my face?

  His cat-like eyes narrowed. “Don’t do this Kit.” There was a pleading note in his voice, but I was still stinging from his earlier comment, and I didn’t care.

  “You’re the little kid! It’s just a date. What?” I said in a baby voice. “Is the little baby afraid I won’t be there to read to him?” I flung my hair over my shoulder and strode away, pissed.

  I’d told Andrea I was thinking of calling the whole thing off. But now I was determined to go to that movie if it killed me.

  *****

  I went to the temple alone the next day. For some reason, the more I thought about the way Ryuu had acted yesterday, the more angry I got. Of course he didn’t want me to do anything normal. He was just jealous because I was doing normal things like actually talking to people at school, and going on dates. He’d be more happy if I did nothing but play make believe with him and his baby monk.

  Said monk met me at the door. He didn’t comment on my foul mood, which had to be obvious to him from the get-go. Of course, everyone in the temple was grumpy too, thanks to the coin and the little energy boost I’d given it last time.

  “Are you sure you want to try this without Ryuu?” Fumio’s voice was light and curious, but it ticked me off.

  “I don’t need him,” I snapped. “He can’t do anything about it. All he does is sense things and feel things. I’m the one who actually had to do something about it.”

  Fumio raised his eyebrows, but was smart enough not to comment. He led me to the back of the temple and into a small office. It was a nice little space, tucked away behind the shrine area. It was wood paneled and what wall space it had was covered with rows and rows of books of all ages, languages, and conditions. There were even a few honest to God paper scrolls, rolled up and given a place of honor in a glass case. The whole place screamed Fumio, and I wondered if any of the other inhabitants of the temple ever spent any time here.