“My sister did what she thought was best—” Akari started to say, but Takeo interjected.
“And now that some time has passed for reflection, I am sure she can see that placing the boy with his own people would be for the best.”
Yoshimi’s eyes were wide in shock, and Akari’s face grew hot with anger.
“How do you know what is best for him?” Akari asked. “You just come into our home and insult the kind heart of my sister?”
“I am not insulting Yoshimi-san,” he said, giving Yoshimi a wan smile. “I am sure she is a good person. But we must do what is best for the child.”
“How dare you?” Akari said, slamming down her teacup, but Yoshimi placed her hand on her sister’s arm.
“Thank you for defending me, imōuto,” she said. Then she turned to Takeo. “You are right I did not ask Elwin what he wanted. He was scared and alone, and the Sword Kissed didn’t know what to do with him. Sera-san asked for my assistance, so I opened my home and my heart to him. You would find few humans in this town willing to do the same.” She paused for a breath, and Takeo gave her a small, thankful bow of his head. “But you have not asked the boy what he wants either,” Yoshimi continued, and Akari felt a small swell of pride in her chest at the way she called out Takeo’s hypocrisy. “I would not want to submit him to more trauma by moving him again if it was not what he wanted. Please, ask him what he would like to do.”
Takeo nodded and turned to Elwin. He spoke to the boy in faeish, and the boy glanced at Yoshimi before responding. Akari did not know what they said, but she could read the look of triumph on Yoshimi’s face when he was done speaking.
“It looks like the boy would prefer to stay here until we return to Ryu,” he said. “As long as he can continue attending the fae school.”
Yoshimi ladled some pickled vegetables onto everyone’s plates. “He did love going to the school today,” she said. “He missed playing so freely. The children were happy to have a new playmate as well. He told me he has been very frightened ever since he fled home.”
“And why did he flee home?” Akari asked. Taking a bite, she savored the sourness of the vegetables.
“Is it okay if I tell Akari and Takeo what you told me?” Yoshimi asked Elwin. He gave a small nod. Yoshimi turned back to Akari. “He said there was a monster in his home. It took his okāsan and otōusan. It was coming for him, but he got away.”
“What did it look like? Was it red and hairy?” Akari asked Elwin, expecting the monster to look like the infected zashiki-warashi she saw that day.
The little boy shook his head. “Shadow,” he whispered. He gazed around, as if afraid the creature would suddenly appear and whisk him away. He whimpered and nuzzled against Takeo.
“Shadow?” Akari asked. “Can you explain?”
Elwin started to cry, hiding his face in his hands. Yoshimi held her arms out, and he crawled on his knees to her. She shushed him as she took him from the room.
Akari tapped her chopsticks on the side of her bowl, considering what he said. A shadow? The zashiki-warashi she saw today definitely could not be mistaken for that.
“What do you make of that?” Takeo asked as he finished his food. “It doesn’t sound like what you described.”
“I’m not sure,” Akari said, chewing on the end of her chopstick. “Maybe the infected zashiki-warashi can take on many frightening forms.”
Takeo nodded. “That is possible. There is no telling what such dark magic can do. But there is a more worrisome possibility.”
“What is that?” she asked.
“That what took the boy’s parents was not a zashiki-warashi,” he said.
“What sort of magical creature takes on the appearance of a shadow?” Akari wondered.
Takeo shook his head. “There are dark, twisted creatures, but none I would describe as a shadow.”
Akari nodded in agreement. “I was thinking the same thing. But if the zashiki-warashi was able to take on a different form, then the shadow creature could be anything.”
Takeo leaned back and sighed. “You are right. We have no idea what we are looking for.”
Akari mulled this over in her head. She cleared away the dishes, taking them to the sink. Takeo stood to help her.
“No, please don’t do that,” Akari said, as was only polite, but Takeo gave her a small smile as he continued to clear the table.
“Your sister is kind and gracious,” he said. “I must pay her back however I can.”
“By being rude to her? Questioning her motives?” Akari shot back, not dropping his unkind hints at her character from earlier.
“Your sister has done a good thing,” he said. “But it does not mean she could not have done a better one.”
“If you are looking to confront fae prejudice in this town,” Akari said, turning to Takeo and crossing her arms, “Yoshimi is not the person you need to be taking down. She does whatever she can for the fae in this region.”
“Perhaps I should be confronting you instead?” he asked with a mischievous side smile.
“What is that supposed to mean?” Akari asked, her hackles up.
“You did not want to work with me,” he said. “That was very clear.”
“It isn’t that I don’t want to work with you,” Akari said. “But given how anti-fae this town can be, I knew having a fae partner would be very difficult.”
“Are you the sort of person to back down from a challenge?” Takeo asked, raising a brow. Turning, he put the last of the dishes away.
Akari’s voice hitched in her throat. Of course she wasn’t. So what was the real reason she didn’t want to work with Takeo? She couldn’t think of an answer that wouldn’t confirm what he implied. She had never thought of herself as prejudiced, but she couldn’t deny her distaste for working with Takeo other than because he was at least part fae.
He did not force her to reply, but he gave a small bow as he showed himself out.
“I will see you tomorrow, partner,” he said as he shut the door.
4
The next morning, Akari left home early and went to Sera’s dojo. Even though it was in Sera’s home, the dojo was always open to any Sword Kissed who needed to practice. She wanted to find out more about Takeo before they really started working together. They were already clashing, and that was no way to work with someone, to be a partner. Who knew what they were facing, other than something dangerous. Her life might depend on her ability to trust Takeo. Right now, she wouldn’t trust him to hold her katana.
As she snuck out of the house, she peeked in on Elwin. The boy was sleeping soundly, snuggled into his blanket on the futon. He looked safe, content. But she couldn’t help but think about what Takeo had said. Maybe he would have felt even safer had he been placed with his own people. She’d never say it out loud, though. She wasn’t ready to give Takeo the satisfaction. She slipped silently out of the house, locking the door behind her.
Cherry blossoms had wafted across the porch over her feet. She looked up, seeing the sakura tree in their yard was in full bloom. The bench under it looked decrepit, though. It had not been used for years, and it looked like it would crumble if anyone tried to sit on it. When she and Yoshimi had been little, their mother used to read to them on that bench. She hadn’t sat there since her mother died.
Sera was not in the dojo yet when Akari arrived, which was what she was planning on. Sera had to have received some sort of information on Takeo, some background letter about who he was and his reputation in Ryu. Sera wouldn’t have trusted him blindly. Akari snuck through the dojo and into Sera’s office. There was a small desk low to the floor. Akari snuck over to it and opened the top drawer. The file would probably be easy enough to find since she would have just looked at it the day before. She was only mildly concerned about being caught rummaging through Sera’s office. But if Sera found her, she already had her excuses planned out.
In the first drawer, she found nothing of importance, just blank paper, pens, and other od
ds and ends. In the top drawer on the left, she found a few reports relating to local crimes, but nothing she was working on. In the next drawer, though, she found several interesting files. She pulled out the missing person fliers. Takeo must have given them back to Sera for her to review. Akari flipped through them absently. Not really expecting to see anything new, her breath hitched when she saw Takeo looking at her from one of the pages.
She quickly realized it wasn’t Takeo on the page, but someone who looked shockingly similar.
“Vesaris Torgwyn,” she mumbled, reading the name. He looked older than Takeo, his face even more stern, but he had the same eyes and cheekbones. She wondered if the man was his elder brother, or possibly his father. Fae didn’t tend to show their age the same way humans did, and their lifespans were twice as long.
The flier said Vesaris had vanished about six months ago from his home in Ryu. He had walked out his front door to check on his horses, but was never seen again. There was no sign of foul play and no reason to think he had abandoned his family, being known as a dedicated family member and upstanding member of the community.
Well, however this man was related to Takeo, it could certainly explain his interest in the case.
She put the flier back with the others before rummaging through the rest of the desk. She found more detailed case files about some of the missing people throughout the prefecture. These must have been files Sera had compiled. They were similar to the ones Takeo had brought. Underneath those, she found a folder with Takeo’s name on it.
She opened it excitedly, curious about what she would find. There was a hand-drawn rendition of Takeo that was very well done. It did an excellent job of capturing his eyes and high cheekbones. She took it out of the folder, then smoothed it out on top of the missing person fliers.
Then she found some more general information about him. His father was fae, his mother human, as she suspected, and he was a fourth child. But there was no other information about his family, which she found annoying. She would have liked to have known more about where they were from and how his parents got together, but she supposed it wouldn’t make much sense to include such personal information in the letter.
He had been working as an investigator for the human Ministry of Justice in Ryu for nearly ten years, starting as a desk clerk when he was only a teenager, but he quickly moved up the ranks due to his strong work ethic and because he had helped close several high-profile cases in his early days. He was an expert marksman, one of the best bowmen in all of Ryu. He came to Sera highly recommended.
That was it.
Akari sighed and closed the folder in annoyance. She hadn’t learned much of anything about him.
“I appreciate your concerns…” she heard Sera say.
Akari quickly shoved Takeo’s file back into the drawer, hurriedly slamming it as Sera and Takeo entered the room.
“Akari-chan,” Sera gasped when she saw her standing by her desk. “What are you doing here?”
“Forgive me, Sensei,” Akari said with a quick bow, grabbing the missing person fliers. “I wanted to get an early start and review the missing persons files again, hoping to find some sort of link or other information.”
“I see…” Sera said, obviously annoyed. She made her way around the other side of her desk. Akari quickly moved toward the door and tried to shuffle past Takeo, but he stopped her.
“Did you find one?” Takeo asked.
“One what?” Akari asked, suddenly flustered.
“A link?” he clarified.
“Oh, not yet,” she mumbled. “I need to look through these a bit more.”
“You two better get started,” Sera said. After opening her drawers, she picked through them. She was obviously concerned Akari had taken something else. Akari was irritated with herself for calling her honor into question to her sensei, but the mistake had been made.
“Yes, Sensei,” Akari said. She rushed out of the building as quickly as she could, but she knew Takeo was right on her heels. She could hear his footsteps this time.
“Did you learn anything interesting about me?” Takeo asked as soon as they were outside.
Akari started for a moment, but then picked up her pace. “What are you talking about?” She hoped he was just guessing her real reason for being in Sera’s office but didn’t have any proof.
“That’s what you were doing in there, right?” he asked, keeping in step with her stride. “You have the drawing of me from my folder on your stack of fliers there. Why else would you have it?”
Akari peered guiltily down at the fliers. She had forgotten she had laid his picture on top. She hoped Sera hadn’t noticed, but of course Sera noticed everything.
Akari cleared her throat, winced, and held her head up. “If we are going to be working together, I think I need to know what I am getting into,” she said.
“You could have just asked me,” he said.
“Would you have answered all of my questions truthfully?” she asked.
He shrugged. “If I thought it was pertinent to the situation at hand.”
“So, no,” she said, feeling vindicated. “But I suppose you could ask Sera for information about my background if you want to be fair. I have nothing to hide.”
“Actions will tell me more about you than a piece of paper,” Takeo said.
Akari wasn’t sure if this was meant to be an insult or not. What had he so far decided about her based on her actions? Probably nothing good. What exactly did Sera think Akari was going to get out of this partnership? Akari needed to turn this around. She needed to show him how capable she was. She thought about asking him about the flier for Vesaris, but she had the feeling he would be irritated by her prying. He would see she was more interested in finding out about his connection to the man than trying to find him. She studied the fliers one by one, pretending not to notice the similarities when she passed Vesaris’s flier. She pulled out the flier of a young woman instead.
“Here, this woman,” she said, handing a flier to Takeo. “She is from a village nearby. We should go there. Talk to the family. See if we can find out what happened to her.”
Takeo nodded his agreement. “Lead the way,” he said.
The village was not within walking distance, so they went to the stables to get some horses.
They rode out to a human village called Hashikami where they were greeted by several welcoming people. None of them bothered to hide their stares at Takeo, but they were polite enough not to say anything and treated him cordially.
“We are looking for the family of Narita Toichi,” Akari said.
“I am her okāsan,” an older, frail woman said as she walked slowly toward Akari. “When I saw you coming, I had a feeling you were here about her.”
Akari gave the older woman a deep, respectful bow. Takeo did the same. “I’m sorry for your loss,” Akari said. “Will you tell me what happened?”
“What is to tell?” the woman asked. “One moment she was here, the next… poof!” She indicated the suddenness of Narita’s disappearance with a popping movement of her hands.
Akari nodded. “Had anything strange happened before she vanished?” Akari pushed. “Did she have any enemies? An angry lover?” Akari’s eyes scanned the crowd as she asked, hoping to see a reaction from someone. A mundane explanation for the woman’s disappearance, while sad, would be preferable to some sort of magical cause.
“Not at all,” the woman said. “Narita was a good girl. A basket weaver. No lovers.”
Akari nodded, but it was odd for a young woman to have no possible suitors. There might have been someone in her life she hadn’t told her mother about. “Had she mentioned seeing anything odd?” Akari asked. “Something she couldn’t explain, or an encounter with a magical being or demon?”
“A demon?” the woman asked, then she shook her head. “I hope not. Nothing but problems!”
“What do you mean?” Akari asked.
The woman frowned, sticking out her lower lip
. “We used to live in harmony with the creatures of the earth,” she explained. “Some were tricksters. Yes, some were dangerous. But that is the way of life, and you learn to avoid them or placate them. Just like living near bears or a wild tiger.”
Akari nodded. It was true most villages had their own way of dealing with the magical being said to inhabit the woods. It was rare a creature grew so aggressive a Sword Kissed had to be called in. But lately, their services were being called upon more and more often.
“But the creatures…” the old woman continued. “They have changed. So angry. So dark. For many years, we only tried to keep away from them and scare them away from the village. But recently, we have had to fight them off. And we warn the children not to ever approach them. Even if they want the creature to give them a good-luck charm. It is village policy to run away from and report any magical creatures.”
“So you don’t think she ran across one, maybe by accident?” Akari asked.
“She would have told me, I think,” the woman said. “We try to warn each other if there is a creature nearby.”
“Thank you,” Akari said with a bow. “Do you mind if we explore the village and surrounding woods?”
“Please,” the woman said. “Do whatever it takes to find my daughter.”
Akari motioned for Takeo to follow her out of the village proper.
“What do you think?” she asked.
“Not much to go on,” he said. “If there was no creature sighting, we have no idea what we are looking for.”
Akari nodded. “It doesn’t mean she didn’t see one, though. She could have seen it right before her disappearance.”
“Or it could have disguised itself as something safe,” Takeo said. “If your zashiki-warashi could change into something frightening, it could also change into something normal. Something that would not cause alarm, like a cat or rabbit. Maybe even a tree!”
“Or she might not have seen it at all,” Akari said. “Maybe it just saw her.”
Akari surveyed their surroundings. They were in the woods now. This was an old forest. The trees were larger than she could reach around, and the foliage was so thick she could barely see the sky. They could hear the buzz of crickets and the caw of birds in their nests.
Sword Kissed Page 4
