by T. Isilwath
She was happy to obey.
********
She woke again sometime after the sun had risen and daylight lit up the room through the thick paper that made up the walls of the house. It also looked like Akihiro hadn’t pulled the sliding door completely closed because there was a small opening in the doorway that let in a bit of a breeze. Sighing, she shifted her weight a little, only to feel Akihiro’s arm tighten around her.
“Mou…” he muttered in protest, his nose against her neck, and she smiled.
She shared his reluctance to leave the warm nest of their shared blankets, but she had to go out again, and she had to eat and see to her insulin pump.
‘And check the history to see how bad it was…’ she thought darkly.
Her lower back hurt and, while the soreness could be attributed to her recent illness, a part of her feared that the pain might be related to a problem with her kidneys. There were so many complications of diabetes: heart disease, kidney disease, neuropathy and blindness… and everything hinged upon her keeping her blood sugar under control. Diabetic ketoacidosis could kill and often did. She still had to test her urine for ketones, and she half dreaded the results.
She tried to get out of bed without disturbing her fox, but the moment she began to pull away from his warmth, his eyes snapped open.
“Joanna-sama?”
“I’m okay. I just have to go out again.” ‘Gods, it’s days like this when I really miss indoor plumbing!’
He began pushing back the blankets. “I’ll help you.”
“You don’t have to. I’m pretty sure I’m okay.”
“You’ve been very sick, and you should also not be walking the shrine grounds alone because you haven’t been formally introduced to Ichiro and his family.”
“Okay,” she relented, rising to her feet and rubbing the small of her back.
‘Maybe a soak in a hot spring might help. I’ll ask Aki if there’s one nearby.’
“Joanna-sama, does your back hurt?” her fox questioned.
She sighed. Nothing got past him, and he was far too observant for his own good. “Just a little. I’m not used to this futon.”
“If you are feeling better later today we can go to an onsen nearby. If I let Ichiro know I am taking you there, he’ll see to it that no one disturbs us.” She gave him a grateful smile. “I think that would be wonderful.” He beamed back, stepping close and taking her arm so he could steady her as she made her way out of the room. Now that it was full daylight she could see the shrine complex fairly well, although there seemed to be something wrong with her eyes because she was having trouble focusing. She chalked it up to residual aftereffects of being poisoned and sick with fever for four days, and looked at the perfectly kept grounds and outbuildings with interest.
The long porch she was on looked out on a large rectangular courtyard bordered by a high wall and a tall Torii Gate. Inside the courtyard were a series of paved walkways, gardens, altars and small pavilions with one larger shrine building on the far side-presumably the main sacred place of the complex and the home of the shrine’s primary deity. Near the far end was a large Japanese cedar wreathed with a sacred rope and streamers to ward off evil. Everything was immaculately kept with not a leaf out of place, and the whole area felt serene and soothing.
Akihiro helped her out to the forest so she could relieve herself. Even in daylight, the primitive outhouse her fox had called a benjo was still too strange for her to use. Afterwards they returned to the shrine and he sat next to her on the long porch, which she learned was called an engawa. From what she could see, the house was shaped roughly like an H with the side she was on being the one to face the shrine grounds. Akihiro explained that the part of the house she was in was actually a wing set aside specifically for those needing medical care, and he pointed to three other sliding doors that presumably opened onto rooms nearly identical to hers.
She noticed, however, that Akihiro didn’t get too close to these doors and, when she asked him why, he explained that all the doors but the one that led to her room had been magically sealed to prevent anyone with demon blood from passing through. He even put one hand close enough to a door to trigger the barrier, but she pulled his fingers away the moment she felt the static electricity building up along the doorframe.
The very fact that the caretakers of the shrine would do such a thing irked her. Akihiro was an intelligent, sensitive individual who was capable of feeling pain and emotions, yet she knew the people of the village treated him as if he were a mindless animal. Even though she knew why he had brought her to the shrine, she found herself wishing that he hadn’t.
“This place is really beautiful,” she commented, sitting on the edge of the engawa with her legs dangling over the side. Akihiro sat next to her, his shoulder almost touching hers. “How long have you been here?”
“About thirty years. Ichiro’s father, Genkichirou, was the head of the shrine then, and I made the agreement with him,” he answered.
“You agreed to provide protection and help when needed, and they agreed to let you live here?”
He shook his head. “Not here. I can live in the forest nearby. Genkichirou agreed to allow me to live close and said I could come to the shrine if I needed protection. In return I help kill demons that try to hurt the villagers, provide food in the winter, and help with the rice. Sometimes they let me stay here under the roof of the engawa during the rains if they get too bad.”
‘Seems like a pretty one-sided deal to me,’ she thought, but didn’t say anything. Then she remembered the whip marks on his back (and the time he had expected her to beat him) and frowned. She had a bone to pick with these people, but she would wait until she was feeling better.
“Are you hungry?” Akihiro asked suddenly.
She had to think for a moment because she wasn’t really sure if she was hungry or not. “I think so. Or rather I think it’s a good idea if I eat.” He hopped to his feet eagerly. “I’ll be right back.”
“Okay,” she replied as she watched him go into the forest.
He returned ten minutes later carrying two freshly caught and gutted fish.
“Here, Joanna-sama. Lunch,” he announced with a wide smile.
She smiled back and examined the fish. “They look good.” Rising to her feet, she followed him into the room she was occupying and sat next to the central fire pit that he said was called an irori. There was a large pot that could be placed over the hot coals, and she filled this with water from a wooden bucket while Akihiro built up the fire. Since she didn’t have any of her spices or other cooking tools, she had to settle for what was readily available, and made an impromptu fish stew. It was simple and rather bland, but she thought that bland food was probably best considering that she was just getting over being so sick. After they were finished eating, Akihiro gave her a cup of bitter medicinal tea to drink that made her sleepy.
“We’ll go to the onsen after I wake up, okay?” she said, settling down.
“Okay. If you feel up to it. I don’t want you to push yourself.”
“I promise that I won’t. Are my clothes here? Do I have a bathing suit?”
“No. I didn’t think to bring your swimming clothes. I’ll go get them, and more of your things, while you’re asleep,” he answered a little sheepishly.
“Okay,” she agreed and closed her eyes. Her last memory was of Akihiro’s warm body snuggling up against her back and his arm coming around her.
When she woke from her nap it was still daylight, but she could tell that a number of hours had passed. Akihiro was nowhere in sight, and she guessed that he had gone back to the hollow. Pushing back the blankets, she used the time alone to inspect the log on her insulin pump, and grimaced when she saw the wildly fluctuating blood sugar levels that had been recorded over the previous five days.
‘He wasn’t kidding when he said that it was all over the place…’
She took heart in the fact that the glucose levels seemed to have level
ed out within the last 24-hours. Spying her diabetes bag against the side of the room, she retrieved the last vial of insulin and refilled the reservoir in her pump, frowning when she saw how little was left in the bottle.
‘He had to use a lot of extra insulin to keep my blood sugar from going through the roof,’ she thought, fighting the sinking feeling in her stomach.
She was just finishing up changing the infusion set when the sliding door at the back of the room slid open, and a young woman stepped in from the interior corridor. She was dressed in the white kimono and red trousers of a priestess, with her long, black hair tied back with a cloth ribbon at the nape of her neck, and Joanna guessed that she was about sixteen or seventeen years old.
She was carrying a teapot in one hand and seemed startled to find Joanna awake.
“Hello,” Joanna greeted when the newcomer stared at her.
The woman lowered her eyes and bowed slightly in response. “Hello.”
“I’m Joanna. But you probably already know that.” The woman nodded. “My name is Suzuka. I am the miko of this shrine.”
‘So that’s Suzuka. She’s younger than I thought she’d be, but pretty.’ “Do you know where Akihiro is?” she asked.
Suzuka raised her gaze and blinked at her as if she did not recognize the name. “Do you speak of Hanyou?”
‘Hanyou? Why would she call him hanyou? Oh wait, I get it…’ “Hanyou is what he is. Akihiro is his name,” she answered coolly.
The woman narrowed her eyes, and Joanna knew she had heard the implied rebuke. She saw the miko raise her chin and take on a haughty expression.
“We do not speak that name here.”
“Akihiro is what I have always called him. It was the name he gave me when I asked,” she explained.
“To call such a thing as he by his true name is to give it power. A nameless thing has no power. It is empty and harmless,” the woman stated firmly, her eyes narrowing further.
‘Oh, you don’t like it when someone stands up to you, eh?’ she thought with a thrill of evil glee. ‘Too bad, hon. I’ve no intention of giving in.’
“A nameless thing also has no rank. It is lower than the lowest beggar left to scrounge for food in the dirt. Being that Akihiro just saved my life, I think I will afford him my respect by calling him by his true name,” she countered.
“You will do him no favors by doing so,” Suzuka replied.
“And I insult him by doing less,” she challenged.
The miko had no immediate answer, and they regarded each other with deliberately neutral looks. Although they appeared nothing alike, Joanna was struck by the similarities between them.
‘Both of us are strong-willed, stubborn, and unused to backing down from anything.’
Any further conversation was cut short by the object of their polite dispute coming through the exterior door.
“Joanna-sama,” he greeted as he came inside, carrying her rollaway suitcase on his back. She saw him stop short when he noticed the other woman in the room, and his eyes went a little wide. He hastily put down the bag and bowed. “Suzuka-sama.”
“Hanyou,” the woman answered, placing a hard edge on the term.
She countered the insult by calling him by the nickname she had given him, “Aki, my fox. Welcome back.”
He blinked at her, then looked at each of them in turn, and she could just imagine the wheels turning behind his eyes. Her fox was nothing if not extremely intelligent, and she knew the moment he figured out that they were feuding over him because his eyes lit up, and he stood a little straighter, puffing out his chest.
‘Ah, nothing like two women in a cat fight over him to make a man proud,’
she mused, suppressing a small smile. ‘Don’t let it go to your head, hon.’
There was a short stand-off with her and Akihiro presenting a unified front until the miko yielded and lowered her eyes to the teapot she was carrying.
“I brought more medicine,” she said.
Akihiro nodded. “Thank you, Suzuka-sama.”
The young woman placed the teapot next to the irori and stepped back.
Then she folded her hands in front of her and looked at them until her eyes fell to Joanna.
“I am glad that you are feeling better. I will let my brother and father know that you are awake. I am sure they will want to speak with you,” Suzuka said.
“That would be fine, thank you,” she answered.
The miko gave a little nod and left the room without saying another word.
The door slid softly closed behind her. Once Suzuka was gone, she turned to Akihiro and smiled. He smiled back and squatted on his haunches beside her.
“So that was Suzuka,” she said.
He nodded, his eyes flashing a moment of sadness. “Yes.”
“She’s a little… distant.”
“She has to be. She is a miko. They are above normal people. To keep herself pure, she must keep herself apart from others.”
‘Hmmm, looked like arrogance to me,’ she thought, but wouldn’t hurt Akihiro by saying so. She had an inkling that he had once been very fond of Suzuka and had deduced that her current cold treatment of him stung a little bit.
“She’s pretty, though,” she offered.
Akihiro brightened. “Yes, she is.” He paused, his brow creased, then smiled at her and leaned close. “But not as pretty as you, Joanna-sama.” She grinned. “Oh, you smooth talking fox you.”
He snickered and displayed a little, stretching out his spine and arching his back, and she found his actions highly amusing.
“I didn’t know what you would need so I brought the whole bag,” he told her, indicating her rollaway suitcase.
“I noticed. Although you should take it back after I get what I need from it.
It’s technology that I don’t want the people around here seeing. I want to limit their exposure to my things to an absolute minimum. Besides, this room is too small to clutter up with my junk.”
“As you wish. I brought your cooking spices too.” She laughed. “Ah hah! And the truth reveals itself. You were just complimenting me because you miss my cooking. Oh, poor fox had to eat plain food for four days,” she teased.
At first he didn’t seem to understand that she was joking, and he looked mortified. “Joanna-sama, I… I would never…”
She reached up and scratched him behind one ear, tugging at it lightly.
“I’m kidding, you dolt.”
He blinked then smiled, his expression sheepish and wry at the same time.
“You were teasing me.”
“Yep.”
“Sneaky vixen. Making me think you thought I was using you for your cooking. You shouldn’t do that. I’m apt to take you seriously,” he answered, sliding close, one shoulder brushing against hers.
She raised an eyebrow at him calling her a vixen, but didn’t comment on it.
“You know when I’m only playing.”
“Usually. But I’ve been so worried about you these last few days. You were so sick, and I didn’t know if you would live. I was so frightened,” he admitted softly.
She melted at the sight of his forlorn face and reached over to hug him. He responded by wrapping his arms around her and holding her close. She could feel him trembling.
“Joanna-sama…” he whispered, his voice heavy with emotion.
“It’s okay. I’m going to be all right. You saved me.”
“I… I don’t know what I would have done if I had lost you.” She stroked his ears in answer and rubbed his shoulders. He was precious to her, and she tried to tell him that in the soft strokes of her hands. They’d been through so much in the short months that they had known each other, and she felt closer to him than she ever had. She was sure that a psychologist would explain her reactions as mere gratitude for him saving her life, but she believed that it was more than that. Their shared hardships and triumphs had only served to create an even stronger bond between them, and she realized that her feelings f
or him had significantly deepened.
‘Akihiro, I think I love you.’
When he pulled back, she looked into his amber eyes, and her heart filled with something warm and light. She smiled softly and he smiled back, his expression tentative and shy. When she stroked his cheek, he closed his eyes and sighed, and she realized, not for the first time, that she was very glad that he was there with her.
‘Actually, I know I love you.’
Michael’s face flashed briefly in her mind, and she felt a pang of loss and regret, but she pushed her sadness and fears aside as she cupped her fox’s face in her hands and nuzzled her nose against his affectionately. She knew she was encouraging the closeness between them, and that by definition could be problematic, but it looked like things were being taken out of her hands. Being with him meant giving up her hopes of ever going home, of ever seeing her fiancé again, of ever returning to the time and place she belonged. However it seemed that fate had a different plan for her after all, and it didn’t include being rescued.
Would anyone fault her for finding some measure of peace and happiness with the fox that so obviously loved her? Did it really matter anyway? She only had a week of insulin left.
Chapter Eighteen
The sun beat down on the Japanese countryside, and Joanna had to stop to rest. Wiping the sweat from her brow, she dug the end of her wooden walking staff into the soft ground and leaned on it to balance herself while she readjusted the sack she carried. Her breathing was labored and the heat was really getting to her. It was unusual for her to be so affected by the high temperatures, but today she longed for the cool sanctuary of the deep forest, although she knew it would be a few more days (if not a couple of weeks) before she would be able to go back to the place she called home. For now she just had to muddle through and make the best of a bad situation.
It had been ten days since the attack, and she had discovered that the poison had taken a great deal more out of her than she had originally believed. She was weaker and much more easily tired, and sometimes she felt surges of numbness in her fingers and toes that made her worry about neuropathy. Kaemon assured her that her symptoms were normal for a victim of an oni-gumo bite, and that, eventually, she would regain her strength and the numbness would cease. She didn’t bother to tell him that Suzuka, ever the bright ray of optimism, had informed her that it could take months for the poison to completely wear off and that some people never fully recovered at all.
