Ghosts and Grudges

by Jasmine Walt

  The furi laughed at that, and the crabs clinked their pincers together in a way that sounded amused instead of angry. Even the kyuubi chuckled.

  “Well, excuse me,” Raiden said, his mouth curving a little. “I haven’t had time to take a bath since I crawled out of the ocean. Are you the one who saved me?” The kamaitachi nodded, and Raiden ran his big hand down the creature’s spine, petting him. “Thanks. I owe you one.”

  “I found him in your pocket,” I said, feeling strangely left out. “Were you planning on summoning him yourself?”

  Raiden shook his head. “I’m a yurei shaman—I can’t summon yokai, remember? But I figured we might be able to use a few of these, so I grabbed them as a precaution.” He gave me a crooked smile that made my heart do backflips in my chest. “Guess the hunch paid off.”

  “Yeah.” A sudden flood of emotion hit me, and I threw my arms around him. “I’m so glad you did,” I whispered in his ear as tears threatened to choke me for what seemed like the millionth time in the last twenty-four hours. “I really thought you were going to die.”

  Raiden’s arms tightened around me. “Never,” he said fiercely, burying his face in my hair. My heart sang with joy as his lips pressed against my ear. “I’ve learned from my mistakes, Aika. I’ll never leave you again.”

  Something about the way he said that set an alarm bell off in my head, and I leaned back. “What do you mean, again?” I searched his face, but his gaze went blank, as if someone had grabbed a pair of blinds and yanked them down.

  “Excuse me,” one of the crabs said, interrupting the moment. Blushing, Raiden and I broke apart. We’d completely forgotten about our captive audience. “I hate to intrude, but my people would like to know what it is you are doing on Sarushima. Have you come for the persimmons?”

  Raiden and I exchanged looks of confusion. “Persimmons?” he asked the crabs. “I didn’t know there were persimmons on this island.”

  “Ah.” The crab shifted a little. “Then you are here for the monkey livers.” Was it just my imagination, or did they sound relieved?

  “Yeah. Ryujin sent us to get one for him.” Remembering my manners, I bowed to the crabs. “Thank you so much for saving us from the monkeys. I don’t know what I would have done without you.”

  “Think nothing of it,” the crab said. “If we hadn’t come along, I’m sure your yokai would have protected you.” The crab’s eyes swiveled to look at the kyuubi. “You have some very strong friends.”

  I cracked a smile. “Even so, we are very grateful.” I hesitated, then added, “Is there something that you want from us in exchange for your help?” I didn’t think we had time for yet another quest, but it seemed rude not to offer something. Despite what the crab had said about me and my powerful yokai friends, it was highly likely Raiden still might have died, or at least been severely injured. Their interference had bought me enough time to summon the kyuubi and merge with her so I could beat the monkeys back.

  “As a matter of fact, we were hoping you might be willing to help us drive the monkeys off the island,” the crab said. “In exchange, we will help you procure the liver you seek.”

  “Drive the monkeys off the island?” Raiden echoed. “But isn’t it their island?”

  “No!” The crabs clacked their pincers angrily. “Those filthy monkeys invaded our land and stole what was ours. Before they came to this island, it was called Heikeshima. We planted a beautiful persimmon grove in the heart of the island and feasted off its bountiful fruits. But the monkeys were jealous and wanted the persimmons for themselves, so they climbed up into the trees and threw heavy rocks and sticks to keep us away. Now they have built a castle at the edge of the grove, and they defend it fiercely.”

  “That’s awful,” I said, feeling a wave of sympathy for them. “And you haven’t been able to get rid of the monkeys? Is it just that there are more of them than there are of you?”

  “No,” the crab said. “It is not the numbers. The problem is that the monkeys hide up in the persimmon trees, out of our reach, so we cannot kill them. Crab legs are no good for climbing trees,” it said sadly, clicking its pincers once again. “We could cut the trees down, but then we would not have our persimmons anymore. And we have worked very hard to grow those trees—we do not want to destroy them just to get rid of the monkeys.”

  “I get it,” Raiden said slowly. “So you want us to help you get rid of the monkeys, so you can take back the persimmon grove. And in exchange, you’ll help us get the monkey king’s liver?”

  “Yes.”

  “Very well,” he said, folding his arms. “We will help you, but first you must help us get the liver.”

  “Raiden!” I scolded. “They’ve already saved our lives. I don’t think we’re in a position to make demands like that.”

  “It does not matter,” the crab said, surprising us both. “Both tasks can be done at the same time, since they both require breaching the monkey stronghold.”

  “So what, do we just get in, and I kill the monkey king and take his liver?” I asked. I still felt squeamish at the idea of disemboweling a monkey, but I would do it if that’s what it took to save my mother.

  “Oh no,” the crab said. “The liver you seek is not located inside the monkey’s body.”

  “It’s not?” Raiden and I asked at the same time, sounding equally bewildered.

  “How is that possible?” I asked. “Don’t the monkeys need their livers to be inside their bodies to survive?”

  “Yes, but these are not the same kind of liver. What you seek is a special kind of liver that the monkeys hang in the persimmon trees to dry.” The crab sounded especially disgusted by this, as if he couldn’t stand the idea of his precious persimmons being contaminated by monkey livers. Admittedly, the idea sounded pretty gross to me too. “The monkey king’s liver grows in a special tree that he keeps in his room, so you will need to get him to invite you in there in order to take it.”

  “Eww.” I wrinkled my nose at that. “Are you telling me I have to seduce the monkey king?”

  “Sounds like it,” Raiden said. He sounded just as repulsed as I felt. “How would she even do that? It’s not like the monkey king is gonna get the hots for a human girl. He’s into monkeys, isn’t he?”

  “Perhaps,” the kyuubi said, stepping into the room. She bared her fangs in a gamine grin that sent a shiver down my spine. “But with my abilities at your disposal, I don’t believe that will be a problem at all.”

  13

  As it turned out, the kyuubi wasn’t just good for setting things on fire or tearing into things with her claws and fangs. She was also good at creating illusions, and she used her magic to turn Raiden, me, and several of the crabs into monkeys dressed as kabuki dancers.

  Wow, I thought, looking Raiden up and down. He was dressed in a red and gold checkered kimono, and I had to choke back my laughter at the sight of his hairy monkey face all painted up with red, black, and white kabuki makeup. There was absolutely nothing of Raiden’s features in that monkey’s face. Even his long black hair was gone, though the kyuubi had taken the fur on top of his head and styled it into a topknot.

  “I don’t know what you’re laughing about,” Raiden said, then jumped at the sound of his own voice. His words had come out sounding more like a screechy monkey’s than his own baritone. “You look like Chewbacca’s long-lost wife. If she decided to take up a career as a geisha.”

  “I do not know who this ‘Chewbacca’ is, but I hope you are not complaining about my disguise,” the kyuubi said archly. She flicked her tails, sending dust motes flying about the room. “I followed the crab’s directions exactly.”

  “No, of course not,” I assured her, trying not to flinch at the sound of my own strange voice. For the first time, I started to realize just how powerful a yokai the kyuubi was—this level of illusion magic couldn’t be easy. “We look great.” I looked toward the crabs, who looked very similar to Raiden. “This is what we should look like, right?” I asked anx
iously. I really didn’t want to have to go through all this again. We’d already lost way too much time.

  “Yes,” one of the crabs said, talking in the same screechy voice. “We are ready to go. But before we leave, I have a gift to give you.”

  The crab stepped forward, pulling something from his robes. “This is an osuzumebachi charm,” he said, holding out a charm that was shaped like a tiny bee. I shivered—the osuzumebachi were giant Japanese hornets so big that they were sometimes called “sparrow bees.” “You can use this charm to summon a nest of them, and use them to attack the monkey king at the right time. The monkey king is allergic, and if he is stung by even one bee, it will kill him.”

  “And what about if I’m stung by one of these?” I asked, taking the charm gingerly. I felt like I was literally picking up a hornet’s nest, and the last thing I wanted to do was drop it. “Aren’t the osuzumebachi poisonous?”

  “Yes, but these are bound to the charm, so you will be able to control them,” the crab said. He paused, then added, “If you are able to control the kyuubi, you should have no trouble with the osuzumebachi.”

  I glanced at Raiden. “But these aren’t even yokai, are they?”

  Raiden shuddered. “They might as well be,” he said as I fastened the charm to my bracelet. “For all you know, the osuzumebachi in there are a yokai version that are even larger than the regular ones.”

  “That doesn’t make me feel better. At all.”

  Finished with the illusions, I summoned the kyuubi into my body, and we headed out. She simmered in my chest as we approached the monkey statue that marked the edge of the monkey king’s territory; she was clearly unhappy with having to ride along inside me but aware that she could do nothing about it.

  The statue was a massive thing, standing nearly fifteen feet tall and made of polished wood, making me think it had been carved from a singular tree trunk. Rubies glittered in place of its eyes, and they sparkled with malevolence, following us as we moved past.

  A shiver wracked me as I wrapped my arms around myself and tried to ignore the feeling we were being watched. I knew it shouldn’t matter since we were being hidden by the kyuubi’s illusions, but it was possible they had weird monkey magic that would get us spotted. I really hoped they didn’t, but after what I’d been through so far, I couldn’t discount anything.

  There’s no point in worrying about it, I told myself firmly. But as we walked, I began to notice there were monkeys all around us, frolicking in the trees. My heart began to hammer in my chest, and I hoped like hell they weren’t about to start throwing stones at us. Even with Raiden and the kyuubi, I didn’t think we could take an entire army of these guys.

  Hmph, the kyuubi scoffed at the idea that we were outgunned. But she didn’t refute my fears, and that said it all, didn’t it?

  Thankfully, the monkeys seemed too lazy to pay us much mind. Most of them were lying on the ground drinking beer and sake. One was even lying in a pile of persimmon seeds, his bloated belly full as he snoozed in the sun. The crabs bristled next to me at the sight of him, but they didn’t give us away. I could tell they wanted to reach out and throttle that monkey for eating their precious fruit, but they seemed to know that wouldn’t help us.

  No, the only way out of this mess was finding the monkey king.

  As we moved across the sandy path, a huge stone fortress came into view. The blocks were immense, easily a couple feet tall and just as wide. It must have taken an army of monkeys to push them into place. They were piled on top of one another haphazardly, but they were so thick and tall that they cast a shadow over us even though we were almost a hundred feet away.

  “Wow…” I breathed, shielding my eyes as I stared out at the sight of the fortress’s walls. It was a good thing we planned on sneaking inside, because there was no way we were breaching that wall.

  “Yeah…” Raiden muttered, glancing at me. “That’s pretty intense. How the hell did they get all those blocks there?” He pointed toward the wall. “It’s over twenty blocks tall and at least twice as wide. Those things have to be measured in tons.”

  “They captured many of our people and forced us to drag the stones into place,” the crab beside me said. “Then, when my brothers would fall from overwork, they’d eat us and mix our shells into the mortar.”

  “You mean that fortress is held together by your family?” I gasped. Shock and horror filled me at the thought, and suddenly I had newfound sympathy for the crabs.

  “Yes.” The crab nodded. “Now you can see why we want the monkeys to leave. They are not honorable neighbors, and instead visit cruelty and pain upon us.”

  “Well, I’m glad we came along then,” Raiden said gruffly. His jaw had clenched, and he glared fiercely up at the fortress. “This is exactly the type of thing we shamans should be fixing.”

  “Don’t get ahead of yourselves. We must still gain access to the king,” another crab said as we approached the gate in the center of the wall. Unlike the wall surrounding it, this gate was made from lacquered wood and banded together with dark iron. Two monkeys leaned lazily against the frame on either side of it, their eyes lidded with boredom.

  As we approached, the left one looked up and eyed us carefully. “What do we have here?” he asked, reaching up to rub his jaw between his thumb and forefinger.

  “We are the famed kabuki dancers Komorebi, and we have come to perform for your king,” the first crab said, dropping into a low bow. We followed suit, bowing low to the guards as the other monkey pushed himself to his feet and took a plodding step closer.

  “Is that so?” he asked, glancing at the other guard as he reached down and touched my shoulder with one slender finger. “I don’t recall hearing about any dancers coming.”

  “Well, you know how it is,” the first monkey said, shrugging. “Us guards never get told nothing.” He shook his head. “We’d better let them through or the king will put us back on kitchen duty.” He made a face. “I do hate cleaning the drains.”

  “But what if it’s a trick?” He poked me again before grabbing my hair and tugging on it. Not hard enough for it to hurt, but enough for me to feel it.

  “Ow,” I cried, leaping to my feet and pushing him away. “What do you think you’re doing?”

  “Making sure you’re real,” the monkey said, rolling his eyes. “There was a kyuubi around earlier. So we have to be real sure you’re not imposters.”

  “Well, are you satisfied?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest and glaring at the monkey.

  “Aika…” Raiden said, his tone low and full of warning. He and the others straightened out of their bows, following my lead. But the monkey only shrugged.

  “Fine,” he said, “but I hope for your sakes you’re the real deal. If you dance badly, the king will crack open your skulls and eat your brains.”

  Great, I thought as the monkey strode back toward the gate and rapped on it with one fist. No pressure.

  Golden light rippled across the surface for a moment before the gate creaked open on hinges in desperate need of oil. I stood there watching it inch open to reveal an ornate floor covered by polished black tile. It led off into the distance toward an immense house with golden monkeys stylized across its walls. The thatched roof glimmered in the sun like spun gold, and as the two guards stood aside and gestured for us to enter, I knew I was staring at the monkey king’s palace.

  Normally, I would have been filled with wonder at the sight. I was pretty sure no human had been here for centuries, if ever. But the sight of hundreds of monkeys gathered inside the gated area stopped me short.

  They weren’t just normal monkeys. They were the size of freaking elephants.

  “Go on,” the right guard said as a cold sweat broke out over me. He shoved me lightly through the entryway. I opened my mouth to protest, but the moment my foot touched the black tile, a buzz of electricity shot through me.

  “Send in the next act!” an angry voice boomed in my head. It was like a trumpet blasting di
rectly into my eardrums, and I instinctively clapped my hands over my ears. “I am bored, and hungry!”

  “That does not sound good,” Raiden muttered as he and the crabs were shoved in after me. His expression was stoic as usual, but the thread of worry in his voice knotted my stomach. I turned back to the courtyard just in time to see the palace doors open. Out stepped another monkey clad in a deep red kimono covered in flowers. He glanced around for a moment, features drawn and panicked, but as his eyes settled on us, relief washed over his features.

  “You’ve arrived just in time!” he cried, rushing toward us in bounds that carried him across the distance in a few moments. He reached out, grabbing my hand and pulling me forward. “We have no time to waste. The king is very upset today because a kyuubi burned two of his subjects to death. He is scouring the island for the evil yokai as we speak.”

  “How awful,” one of the crabs said as the kyuubi chuckled inside my head. I could tell she wanted to come out and have some fun with these monkeys, and I had to rein her in. “Have they found any clues yet as to the kyuubi’s whereabouts?”

  “No, and that’s only made him angrier.” The monkey swallowed hard and glanced at us. “You’d better get in before he starts throwing a tantrum. I hope you guys are good… for your own sakes.”

  14

  With those ominous words echoing in our ears, we were shoved inside the throne room. For about half a second, I was amazed at the splendor of it all. Monkeys carved from jade decorated the walls, and paintings framed with gold hung between them. The walls themselves were made of thick black stone that glinted in the light of the fireflies buzzing overhead.

  In the center was a massive coral throne decorated with gemstones every color of the rainbow. Unfortunately, that’s where the splendor ended, because sitting upon that throne was a monkey who was even more enormous than the ones outside. And when I say enormous, not the hulking, muscled, King Kong kind of ginormous. No, this guy was more like Jabba the Hutt, with rolls of belly fat cascading over his knees as he lounged on his cushion-piled throne. All around him, female monkeys dressed in lingerie prostrated themselves. One of them, dressed in a bright pink teddy, was actually lying on his giant belly, feeding him bits of peeled persimmon.