Ghosts and Grudges

by Jasmine Walt

  Raiden was silent for a long moment. “I suppose it’s possible,” he finally said, standing up. “There’s no point in staying in this room—Kai isn’t here. I don’t know how, but he’s made some upgrades to the tomb. Maybe Amatsu’s powers have allowed him to create new rooms, like the dungeon down below that we saw. I don’t know much about the dark god,” he admitted.

  Silently, we retreated from Amaterasu’s shrine, then followed another staircase leading out of the tomb. As we left, I glanced back toward the tombs, my gaze lingering on Fumiko’s for a moment. Those flowers meant something, and despite what Kai had done to those poor shamans, I felt a tug on my heart. He clearly still loved Fumiko, despite the choice she’d made in the end.

  “Greetings, travelers,” said a voice from the shadows as we reached the final step. The room was too dark for me to see, but as I turned my eyes toward the sound of the voice, I readied my charms anyway.

  “Greetings,” Raiden called back, edging forward. He had one hand on the hilt of his dragon blade, but so far he hadn’t drawn it nor invoked Katsu. Part of me wondered why he hadn’t done it yet, but then it was a strain every time I used the kyuubi. Maybe using the samurai was similar?

  “If you wish to pass, you must answer my riddle,” the voice said. As it spoke, torches lining the walls began to blaze with ethereal green light. “Do you wish to try?”

  I bit back a scream as the speaker was finally revealed in the light. It was a gnarled tree about twenty feet tall with peeling bark and swaying weeping willow branches. Only… instead of fruit, human heads hung from those branches. Their faces writhed in anguish as they tried to scream without voices. The largest head leered at us, and the urge to turn and run struck me hard. Unlike the others, which were sallow and unhealthy-looking, this head looked perfectly fine.

  “What the hell is that?” I hissed, shrinking back.

  “A jinmenju,” Shota whispered, looking fascinated. “Despite their horrific appearance they’re mostly harmless. They pretty much just block the way and ask for their riddles to be solved. If you get it right, you can pass.”

  “What happens if you get it wrong?” I asked, eyeing the jinmenju suspiciously.

  “You die!” the demonic tree cackled, its branches rustling in unseen wind. The lips on all its faces curled into Cheshire cat grins, and it leaned forward. “But no one ever won anything by not trying, eh?”

  “Fine,” Raiden said impatiently. “Let’s hear the riddle.”

  The massive tree cackled again. “Very well,” it said, holding up three severed heads on a single branch. “Riddle me this, shamans.”

  The three heads turned so that the one on the far left stared at the back of the middle head, the middle head stared at the right head, and the right head stared off into nothingness.

  “The head on the left is named Ken, and he is married.” Ken, the head on the left, opened his mouth in a low moan as he was addressed. “Pan, the head on the right, is not married.” Pan began to moan then, leaving only the middle head unnamed.

  “Um… okay, so what’s the riddle?” I asked, and as I spoke, the tree’s laughter boomed like a bass drum.

  “It is simply this. Is a married person looking at an unmarried person?”

  I gritted my teeth as a headache began to throb at my temples. I had no idea what the answer was, and I really didn’t have time for this. I wanted to rescue my mother, not ponder useless riddles with stupid talking trees full of severed heads!

  “Any ideas?” Raiden asked, glancing at me. The look on his face let me know he was just as stumped as I was. Great. Just freaking great.

  “Well, do you know?” The tree grinned evilly. “Or are you going to join my friends here?” His branches rustled, eliciting moans from the severed heads.

  “Sure, I’ve got it,” I said sweetly, calling upon my kyuubi’s power. Her spirit popped free of the charm, and I grabbed it and shoved it in my chest. “The answer is get the hell out of my way.”

  The jinmenju’s eyes widened in horror as I flung a massive fireball at it. The ball of flame slammed straight into the trunk, and the tree exploded into a swirling cloud of flaming debris. The severed heads all shrieked with pain as debris rained down around the room, and we ducked for cover.

  “Well...” Raiden muttered when the air had finally cleared. He glanced at me warily out of the corner of his eye as I pulled the kyuubi out of my chest and allowed her to regain her form. “That wasn’t exactly what I expected.”

  “I’ll say.” Shota grinned at me. “You don’t mess around, Aika.”

  I shrugged. “I don’t negotiate with terrorists.”

  “It’s about time you grew a spine,” the kyuubi huffed. She curled her tails around her and immediately began grooming her paw.

  I snorted. “I think I’m doing pretty well considering that I’ve only just started this shaman thing.”

  “You might want to save the grooming for later,” Raiden said to the kyuubi as the tree finally withered into ash. We all turned toward it just as a doorway appeared where the tree had been. A strange silver glow seeped from the cracks around it, and a cool sensation rippled across my skin in response.

  “Umm.” I glanced uneasily at Raiden and Shota. “You think it’s safe to go in there?”

  Shota frowned thoughtfully. “It’s not yoki,” he said, moving closer to the door. “In fact, I think it might be a kami.”

  “It is,” the kyuubi said. She strutted toward the door, completely unconcerned. “Open it, human.”

  Raiden scowled at her imperious tone, but he did as she asked. I threw up a hand to shield my eyes as a wave of silver light burst from the door, and Raiden cried out in surprise, his hand going to the hilt of his sword.

  “Relax, children,” a smooth male voice that was like rippling water said. It sounded vaguely amused. “The moonlight will not hurt you. It is already fading.”

  Cautiously, I opened my eyes. Standing in the center of a small room was a tall man with long, silver hair. He was clad in a dark purple kimono with tiny moons embroidered in the fabric, and he carried a silver staff topped with a crescent moon. He regarded us with eyes the color of molten steel in a way that should have made me nervous, except that he radiated an aura of tranquility that instantly smoothed my nerves.

  While I was standing there, gawking like a slack-jawed yokel, Raiden, Shota, and the kyuubi dropped to the ground, prostrating themselves.

  “Tsukuyomi-sama,” Shota said gravely, pressing his forehead into the dirt. “It is an honor.”

  Tsukuyomi? Alarmed, I dropped to the ground next to my friends, despite the kami’s non-threatening presence. Hell, I’d never seen the kyuubi bow to anyone. Tsukuyomi was Amaterasu’s brother-husband, the god of the moon. He wasn’t as powerful as the sun goddess, since he had to borrow some of her light, but he was one of the oldest gods around, and I was pretty sure that he could turn us into a smudge on the floor if he wanted to.

  “Rise, children,” the moon god said calmly. “There is no need for such ceremony here.”

  Warily, we got to our feet.

  “Are you here to help us, Tsukuyomi-sama?” I asked. “Or are you on Kai’s side?” I didn’t remember the old stories very well, but I vaguely recalled that Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi weren’t on speaking terms. Was the moon god an enemy?

  The moon god shook his head. “I am no friend of Amatsu Mikaboshi,” he said gravely, the silver light around him flickering. “I come here asking for a favor, and in exchange, I will give you a tool you may find useful when you meet Kai.”

  “What is the favor?” Raiden asked warily.

  Tsukuyomi sighed, pulling a letter from the sleeve of his robe. “I have been trying to apologize to Amaterasu for centuries about the old misunderstanding between us, but she will not hear me. I beseech you to read this letter to her for me.” His silver eyes bore into mine as he thrust the letter in my direction. “She will not be expecting the words to come from your mouth, and so will not have time to
close her ears before you give her my message.”

  “I see.” I reached for the letter, but paused, my fingers a millimeter away from it. “Do you want me to go to one of her shrines and read it to her?”

  “No. There will be a time when you speak to the sun goddess directly. That is when you will give her the message.” Tsukuyomi pressed the letter into my hand. “Do you agree?”

  I swallowed, painfully aware of the weight of the god’s stare. This letter was very important, and I had a feeling that if I failed to deliver the message, bad things would happen to me. But what choice did I have? We needed to defeat Kai, and any help I could get was welcome.

  “I promise,” I said, taking the letter.

  “Good.” Tsukuyomi waved his hand. A crescent-shaped object that looked like it was crafted from pure moonlight appeared in his palm, and he handed it to me. “This sliver of moonlight will pulse when someone is telling a lie.”

  Whoa. So it really was made of pure moonlight. “How is this supposed to help us defeat Kai?” I asked as I took it from him. The sliver was cold in my hand, but even still, it hummed with power.

  “That is for you to discover,” the moon god said. He waved a hand and disappeared in a flash of silver light.

  “Huh.” I turned back to Raiden and Shota, who both looked nonplussed. “Why do I feel like I just got bilked?”

  “Shhh!” Raiden hissed, scowling at me. “He might be listening. You don’t want to piss him off, not after he gave you such a valuable gift.”

  “Shit.” I hadn’t thought about that. “You know, I’ve spent my entire life believing that gods don’t exist. It’s going to take a bit of getting used to that there might be kami watching my every move.” The idea sent an unpleasant shiver down my spine, and my shoulders hunched instinctively. It was bad enough that Big Brother was taking over the country—did I really need gods butting into my life all the time too?

  Shota gave me a gentle smile, as if he could tell exactly what I was thinking. “It’s part of being a shaman, Aika. The responsibility of being able to bridge the gap between the Reikai and the human world means we don’t get to live normal lives like other people.”

  “Really? After getting attacked by a human-sized frog, riding the back of a giant sea turtle, stealing a monkey king’s liver, and attending an undersea ball, I would never have guessed.”

  Raiden chuckled. “Don’t forget fighting off animated corpses, talking to gods, and preparing to take down the most evil god in the Japanese pantheon.”

  That sobered us up. “Right. We should probably get going with that.”

  I pulled the kyuubi back inside my body, then turned toward the door. Alongside the fire burning in my veins from my yokai were fear and anticipation—Kai was on the other side. I knew it in my soul.

  “Aika,” Raiden said as I began to walk toward the door. There was a warning note in his voice. “You should let me go first.” He tried to move in front of me, but I pushed him aside, my feet moving as if of their own accord. I didn’t know why, but something told me I had to be the one to open this door. I had to go through first.

  The moment my hand curled around the brass doorknob, a feeling of peace and contentment swept through me. It felt like coming home, like I was on the verge of entering a paradise, a safe haven. As if fate had been leading me to this door since I was born, and that the beginning of my life waited beyond the threshold.

  But how could that be? My enemy, the man who had killed innocents, and who had stolen my mother away, was waiting beyond that door.

  I half-expected the handle to be locked. But it gave easily, and the door swung open into a grand hall, the kind you might find in a daimyo’s castle. Thousands of paper lanterns hung from the ceiling, shining light onto the glossy, dark wood floor where yokai dressed in beautiful kimonos danced and performed tricks with fire and illusion magic. The walls were shoji screens, with beautiful artwork of pastoral scenes painted on them.

  And toward the back of the room, sitting on a dais, was Kai.

  Even if I hadn’t recognized him from the murals on the walls, I would have known it was Kai. Something deep inside me flared to life in recognition, and I felt a surprising surge of affection. He was dressed like a daimyo, with gorgeous gold, black, and red armor, his long black hair pulled back from a sternly handsome face and tied into a samurai topknot. But what surprised me the most were his eyes—they were a golden-brown, with laugh lines branching out from the corners. The eyes of a human man, not a power-hungry shaman possessed by a dark god.

  Those warm eyes met mine from across the room, and the whole world stopped. The dancers froze in their positions, the lanterns stopped flickering, and I stopped breathing. An intense longing filled my chest, followed on its heels by bitter sadness and disappointment. Part of me wanted to run to this man and throw myself into his arms, part of me wanted to grab him by the shoulders and shake sense into him.

  And the rest of me was confused as hell.

  “Fumiko.” Kai rose from his seat, joy blazing in his eyes. The dancers parted, and shock rippled through me as I finally saw my mother. She was sitting next to Kai, dressed in a silk white robe, staring numbly into space as if in a trance. “You came back to me!”

  “I didn’t come back for you,” I spat, ignoring the fact that he’d called me Fumiko. I was vibrating with rage now, the fuzzy feelings gone. “I came for my mother. What have you done to her?”

  But Kai wasn’t listening. His gaze had moved to Raiden. “You,” he hissed, paling with anger. “It wasn’t enough for you to take her away to the afterlife, you had to come back with her too? I should have known you couldn’t leave well enough alone.”

  “How typical,” Raiden growled, grasping his dragon blade in both hands. He sounded different, his face a diamond-hard mask of anger. “It’s always about you, isn’t it? I see that being stuck in a cave for two thousand years hasn’t made you any less selfish, Kai.”

  “What are you two talking about?” I cried, stepping between them. My heart was pounding hard now as animosity crackled in the air between them, and for some reason, it tore at me. I didn’t want these two to fight.

  Which was absurd, because the entire reason Raiden and I had come here was to fight.

  “You’re trying to tell me that you don’t know what you’ve done?” Kai sneered, looking at me. There was so much rage and betrayal in his eyes, it stole my breath. “You didn’t just bring any shaman into my tomb with you, Fumiko. You brought Haruki and Kaga!”

  23

  “Wait just a damn minute!” I yelled, jumping in front of Raiden and Shota as Kai drew his sword. “You can’t just throw stuff out there like that and then attack us!”

  Kai glowered at me, his hands tightening on the hilt of his katana. “I’m not attacking you,” he said. “It’s Haruki that I want to fight!”

  “What am I, chopped liver?” Shota scoffed. He brandished his kusarigama.

  Kai scoffed. “You never were a match for me, Kaga. I could kill you without breaking a sweat.”

  “Kaga?” Shota repeated, blinking in confusion. “Are…are you saying…?”

  “This is ridiculous,” I snapped. “Raiden is not Haruki, and Shota is not Kaga!”

  Tears burned at the corners of my eyes, and I felt the sudden, irrational need to stomp my foot and engage in a full-on temper tantrum. “I’m not Fumiko, and none of this is real! You’re just using your magic to manipulate us, aren’t you!” I accused, jabbing a finger at him.

  Kai’s face slackened with shock. “You really have no idea, do you?” He glared at Raiden over my shoulder. “Did you deliberately keep this from her? And you say I’m selfish!”

  “Wait a damn second.” Raiden held up his hands. His gaze darted between us, and he looked as if someone had just dropped an anvil on him. “I knew about you and me, but I had no idea Shota was Kaga!”

  I whirled around to face Raiden. “What is that supposed to mean?” I demanded. “Were you lying to me this whole
time?”

  “No.” Raiden clenched his jaw. “I wasn’t certain it was true, so I didn’t push it. But I did warn you back at Ryujin’s palace that there was a strong possibility you might be Fumiko reincarnated. That’s why I didn’t want to come here, but you dismissed my concerns.”

  “Yeah, well, you didn’t exactly give me specifics, and you definitely didn’t tell me about you being Haruki’s reincarnation.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “Is Kai telling the truth about that?”

  “You already know that I am,” Kai said. “The moonlight in your hand is proof.”

  I frowned. I’d completely forgotten about the sliver of moonlight. My heart sank as I realized it hadn’t pulsed in my hand, not once during this entire conversation. Either Kai was telling the truth, or...

  “You could be mistaken,” I said, my voice tinged with desperation. “Just because you believe I’m Fumiko doesn’t mean it’s true. And Raiden and Shota…”

  “Aika.” Raiden’s voice was heavy with defeat. “I had strange dreams when I was small, dreams in which I saw both your face and Kai’s. And when I was fourteen, a fortune teller told me I would meet a woman who would help me reunite the clans.”

  “Raiden told me all about the dreams,” Shota said. “When he first met you, he said the memories came rushing back, and that he was confident you were the person the fortune teller had mentioned.”

  “So that’s why you’ve been pushing me away.” My mind whirled with the implications of all this, even as relief at finally knowing the truth swept through me. “Because some fortune teller told you guys that Raiden and I are supposed to be together?”

  “Ridiculous,” Kai scoffed. “That fortune teller is obviously a charlatan. Haruki is the wrong man for you, Fumiko. He will only bring you ruin and disappointment.”

  “I think you’ve got me confused with yourself,” Raiden snarled, his face reddening with anger. “You are the one who brought ruin and disappointment on us all when you killed Kaga!”