Kitsune Matsuri: The Open Gateway

by William H Johnston

  The younger creature obeyed without question. He sat cross-legged just beside his elder, dark eyes bright with curiosity beneath his mask.

  “What are they saying?” I looked up to Matsuri for an explanation.

  She slid closer, easing an extra pillow back behind my head. “It’s all right, Tobias-san. Suzume-kun is Haro’s apprentice. He’s here to help.” I sighed and laid back. What else could I do but resign myself to the care of these strange creatures.

  Haro wasted no time, reaching behind him to take a clean linen cloth from a box by the fireplace. He then poured steaming water from the kettle onto the cloth.

  As I watched, he placed his fingers over the bowl and added a pinch of cold water from the bucket. That steely, unblinking reptilian gaze settled on my leg as he fixed his fingers not a few inches from the bone.

  “Kore wa, shōnen o kizutsukeru tame ni okotte iru,” he croaked.

  “He says it is going to hurt.” Matsuri lay a sprig of bamboo in my palm. “Bite down on this when the pain starts.”

  As the moist cloth settled onto the broken portion of my leg, a sharp pain seared through my nerves. It felt as if hot coals settled onto the exposed skin and burrowed down into my bones. I immediately sat up, my leg jerked in reflex, but the kappa held me firm with surprising strength.

  I clamped down on the bamboo sprig. The burning lasted a very long time before it dulled once again. As I watched, Haro’s stern visage softened, and he began to chant very quietly.

  The warmth in my leg expanded as pain disappeared and muscles relaxed. There was a very odd tingling that replaced it. A moment later he withdrew the cloth and opened his eyes.

  As feeling returned to my leg, I found that the pain was completely gone. In fact, it felt like I’d never broken the bone at all! Haro eased back and gestured me to rise. “Up.”

  Up? He can’t be serious.

  Again he gestured, his dark eyes squinting with irritation. Matsuri knelt down, offering me her arm for balance. “Come on, Gaijin.”

  I gingerly put weight onto my leg and felt the strength of my own muscles supporting me. The pain was gone. Only an odd bruise indicated where my broken bone had been.

  There was still a slight twinge when I tried to put more weight down. My mind whirled.

  I truly am in an entirely different universe. It wouldn’t be a good idea to tell Mom how my broken leg got fixed.

  I found Aya-chan standing on her tiptoes there beside me. “Gaijin-san! Watashi wa anata no subete no yoi kanjite iru negatte imasu!”[56]

  I patted her head. “Good to see you too, little one.”

  “Sore wa Gaijin-san ga kega watashi no seidesu.”[57]

  Matsuri knelt at the girl’s side. “She blames herself for your injury.”

  “No, little one,” I patted her head. “Without you, we might very well be dead.”

  Matsuri nodded. “He is right, Aya-chan.”

  Aya-chan didn’t seem too sure of it herself. I glanced at her sister. “Is my bone completely healed?”

  “No. Healing will still take some time. You will need support on this side for a while. Don’t get any fancy ideas.”

  “Don’t break that leg again anytime soon,” Haro snorted.

  I turned back around hardly believing my ears. “You actually understand me?”

  “Don’t act so surprised, Gaijin.” Matsuri chuckled. “Let’s get some fresh air. It will do you well after being in this stuffy little house.”

  I leaned in closer to her as she helped me along. “So, what is the story with these two?”

  She sighed. “You really are impossible sometimes, but I suppose I do need to explain. Haro is a very wise and capable doctor and Suzume a worthy assistant. Tengu are a warrior class of yokai who live in the high mountains. They’re great practitioners of the martial arts and have taught many legendary mortal warriors.

  Suzume comes from a particular group blessed with the features of birds, but he’s very different from most tengu. He wanted to learn medicine not martial arts.” She slid the door wide, and we stepped out. Night had passed into mid-morning, and the air was cool and moist.

  My feet touched soft, moss-covered earth. Bamboo surrounded me on all sides rising amid huge boulders. Not far away stood a tall, lonely torii gate against the backdrop of softer green.

  I glanced back. Haro and his apprentice had come out into the open. I bowed as deeply as my balance allowed. “Thank you both.”

  Matsuri touched the kappa’s shoulder. “Watashi wa kasu koto o nozomanai ga, watashi wa Gaijin kikoku shinagara, anata wa watashi no imōto o miru koto ga dekiru?”[58]

  Haro nodded, and the two children scampered off into the woods with a flurry of laughter amid scattered leaves.

  “Watashi wa anata no shakkin, Haro-san ni imasu,”[59] Matsuri said.

  Haro waved it off, “Sore o kangaeru nani mo, Matsuri-chan.”[60]

  She took me by the arm. “Can you walk well enough with my help?”

  I tested the ground with my leg again as I leaned against her. “Yes, I think so.” I bowed once more to the stern kappa.

  “Thank you. I am in your debt.”

  Haro bowed back. “Demon threaten many yokai. You kill. We safe.”

  Matsuri took me gently by the arm as we moved toward the lonely gate. She reached into a sleeve and withdrew a strange object. Looking at it, I recognized the shape as that of one of the keys held in the mouths of the kitsune statues back at Fushimi.

  She extended the key in her hand, and I watched spellbound as a haunting image began to appear in the hollow opening of the gate. I could see a pathway and the movement of pink and white cherry blossoms amid thinner strands of bamboo.

  Matsuri chuckled. “You didn’t think these torii were just colorful decorations, did you? They sometimes act as a pathway for spirits from gate to gate and shrine to shrine.”

  “We just go through?”

  “Yes. Just hang on tight.”

  I wasn’t sure what to expect, but as she stepped through, there was an odd tingling that surged right through me as if all my limbs had become limp and relaxed. A moment later it passed, and the pathway closed behind us with a whisper of wind.

  I found myself surrounded by the familiar walls of Aoki’s little kitchen. Matsuri gently let go of my arm and sat with her legs dangling from the counter. “Welcome home, Gaijin.”

  “Home …” The term never felt so welcome to my lips. After all my misadventures, I was safely back.

  “We’ve come full circle.” Her voice was very quiet. “You have passed through the light and shadow of our realm, Tobias.”

  I glanced up at her noting the use of my name. “Matsuri, what happened? I thought you said I would be safe with Aya-chan.”

  She sighed, shoulders slumped. “It wasn’t my wish to put you in any danger. I was too overconfident in my abilities to protect you both. I am sorry.”

  “No need to apologize, Matsuri.”

  She laid a hand gently on my shoulder. “Aya and I owe you a debt of gratitude for what you did. Rest well, Tobias Blackwood, and know that spirits in all Japan will know what you did tonight.” Then with a flourish of her tails, she was suddenly gone, the front door left wide open in her wake.

  • • •

  Jomei was none too pleased to find me lying down on the couch with a bum leg, but Aoki was flush with concern. While she fussed over me, Jomei took charge of the situation. “Don’t baby him, woman. He should know better than to go climbing about in the dark.” He got on one knee and inspected my leg. “We’ll get it x-rayed and see.”

  We made our way down the front steps and into the street with Aoki behind me sputtering like an overfilled kettle. I couldn’t help but think that it would be impossible to try to explain this incident to my own parents.

  Maybe I stay with the “I fell down” story.

  All four of us drove to the hospital, and I was wheeled inside to get an x-ray. I had a bad sprain from what the doctor saw, but nothing more
which was remarkable in itself. Before long, I was sitting with a brace on my leg in a tiny closet of a room feeling all the more foolish.

  “Don’t worry about it, Tobi.” John offered me a stick of gum. “You’ve still got one good leg. Should be another bright, sunshiny day soon enough.”

  Monday morning was cool with a light mist. Looking up from the relative cover of the bus stop in front of Maeda School, I watched as it began to pour sheets of rain.

  Looks like Maeda was right about the rain, but how did he guess that?

  I grimaced over at John from my awkward stance atop my new crutches. “A beautiful, sunshiny day, huh?”

  He grinned and shrugged.

  “Tobias-Sensei!” I saw Chikako appear from around a corner, jumping into a puddle that gathered in a shallow portion of the stone sidewalk. Trickles of water ran down her raincoat and onto pink galoshes. Michiko was not far behind her, dressed to the nines in sky blue coat, umbrella and galoshes.

  Chikako skidded to a halt right in front of me, and her eyes went wide, a small hand coming straight up to point at my leg. “Tobias-Sensei wa matsubadzue o motte imasu!”[61]

  Oh, here we go.

  “Chikako, it is not polite to point.”

  “Sorry, Tobias-Sensei.”

  “It’s all right, Chikako-chan. I just have a sprain, nothing serious. It sounds like you’ve been practicing your English though! Good job!” I was hoping to change the subject, and it worked as the little girl puffed out her chest proudly.

  “Hai, Michiko-san has been helping me.”

  I laughed. “Well, let’s hope things go as swimmingly this week, John.”

  An awkward pause hung over the air as I said it. Michiko glanced over at John worriedly. “You haven’t told him, John-san?”

  “I haven’t had the heart.” John slowly turned toward me, his hands clasped lightly in front of him. “I’m going to be transferred to Osaka, Tobi. I got the call the other day. I’ve organized a little party tonight at the Peach Blossom Bar. You remember that place, don’t you, Tobi?”

  “Yeah, I do. I went there with Mr. Maeda and Michiko my first night here and drank too much sake. But do you have to leave so soon, John?” The simple fact was not a surprise. John had mentioned the possibility before, but hearing it so suddenly was like a slap in the face.

  “I have to jump on it or lose the chance. I’ll be moving out of the Yoshida’s tomorrow. I asked Aoki and Jomei not to say anything given what had happened to you. I didn’t want it to be a burden.”

  “It’s not,” I mumbled. I felt crestfallen.

  After all this craziness that I have been going through, John has been my one lifeline to something normal.

  John started up the walk to the school. “You and Michiko are invited, of course.”

  I watched him go with a sort of strange detachment. I’d barely gotten to know him, and he was the closest thing I’d ever had to a brother.

  Michiko took me by the hand. “Let’s get up to the school and dry you out, Tobias-san!” I was surprised at how the rain was not the least bit worrisome for her as it was for me.

  I glanced into those gorgeous black eyes. “I don’t think that matters anymore, Michiko.” My mood matched my damp clothing.

  She shook her head and offered her umbrella. “We will walk together.”

  Leave it to Michiko to plan ahead.

  We began the slow walk up the stairs. I glanced at the clouds allowing my dire mood to seep out like so much venom through my lips. “It would rain today of all days.”

  Michiko stopped staring at me from her half of the umbrella. “Don’t you dare lose your heart to such dark thoughts, Tobias-san! It does not befit you to think, let alone say such things!” She turned sharply and closed her umbrella, sending a shower of rain cascading down over us both.

  “Hey! What gives?”

  Michiko said nothing at first spreading out her arms to greet the rain. She leaned back and closed her eyes allowing the rain drops to flow down her face and through raven black hair.

  “Rain is a blessing, Tobias-san. It means spring is here. With the first rain, the trees will all open up, and the blossoms will unfold like a sea of color. Even the hard concrete will reflect the vibrant hue of nature’s gift. Just you wait and see.”

  I’d no sooner entered the classroom when I found myself accosted by a group of boys and girls with magic markers uncapped and ready to illustrate my leg brace. I struggled to stay upright on my meager pair of hospital crutches. My leg was grabbed in all directions and little squiggling squeaks followed the trace of scrawled design.

  “Well, you certainly know how to excite the children, Tobias-san,” Michiko said after shooing the kids out and closing the door.

  I sighed easing into my chair and rested my crutches against the board. My formerly pristine leg wrappings were now ablaze with Crayola colors, shapes of little cartoon animals and kanji. “What does this all say anyway?”

  “Most of it wishes you good health. A few of them are little jokes but nothing malicious. They were certainly creative with their drawings: frogs, cats, dogs, even a fox and dragon. You’ve quite the zoo on your leg.”

  “Maybe I’ll hide it under my desk.”

  The bell rang as kids tromped right back in and sat at their respective desks. As the day wore on, I did my best not to betray my emotions in front of the children, but it was hard to teach and not feel conflicted. At lunch the rain pattered against the classroom windows drumming like a thousand tiny fingers tap-dancing on the glass.

  Between that and the quiet resonating repetition of the children’s voices as they ate in their little group opposite my desk, I began to wonder what the future held for me here. Would I be like John, whisked away to parts unknown? I was already thousands of miles from my family; yet, I’d begun to find close relationships with those around me.

  I’d traveled five thousand miles from home to Kyoto, Japan. I’d fought demons and jumped with kitsune in the nighttime sky. I’d seen the city from above and below and the forests all around. The deeper mysteries and unknown places still eluded me. My only constants were the Yoshidas, John, Michiko and work.

  So much of my life had changed in just this short time. I was slowly discovering a uniquely different Japan than I’d ever imagined in all my studies. For all my practical knowledge, this tiny slice of Japan was so vast as to be an untracked ocean. It was only for the efforts of those I had come to call family and friends that I was not lost.

  In Aoki and Jomei, I had a family ever watchful and sometimes worried, and in Michiko a friend or perhaps something more. I was both the teacher of my class and her student as well. Even my kitsune friends in their mysterious and somewhat mischievous ways were a doorway into a world that I certainly didn’t know existed before. It was a place where human imagination might rarely dare to tread, but the thought that I could find it beyond the nearest torii gate thrilled and frightened me at the same time.

  “What are you looking at, Tobias-san?” Michiko’s voice suddenly drew me back from my wandering mind.

  “Oh, just watching the rain.”

  My mood improved after that, and it seemed hardly any time before the last bell. I was left alone in the classroom with nothing but my thoughts and a small stack of papers to grade. I was about finished when John knocked on my door. “May I come in?”

  “Sure.”

  He glanced down at my little pile. “You nearly finished with the work?”

  “Almost,” I paused a moment. “I’m sorry that you are leaving, John. You’re the closest friend I’ve had in a long time, and now I’m losing you.”

  “Hey, don’t think of it like that,” he scowled. “You can bet I’ll stop by from time to time to check up on you. At least now you’ll have Aoki’s cooking all to yourself.”

  “Who will run interference for me when I screw up here? I am still the newbie at this school. What if I need something and don’t understand.”

  “You don’t need me for that
, Tobi. You have one hell of a heart and you have Michiko. Besides, something tells me you’ll need her more than you would me in the coming months. You’ll have plenty of time to get sick of me when they shove me on stage to sing tonight.”

  “Oh, don’t remind me.” I lay my head in my hands.

  I saw Michiko framed in the doorway. She was dressed in a beautiful, long-sleeved kimono of cherry blossoms that fell down to just above her ankles.

  John gawked a moment, but that same grin returned soon enough. “Hey, you look beautiful, Michiko-san.”

  “Thank you, John-san. It took great effort to put on, believe me.” She blushed through the light makeup. “Tobias-san, are you all right?”

  I stared, my hands flat on the table, awestruck at how beautiful she looked. “S-sorry. You just look stunning. I didn’t realize tonight was a fancy affair.”

  “I don’t need much of an excuse to wear these things. It is so rare that I get to. Besides, John’s promotion is reason enough. Now, we shouldn’t keep everyone waiting.”

  “Yes, of course.” I reached for my crutches and rose carefully to my feet. I felt frumpy standing next to her dressed in my work clothes.

  Outside, the rain had stopped, but the dark clouds lingered threatening more. We arrived at the subway station just in time for me to hobble onto the train and cram inside. It was still unpleasant, especially with crutches, but I felt more at ease with Michiko there watching me. The doors closed in front of us, and the train pulled away.

  After a moment, there was nothing to see but our reflection in the glass against the drab darkness of the subway tunnel and the occasional flash of a light beyond. We got off the train, and Michiko and John helped me over to one side of the platform allowing everyone to pass before we moved outside.

  There were a lot of people walking along the sidewalk or jetting here and there on bikes and scooters, not to mention the cars weaving their way through the street.

  “I didn’t think it would be this busy.”

  “A lot of people go to the bars to unwind before they go home, Tobi.” I could just barely see the distant lights of the temple gate as we walked past. “Some people avoid the temple at night. They are superstitious about foxes causing mischief. Most are probably afraid of tripping and falling though. It isn’t very well lit up there in the dark,” John pointed out.