by Dave Ferraro
And they waited.
The Slit-Mouthed Woman entered through the wall where the green string disappeared, walking through it like an apparition. She stepped slowly over to Shou’s bed, the string pulling her along until she stood over him, where it disengaged itself from Shou’s body, and returned to the yokai.
The woman entered the room wearing a white kimono, a fan with images of cherry blossom trees spread open and held up to her face. As she gazed down on Shou, she slowly lowered the fan, and Yumiko caught her first glimpse of the woman’s hideous disfigurement. It was apparent that she had once been a very beautiful woman, before she’d been brutally sliced by a jealous husband, who’d doomed her to this fate. But Yumiko couldn’t pry her eyes away from that open wound, which weeped blood down her cheeks and chin. The cut journeyed up her flesh from the edges of her mouth to each ear, extending her smile gruesomely, like a demonic circus clown. It wasn’t cut straight all the way, either, but was jagged in places. It was the work of a brutal, detached hand. The hand of a man who hadn’t stopped as his wife had screamed in agony and had begged for him to stop.
Yumiko let out a deep breath, trying to calm herself from this sight, and watched carefully as the woman hid her fan in her kimono, coming up with a pair of scissors in its place. It was a large set, rusty with age, and crusted with dried blood, blades open wide, eager to cut through soft flesh like butter.
“Now, you suffer for your lies, and what you’ve done to me,” the yokai announced in a clear voice, lifting her scissors high into the air above her. As she spoke, her mouth, along with the sides of her face, opened to reveal the bloody pulp of her cut flesh, and flashed the white glistening bone of teeth beyond.
Shou’s eyes snapped open and his mouth fell slack with fear. He struggled to scramble up in the bed.
The Slit-Mouthed Woman then stabbed her scissors downward, with all of the fury and hate that consumed her behind the thrust.
But Yumiko intercepted it with her sword, which made a loud clanging noise when it met the scissors. “No, Kuchisake-Onna,” Yumiko said, using the yokai’s true name. “You have made enough people suffer at your hands.” She paused. “I am truly sorry for what has happened to you, but you must be stopped.”
Kuchisake-Onna growled and pulled her scissors back. She regarded Yumiko for a moment, before chuckling eerily. “Very well. You will share your lover’s fate.”
“Lover?” Yumiko frowned, then gasped as Kuchisake-Onna threw herself at her, swinging her scissors fast and furious. Yumiko was able to easily deflect each attack, but she was slowly being backed into a corner, which didn’t sit well with her.
Tanuki suddenly leapt at the yokai, but Kuchisake-Onna saw him coming, and with a heavy fist, swatted Tanuki into the far wall, where he slammed into it at an alarming speed, and slid to the floor, limp.
“Tanuki!” Yumiko cried. She saw his body flash gold, indicating that he could now be seen by all, and Shou’s eyes snapped to the creature, confused.
“You will pay for that,” Yumiko promised the Slit-Mouthed Woman.
Kuchisake-Onna merely smiled her gruesome smile, folds of skin hanging over her cheeks as her upper lip sagged disturbingly over her lower lip, like they were consuming each other.
They continued to exchange blows, but Yumiko wasn’t able to get out from a defensive position, and was growing a little worried at the yokai’s skill. She spied a standing mirror against the wall and decided that perhaps this wasn’t going to end with her blade cutting through Kuchisake-Onna, after all.
When the yokai brought her scissors down on Yumiko’s sword once more, Yumiko used the momentum of the thrust to carry them both into the wall, where both of their weapons clattered to the floor.
“You just made a terrible mistake,” grinned Kuchisake-Onna.
“That’s what you think,” Yumiko retorted, and grabbed the yokai roughly by the kimono, and pushed her into the mirror so that they both tumbled into the glass. But the mirror didn’t shatter against Kuchisake-Onna’s back. She went through the mirror, followed by Yumiko.
The yokai screamed as she fell to the ground in a grassy field. She jumped to her feet, forgetting Yumiko, and slammed her fist against a lonely mirror that stood in the field.
Yumiko watched her for a moment, then looked around at the long yellow grass, dead from the change of seasons. It wasn’t cold, however. It never was here. And the wind that rolled over the field, stirring the yellow blades, made no sound as it rippled across the landscape.
Kuchisake-Onna stopped pounding on the glass and took a deep breath, wielding on Yumiko with a glare. “What are you?”
With a chuckle, Yumiko shrugged. “Just a girl who inherited some pretty amazing powers. Comes in handy, sometimes.”
The yokai took a few more calming breaths and looked around her. “What is this place?”
“Beautiful, isn’t it?”
Kuchisake-Onna tilted her head. “Yes. It is.”
“Well, this is going to be your new home. Where you won’t be able to torment the unfortunates who come across you anymore.” Yumiko bowed to her. “I hope you like it here.”
The yokai watched Yumiko as she walked up to the mirror. “Wait. What am I supposed to do here? You can’t just leave me here.”
Yumiko smiled sadly. “I hope that you find the peace you’ve been searching for.” Then she walked through the mirror.
When she stepped back into the nurse’s office, Shou looked up sharply, eyes wide, mouth hanging open. Yumiko nodded to him, then turned to look back into the mirror. She caught one last glimpse of the Slit-Mouthed Woman as the yokai gazed into the mirror, then turned to regard the field she’d been left in. And then, the world beyond the looking glass disappeared from view, and Yumiko was left to stare back into her own face.
“What did you do?” Shou asked quietly.
Yumiko turned to him. “I left her some place where she can no longer hurt you.”
Shou blinked, then nodded.
She noticed that Tanuki was cradled in Shou’s arms, and stepped forward, placing a hand to his furry back. She was relieved to feel the rise and fall of his breathing. “He’s okay.”
“Is this a yokai too?” Shou asked.
“It is.”
Shou nodded slowly, then tilted Tanuki so that she could see a cut on the side of his head. It was still bleeding. “He’s going to need stitches.”
Yumiko swallowed hard. “I don’t-“
“I can do it,” Shou said. “But we need supplies. This may look like a nurse’s office, but there’s nothing in these drawers of use.”
“Yes, there is.” Yumiko pulled open a cabinet above a sink, empty of supplies, then tapped on a false back, which popped open and swung to the side. There were several bins behind it. “In our line of work, we get into scrapes every so often that leave us in need of medical attention,” she explained as she sorted through one of the bins. She nodded and handed it to him. “This room is useful for that.”
Shou looked over the supplies, then glanced up at her warily. “There’s more to this place than meets the eye. I suppose you use some of the other rooms in your line of work, as well.”
Yumiko thought of the dungeon, and nodded. “We do.”
Shou set Tanuki down on a stainless steel table, and pulled out the supplies he needed. Yumiko watched him clean the wound carefully, before threading a needle.
“So,” Shou said, clearing his throat. “That was some trick.”
With a sigh, Yumiko nodded.
“You want to tell me how you did that? It’s not every day that you see someone swallowed by a mirror.” He met her eyes, then looked away.
“I was spirited away when I was little girl,” Yumiko told him as she watched his fingers work deftly and quickly. “I was brought to another world through a mirror. I found that when I returned, I was different.”
“How so?”
“Well, you just witnessed firsthand what I’m capable of. I can travel through mirrors
. I can reenter that mirror world anytime I wish.”
Shou paused in his work. “What’s it like?”
“The mirror world?” Yumiko pondered for a moment. “It’s different every time. Each mirror I go through seems to lead to some strange landscape, almost like they’ve been placed there to show off the beauty of it.”
“Placed there? By whom?”
Yumiko pursed her lips. “By its ruler.” She shook her head. “Anyway, I found that while I can go through mirrors, the people I bring through can not. I can send a yokai there, and they can not leave.”
Shou looked up. “I was wondering how you killed a yokai. You can’t do it very easily, can you?”
“Not often,” Yumiko acknowledged. “Most yokai are tied to the spirit world by a totem of some sort. It can be difficult to unearth them. The Slit-Mouthed Woman’s may have been the scissors used to cut her face. The Funa Yurei, the ship that sank with them aboard it. For oni, any mortal wound to their body will do, as their magic is in their armor and once it fails them, they have failed as warriors. Destroy the totem, destroy the yokai.” She licked her lips. “It’s not always easy to identify the totem, however. Another way to rid the world of yokai is to perform a proper exorcism, which can also be a tedious process. I’m good at what I do because I can rid our world of them in a much simpler, quicker way. I can control mirrors. As long as I touch a yokai with one, I can send them through it.” She gestured toward her sword. “Which is why I use my mirror sword for most battles.”
Shou stared at her fallen sword for a moment. “So, what happens to the yokai you leave there?”
“I don’t know. I don’t exactly schedule follow-up visits.” She shrugged. “I assume they find peace. It really is beautiful there. But either way, they can’t bother humans any longer. They’re trapped there.”
Shou looked thoughtful, then cut the end of the thread, admiring his handiwork. He tilted Tanuki a few times, then nodded. “He should be fine, at least if he’s as resilient as other yokai.”
Yumiko smiled. “Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it.” Shou narrowed his eyes at her. “You can see them, can’t you? You talked to the tanuki when I couldn’t see him earlier.”
“Yes. I can see yokai everywhere, when others can’t. Another reason I’m good at what I do.”
“That’s quite an advantage,” Shou said. “What else is different about you? I mean, how else did you change when you came back?”
Yumiko hesitated, then lifted a hand and pressed it against her left breast. “I came back a mirror image myself.”
“What does that mean?”
“I look the same on the outside, but not on the inside. My organs have switched sides. My heart is on the wrong side of my body now.”
“Wrong side?” Shou frowned, then his eyes drifted down to her hand over her right breast. “Everything is symmetrical on the outside,” he said. Then he reached forward, pushing her hand out of the way, his hand flat against her chest. She gasped and made to slap his hand away, but he caught her wrist with his other hand. “You’re right,” he said as he dropped his hand and looked at her more closely.
Yumiko was blushing scarlet, and turned away, covering her chest. “Of course I’m right,” she snapped.
“I just didn’t…” He looked her over, from head to toe, then ran a hand back through his hair. “Amazing.”
“Well, it’s not amazing having gone through what I have, Mr. Fujiwara.” She stood tall. “Thank you for looking after Tanuki. I will consider that payment for services.” She turned and scooped Tanuki up in her arms, rushing from the room. “Please return the key to the room on your way out.”
Once in the hall, she leaned back against the wall. She didn’t know why she’d shared all of that with Shou. Perhaps because she’d been so lonely for so long, it felt good to let it out. Master Mori and Tanuki were the only ones who knew the truth about her condition. And now Shou. But it wasn’t like she was going to see him ever again. She’d just needed to…talk to someone, she supposed. And it had been a mistake.
Shaking her head at herself, she walked up the hall to the elevator, absently stroking Tanuki’s back. When she’d returned from the mirror world, she’d come back different, all right. But her world had been different as well. It had turned upside-down on her. She’d come home to find her house ransacked, her mother missing. The work of Kagami, she was sure. He’d probably taken her mother, or worse…whatever it took to ensure that Yumiko returned to him when she was eighteen.
“See what sort of a life you can make for yourself out there.” That was what he’d said. And so he had taken her mother from her. And her life had become that much harder to endure.
She closed her eyes, ignoring the tears that slid from her eyes.
“You will beg to be mine.”
Chapter Six
The love hotel may have been used by Madame Mori and Yumiko for their line of work, but it was more than that to Yumiko. Yumiko called it home, as embarrassing as that was. On the top floor was a lone room with heated floor tiling, a small toilet, and a kitchen area on one side. There was a small entryway cut off from the rest of the room by a paper wall, a sliding door permitting entry into the room. Within, there was enough space for a queen-sized bed, a desk for her computer, and a small area for a sofa and loveseat, facing a television. There was a small table near the kitchen for dining, and a bathtub behind a silk screen in the corner. It wasn’t much, but it was what Yumiko had, and she had made it her own. One feature she liked about the room was the huge floor-to-ceiling windows that allowed the space to fill with sunshine during the day, and stars at night. She often found herself staring out at the city, her face tilted up to the sun. She couldn’t have asked for a better view.
One thing noticeably missing from the room were mirrors, something Yumiko gladly went without. She could hardly look at her reflection without thinking of her fate, or of prying eyes running over her body like greedy, unwanted hands. Reina’s comment about Yumiko’s beauty the other day had caught her off-guard because she never took the time to admire herself for any length of time. She would glance in a mirror every so often, when she was meeting with clients or going out in public, but for the most part, she trusted her hands to do the work her eyes could not, and she’d been doing it for so long that it was almost an art at this point.
Recalling the previous night, Yumiko left her room with regret. She wanted more than anything to just curl up in bed and read, or take a nice, long luxurious bubble bath. But time wasn’t on her side. She had less than twelve months before she turned eighteen, and she was reclaimed by the yokai king, to devour for his pleasure.
Dressed in a plain t-shirt and jeans, Yumiko took the elevator to the basement, where she approached the dungeon hesitantly. She hadn’t checked on Mr. Mathis during the night as she’d planned. She’d been too caught up in her other assignment. But as the morning sun had chased away the shadows of night, and the full moon with it, she would see that he was safe, and free him from his temporary prison.
She pulled the key out of her pant pocket and let herself in, closing it behind her quickly before turning to assess the room.
Everything was as she had left it. She was half-afraid that the fox would have escaped his cage during the night, but it seemed he had been confined to his cell without incident. She walked over to the cage, relieved, and stopped short when she saw Mr. Mathis’s form behind the steel bars. He was sprawled over the floor, faced away from her, but he was completely in the nude, his robe cut to ribbons in the corner. She turned around quickly, blushing, but then peeked back over her shoulder. His back was nicely-muscled, with one arm hanging back to show off his biceps, which bulged with strength. His legs were powerful as well, and his butt…well, she could hardly stop looking at it. She didn’t think she’d ever seen a man’s bare butt before, at least not in person. She couldn’t help but let her eyes drink in the sight, until she heard him cough, and she whipped around with a start. She
immediately felt shameful for her breach of trust. He had been vulnerable and she had taken full advantage of the situation to ogle him. What was wrong with her?
Kitsune couldn’t shapeshift until they turned a hundred years old, whereupon they earned their first tail. They could grow up to nine tails, one for each century. Clearly, it was harder to hide the tails the more they grew, but they also got better at impersonating humans as time passed. Only one kitsune had nine tails, one of the great evil yokai.
Mr. Mathis felt far too human, and he definitely had no tail. Even if she felt a little suspicious of the fact that he changed into a fox, she had now clearly seen with her own eyes that he was not kitsune. And even as she stared at the wall across the room, she found that Mr. Mathis’s behind danced across her mind, despite herself.
“Um…Mr. Mathis,” Yumiko said, clearing her throat. “It’s Miss Sato. I’ve come to see how your night was.”
She heard him move around the cage. “Good morning, Miss Sato,” he replied, sounding a little bewildered. “I’m sorry. You must have…I must have been quite a scene to walk into.”
“Not at all.”
He cleared his throat. “Well, I seem to have…uh, destroyed my robe. Could you hand me my clothes?”
Yumiko stiffened.
“I’m covering myself,” he added, and she turned to see that he had his hands covering his unmentionables awkwardly. He bit his lip, his face beet-red. “Sorry about this.”
Yumiko strode over to his clothing, trying her best to look professional as she handed them through the bars to him. The sight of his powerful chest would forever be burned into her retinas, as would the image of his muscled arm reaching toward her. She looked away as he reached to grab the bundle from her, and she accidentally dropped the pile of clothes before he could get hold of them. This made him scramble to his knees for them, and Yumiko turned away, utterly embarrassed. “I’m…I’m sorry,” she stammered.
