by A. L. Knorr
On the way, I bought fresh orange juice with pulp and slurped it as I wandered back to my neighborhood. I scanned through texts and photos that my friends had been sending through and saw a photo of Targa and her mother, Mira, dressed to the nines. Targa explained that they were at a party celebrating the conclusion of the salvage dive. I zoomed in on the beautiful mother-daughter pair and squinted at them. It seemed like there was something different about Targa. I focused in on her face. She did look different, paler, but in a smoother and more iridescent way. And her green-blue eyes were brighter, more vibrant. She must have laid a filter over the image.
I smiled to myself as I pounded out a return text to the conversation.
Hi guys. Nice pix, Targa.
Georjie fired back: SHE LIVES
Me: Very funny.
Targa: Everything okay? We’ve been wondering when we’d hear from you.
I turned the last corner before my hotel, looked up, and almost choked on the juice. I immediately turned around and hid behind the corner. My appetite had gone and my pulse was tripping. The man who had watched me in the tailor's shop was sitting on a bench just a stone's throw from my front door.
I pounded out a last hasty text to the girls: All okay. Gotta run. Sorry, I only have a few seconds.
I put my phone away and took another peek around the corner. It couldn't be a coincidence that he was sitting right outside my hotel, three stories below my window. Tottori was way too big for him to just stumble upon this bench and it wasn't a place someone would want to hang out for long, not with all the beautiful parks nearby. He had to be here for me. What other explanation could there be? He had to be connected to Raiden somehow. Paranoia had my mind doing anxiety-ridden gymnastics. Would I even still be alive if I had gone to my hotel last night?
Not only did I have the problem of this stranger sitting outside my door, I had two other problems served on the side. The only way into my room was through the front door as a human, or through the open window as a bird. Raiden knew I was a Hanta. If I became a sparrow I might fly in unnoticed—if I was lucky—but how would I leave carrying my backpack and the wakizashi?
The second problem was that I had to go back to the tailor and pick up my silk robe. If this man wanted to catch me and deliver me back to Raiden, all he had to do was be there when I arrived to pay for it.
I took a walk, pretending to window shop for an hour and hoping the man would be gone by the time I returned. When I got back to the hostel, I peeked around the corner and my stomach dropped. He was still there. Definitely a stake-out.
I made my way back to Yuudai's apartment, formulating a rough plan while I walked. I would need Yuudai's help with it, though, and I wasn't sure how long he'd be gone. I didn't have any choice. I'd have to wait. Not expecting a response, I knocked on his apartment door and was pleasantly surprised when he flung it wide and bathed me with a grin.
"You came back," he said. "I was about to answer your text."
"You're home! How did the job go?"
He waved a hand. "Easy-peasy. When they're ripe, they unseat like popping a cherry off a tree." He stood aside and let me enter the apartment. "What's wrong? You look worried."
I shifted from one foot to the other. "I have a little problem."
He frowned. "What's going on?"
I explained, and I told him my plan.
The shadows had grown longer by the time I made my way back to the hotel. I peeked around the corner and was surprised to see a different man sitting on the bench. My momentary relief dissolved when he raised a cigarette to his lips and a patch of ink on his wrist peeked out from his cuff. They were stalking me in shifts?
I closed my eyes and summoned my courage. In the simple plan that Yuudai and I had worked out, my job was to be the bait. I watched the man smoke until his cigarette was finished. He flicked the butt onto the pavement. He checked his watch, and then pulled out his phone and began scrolling. I waved to the small brown sparrow perched in the treetop beside the bench. It flew across the courtyard and disappeared in through the only open window on the third floor. If the man had noticed, I would have stepped out and distracted him, but he kept his eyes on his phone as Yuudai went through the window. I watched and waited until I saw Yuudai's form behind the glass giving me a thumbs up. He had the sword.
Now for the risky part.
I stepped out into view and walked toward the hotel entrance. Keeping my eyes on my destination and my stride casual, I passed the man sitting on the bench and pretended not to notice him. He froze for just a second with a new unlit cigarette half-way to his lips, then set it between his lips, casually. I felt his eyes track me to the door.
Every hair on my body stood on end as I opened the front door and felt the man behind me get up and follow. I fought down the urge to bolt. There was no one visible behind the front desk, but the office door behind it was open and I heard a shuffling of paper and the sound of a printer.
As the door shut, I strode quickly past the elevator and darted into the stairwell as quietly as I could manage. I heard the front door open behind me. I held the stairwell door so it closed silently. Instead of going up the stairs to my room, I went down the stairs into the basement level. I heard the door above me open, and quick footsteps go up the stairs. I gulped, thinking that if my heart was pounding any louder, my pursuer would be able to hear it.
When the footsteps over my head were three stories up, I sprinted up the stairs on tiptoe and slipped back out through the lobby. I darted out into the small courtyard and down the alley alongside the building.
"Yuudai?" I whispered, feeling moisture gathering in the hollow of my back.
His face appeared from behind a dumpster and he grinned and stood up. He must have just arrived because all he was wearing were pants. The broad expanse of his bare torso made me blink. I made a valiant effort not to stare. He tossed me my backpack and I caught it. The blue sheath of the wakizashi was poking out the top.
I let out all my pent-up breath. "We did it!"
"Easy," he said, yanking his shirt over his head, and slipping his bare feet into his sneakers. "One of the advantages you have from being so petite, and a woman, is that you will constantly be underestimated."
"I couldn't have done it without you, Yuudai. Thank you."
"You're welcome. If they knew what you were capable of, they would have put three or four men on you, and not on rotation but all at once. I doubt Raiden told them what you are. He might risk credibility among his men. Keeping humans thinking the spirit world is just myth is one of their most effective deceptions." He jerked a thumb towards the end of the alley. "Let’s jet."
A tall fence blocked off the alley, and we didn't want go through the courtyard and risk being seen. Yuudai took the backpack from me and slung it over his shoulder. He bent down and threaded his fingers together, making a step for me.
Putting my foot into his hands, I was thrown upward. I grabbed the top of the fence and hauled myself over. It was a long drop to the pavement on the other side and I hesitated.
Yuudai pulled himself up easily with his long limbs, threw his legs over the fence and dropped onto the ground. He held his arms up to help me down.
I lowered myself until I felt his hands lock around my shins and then let him take my weight. I dropped into his arms and he set me on my feet. I felt a touch of heat in my cheeks at how natural and pleasant it felt to be against him—like we'd known each other for years. We jogged to the end of the alley and made our way back toward Yuudai's apartment.
I stopped abruptly on the pavement when I realized something. "I haven't paid for the hotel yet," I said.
Yuudai turned to me. "You have a credit card?"
I nodded and we started walking again.
"So, just call them and tell them you had to leave unexpectedly. It'll be fine."
"You don't think those men will grill the staff about me?"
"Akiko," he gave me a look. "Don't put anything past those guys."
&
nbsp; I frowned. The hotel staff wouldn't know anything, I just hoped the yakuza men would believe that. But there was another matter pressing on my mind. "I was wondering if I could beg your help with one more thing."
"As long as it’s not showing you how to take down a demon, ask away."
"I think that the reason they knew where I was is because I ordered a robe from a tailor in the city center. How the two are connected I don't know, but as the tailor was measuring me one of them came out from the back and watched." I shuddered remembering his cold, calculating look.
"Tattoos?" Yuudai asked.
"I think so. I could only see a little of his wrist. The missing knuckles were what really gave him away."
Yuudai nodded and scuffed his feet as we turned through a park. It was a shortcut to his apartment. "The yakuza are notorious for getting involved in any business they take a fancy to. Maybe the tailor had something going on the side and they're working together, or maybe they're threatening him. Who knows." He looked over at me curiously. "What do you need a robe for?"
"It was Daichi's idea," I said. "It's one hundred percent silk and—"
He stopped walking suddenly, and his eyes widened. "That's absolutely brilliant! How does it work?"
I laughed. "You caught on quick."
He tucked a long lock behind his ear. "I don't know why I have never thought of it."
"So you know that silk is the only substance that doesn't dissolve in the Æther?"
"I don't know if it’s the only substance, but it’s the only one I know of."
"Why doesn't it?"
"Silkworms are creatures of the Æther, too. They're a lot lower in the hierarchy than we are, but still. Daichi didn't explain that to you?"
I shifted my bag from one shoulder to the other. Yuudai took it from me and slung it over his back. It looked like a kid’s backpack on him. "Thanks. And no, Daichi never explains things to me."
"So how does it work?"
"I roll it up, tie it around my neck, and wear it like a collar. It gets a little loose at times and if I have to take a really small shape then I would have to stash it somewhere, but it works okay. It's thin and light. It has a pocket I keep slippers in. It probably helps that I'm so tiny. There's not much to it."
"I love it. I'm getting one made. I've flashed my parts at more people than I care to remember. It's amazing I haven't been arrested for indecent exposure yet."
I laughed. Somehow I didn't think most people would mind catching a glimpse of Yuudai in the buff, but still, it was a shock to see a naked person unexpectedly. "Maybe a pair of shorts and a tank top or something?" I suggested. "If you wore a robe like mine I think you might get as much attention as if you were naked. And maybe skip the slippers?" I giggled at the thought of Yuudai scampering down a sidewalk in a thin silk bathrobe and slippers and nothing else. "Nobody warns you about the logistics of being a Hanta." I grinned.
"Tell me about it," he said. "I have stepped and sat in so much stinging nettle over the years, I think my butt will never be the same."
I sputtered a laugh and just then my phone rang. I fished it out of my backpack. "Daichi," I said, putting the phone to my ear. “I’m here.”
"I am in Kyoto," Daichi said into my ear. There was a strange hum in the background, a sort of quiet static. Likely because the call was international.
Hearing his voice after so many days of being on my own sent a jolt through my body. Without even thinking about it, my shoulders dropped and my eyes went down. "Yes. I am in Tottori just as you asked. Where should I meet you?"
As he gave me instructions on where to meet him, I came to a halt on the sidewalk. My eyes shuttered closed and the skin across the back of my neck tingled like a ghost from the past had blown on me. "Yes. I know the spot," I said quietly. I wanted to ask 'why there?' but I just said, "I'll be there." And hung up the phone.
Silence hung in the air until Yuudai shifted, his sneakers scraping the pavement. "So?"
"He's in Kyoto," I said, blinking up at him. "I have to meet him at sunrise tomorrow morning." A swell of mixed emotions rushed through me. Terror. Anticipation. Uncertainty. Excitement.
A slow grin spread across Yuudai's face. He flung a long arm across my shoulders as we resumed walking. "You will be a free Hanta by sunrise tomorrow."
"If Daichi keeps his word," I said. Doubt had begun to make all other emotions go rancid. It was too good to be true, too hard to believe, and all things considered, too easy to achieve.
"Where does he want to meet you?" Yuudai asked as we walked up to his apartment building.
"That's the strange thing," I said, chewing my lip and stepping inside as he held the door open. "It's a place that was once very special to me. A clifftop overlooking the ocean."
Chapter 23
It was still dark when I stepped off the train in Furano the next morning, but the air was sweet and clean and the birds were announcing the coming of the sun. I had left even earlier than I needed to, just because Furano was so different to me now that it would take some time to orient myself. I didn't even know if the old trails would still be there. My best hope was to head toward the ocean and follow the coast until I figured out which direction the clifftop was in. I’d be in for quite a climb.
All the houses were dark and the streetlights were on, throwing little spotlights on the pavement. I walked through the same suburb as before and headed down an alley between two duplexes. Passing several blocks and drawing closer to the sea, the houses finally thinned and I entered the forest. There were dozens of trails threading through these woods. I stumbled over kid-sized mountain bike jumps and was spooked by more than one tree-fort looming like a black splotch in the treetops. Finally, I pulled out my phone and turned on the flashlight app to help light my way.
Daichi was an old man. Why would he make the exchange in such a remote place, and so hard for him to reach? I half expected to stumble across him somewhere in the bush, lost and tired.
The trail became more rocky and filled with natural steps nearly too big to step up without grunting. By the time the sky turned pink and the woods lightened enough for me to turn off my flashlight, my scalp and clothes were damp with sweat.
A branch snapped behind me and I jumped and turned, scanning the woods. I froze, listening, but the forest had gone silent. These woods had been mine once, but they were so changed that I barely recognized the sounds of my old home. I lifted my backpack to cool my back and kept climbing. A pale light began to penetrate the canopy, dusting everything in a soft glow.
The sound of something heavy off to my right made me freeze, my eyes questing the undergrowth. Some kind of animal, larger than a bird but smaller than a deer, was moving alongside me. I squinted, wishing I could trade my human vision for a raptor's.
Something furry and gray darted from behind a tree and disappeared behind a rock. I let out a breath. It was just a small fox. I kept climbing. A few minutes later I saw the gray fox again, this time his little face appeared from under the leaves of a shrub.
"I knew a fox once," I said to it quietly as I kept walking. "But black and much bigger than you. Crafty, she was." It lowered its face to the ground and I got a glimpse of his body. A solid dove gray, with a patch of mange on its haunches. Even his eyes were the color of gunmetal. It darted away into the underbrush.
I kept hiking and didn't see the fox anymore, but I knew it was around. Every once in a while a twig would break or the leaves would rustle behind me.
I was very close now, and the sound of waves and gulls filled the air. I climbed up over the last of the boulders and stepped out onto the clifftop where I had fallen in love, where I had shared secrets with my sister, where I’d had my first kiss.
I gasped at how much it had changed. The clifftop used to be so wide you could barely throw a rock from one side of it to the other, and so deep that if you stood with your back at the tree line and looked out, you couldn't see any water at all, just clear blue sky.
In the time that
I had been gone, half of the cliff had cracked and fallen into the sea. The forest was thicker, bigger, and tangled with vines and undergrowth. The clifftop itself was more worn down and smooth from rain. My eyes fell on an army-green woolen bedroll and a small leather satchel propped against a tree trunk. He'd spent the night here?
Daichi stood at the cliff edge with his back to me, his hands clasped behind him and looking down at the water. But it wasn't how the cliff had changed, or Daichi's presence that filled me with dread. It was the fact that he was dressed in traditional white samurai robes. My hands grew cold and flew to my mouth as a knot of emotion tightened in my chest. I knew what the white robes meant.
He heard my footsteps but didn't turn to face me. I approached the cliff edge and stood there beside him, looking out as the sun cleared the horizon. My eyes were drawn down to the rubble below us. The waves lapped over the rocky beach that looked so different from the one I used to enjoy with Aimi or Toshi. The beach had eroded, and a handful of run-down fishing boats were tied up at posts that never used to be there.
The shock at what Daichi was going to do faded fast. In the time it took to take one full breath, I kicked myself for not realizing sooner that it was what had to be done. It had been on my lips that he didn't need to do this, but of course, I was wrong. If I was going to be free, he had to give me my tamashī back, and my tamashī was inside him. There was no doubt in my mind that Daichi had been a samurai at one time in his life. For him, this would be an honorable death. Samurai of long-ago always carried two swords: the katana for their enemies, and the wakizashi for themselves.
I dropped my backpack from my shoulders and pulled the wakizashi out. He inclined his head slightly in my direction. His expression was peaceful, even pleased. I handed him the short sword.
"You did not fail me." He grasped the sword with both hands and looked down at it. "I have not laid eyes on this sword in a century." He hefted it, and grasped the handle, pulling the blade from its sheath. The metal shone in the sun. He tested the edge with his thumb in a practiced movement, and seemed satisfied with its sharpness.
